Renowned journalist, poet and former Volley Ball Chieftain, Chief Eddie Aderinokun will next week be celebrated at the Banquet Hall of the National Theatre, Lagos as he marks his 70th birthday. In this interview, the tall handsome old man, whose every gait challenges the power of aging over physical appearance  takes time to lead Sunday arts in to the world of his creative writing, journalism and sports. Most importantly, he reveals in the course of this conversation, the secret of his healthy looks. Excerpt.

 ON  writing  I believe I was born with  the talent for writing. But I must confess that I was influenced so early by such nursery rhymes and other foreign books that we were exposed to while in school. I was always fascinated by the titillatingliness and rhyming schemes in these works and I found them most entertaining in the simple and alluring rhymes.

Inspiration
My major inspiration in literature is William Shakespeare. So I can say I have two Bibles – the Holy Bible and William Shakespeare’s works. Like the Holy Bible, Shakespeare’s also deal about every aspect of life. In his works, we have issues about nature, life, betrayal, religion, politics, economy, hatred, ambition among many others. Despite the fact that he never attended a university or a training school in literary writing, Shakespeare excelled in literature and his works continue to serve as reference points for scholars and researchers.

Zero to Hero

I can say I wrote it effortlessly because the content is actually a report of what I experienced while doing my travelling in and outside Africa. I was fascinated by the people I met and the places I visited. So, what I do in most of my poetry works is to capture my travels and experiences in verse. Sometimes, I can be in my hotel room listening to music or watching a film and certain ideas would come. I would quickly put these down on paper or sometimes, I use saviette (toilet paper) to record these ideas lest I would forget.

So, as for Zero to Hero, it is a celebration of creation and the mystery of existence. Over the years, I have come to realise that we human beings usually take many things for granted. As human beings, we do not seem to appreciate the power and the power and force that enable us to do many things. All human actions are powered by certain forces that only the creator can give – this is the power of unseen hands that make us see, eat, drink, walk, run, speak, shout and do many other things. It is also this power that enable us to write or think. It is the same power that gave us nature and its endowments.

Choice of Medium

I choose poetry as a medium of expression because I realised that out of all the genres of literature or the arts, it is the closest to prose and that only a few people were interested in it. So having realised that in our time, literary writing was not so recognised in journalism, I opted for poetry which is the strongest of all the genres.

Although I ventured into virtually all areas of the arts, but poetry was most appealing because it enables me to say many things or record many of my experiences in verse form. But before this, I started with journalism and equally excelled in it. I became editor of the defunct Daily Express at 29, and I later served as chairman of the Nigeria Volleyball Association with a track record of excellence in performance.

Life at 70

At 70, I still think like a 40 or 50 year old man. There is still much of energy bustling in me. I still act and behave as when I was much younger and I think God has specially blessed me in this regard. I can say that turning 70 has exposed me to diverse experiences of life and I’m more mature to appreciate God’s benevolence on me and my family. I am a blessed person because by now, my children are grown up and are doing well. My wife is a school owner and I have nothing bothering me again in life. This is why I can be free and live in a forest of books and do my reading and writing. Also at 70, I’m prepared for anything including death. I hold life so simple because I do not panic over anything. Shakespeare says death is a necessary end that would come when it will come, so why get worried or panic over it? I believe only God gives and takes life but all I don’t want is to suffer or be subjected to hardship before dying.

On the State of the Continent

I am not comfortable with the way we handle our affairs in Africa. The West once called us Dark Continent, and it is sad we’ve been living to justify that epithet. Leadership has been the bane of development in Africa. But our counterparts in Europe and America are luckier. They can organise themselves to have accountable people at the corridors of power. They give equal opportunity to people and respect human dignity.

 In Africa, the story is different. Ironically Africa is still the richest continent in terms of resources and natural endowments. All we need now is to back up our vast resources with good leadership and Africa would be the place to be. But we are also happy that great leaders are emerging from the continent. The system that produced Barak Obama, Babatunde Fashola, Kayode Aderinokun is still in progress. More great leaders would emerge and we would eventually realise our dreams.

Remaining fit even at 70

I consider myself lucky indeed. If it was about. being cautious that one. stays alive and stronger, then I wouldn’t be alive today . I break all the rules of caution in health matters. I drink, eat and do everything. I even do my writings during midnight hours so I can wake up anytime to write. But I am grateful to God who has given me good health despite all these excesses. He has preserved me such that even at 70, I do not suffer any ailment or get handicapped in any way.

 Eddie’s brand of poetry

Madrid Spain
 On Conscience
 Fairest flowers of the season
are carnations fit only for the groom’s chamber
when marigolds go to bed with the sun
Conscience.
O, never will she buy
an hour’s mirth only
to weep a week, or barter any joy for toy.
Conscience.
Like sensitive snail, backwards she shrinks
when its tender horns
are hit by prickly prickles or bashless bricks.
Conscience.
Never will she cease toiling to make this love-hate Life better than she finds it,
Rather, die she will, on Truth’s hot pursuit,
harsh harness on its back or not!
Conscience.
Like luscious Helen Burns, ever wearing the singlet of honour,
playing friend, even if all the world
calls her the wickedest
Conscience.
Believing all things, ever wearing brow
of grace, seeking that desolate retreat always
to weep empty her sad sad bosom..only for
fellow men’s good.
Conscience.
Never jumping with those common souls,
never enlisting on the scroll of the madding men,
mourning whenever many nattering nabobs
of negativity punch Heaven’s tender
nose with their new new sorrows
Conscience!

 Miami Beach. FLORIDA

Truism …
women are sunny things when they’re maids.
But the sky changes immediately when women wives become .
… therefore men, beware!
My neighbour once had one woman as wife …
– ah! ‘twere better
he had married Dame Death, for to have her and Death were one and same thing.
No joking, folk!
Reason a sage in his voluminous wisdom-garb says –
Lovers are madmen
and thus deserve a darkroom for habitat, and on their backs, a thousand whiplashes.
Reason I need not borrow
Gargantuan’s mouth to whisper to any woman,
I love you.
So,Man, wind away from love,
….for acid cup is love!
Port- Au- Prince, HAITI
…..On Calamity
See!
How all floors of black black Haiti
lay paved with bulbous broken skulls
lay paved with fractured fevered limbs
lay paved with bruised or broken bones
lay paved with pathetic punctured plans
lay paved with splintered hopes
lay paved with cracked crumbled expectations!
Ah, Port-Au-Prince!
See!
Haiti, I’ll wipe a tear or two off your watery eye
mourn your woes that seem not to go
nay, mourn the quinine pumped into your very mouth.
Ah, how mindlessly Mother Nature has treated You?
….what dire edict, this?
See!
O bid me not stop the world dissolving her billion eyes
in tears’ ponds for you.
Your throes verily are overmuch, Haiti
Your throes, overmuch!
See!
Yonder lies in agony one dark dark child, child hitherto full of hope;
Please ponder her now, sitting atop mound of debris
relics of a home once proudly sturdily afoot
See!
O bid dark child, cease bathing eyes.
salty tears, tears like two fountains
down silken cheeks, howling and proclaiming loud lamentations.
Surely surely, melancholy times are here
which even liquor
hardly can drown.
See!
But take heart, daughter of Haiti
Just read the wide wide face of the universe
and never anymore say –
‘Alas! … has the year no more January’s for me?”
Quick disband those doleful thoughts
and give hope the day, dark child.
Fortune herself knows Haiti’s children are Haiti’s future.
Don’t water and wind wend their ways hating to be left behind?
Waters and wind murmur’ raucously only when they meet a stay.
See!
So, dark daughter of Haiti
though rank earthquake has had its day
a new dawn will soon have its say.
See!
In winter time poor waters stay fetter’d inside cold captivity,
but afterwards spring and summer come
singing, “Merrily, Merrily, Merrily … “
See!
 World’s illustrious eyes never should weep
for every worm that dies;
gallant Sun shouldn’t the less glorious run
 because one luckless fly grows wanton and dies.
So, beloved soul, linger not unduly between Life and Death
ay, between In and Out.
Tears will turn gemstones,
mishaps rehatch into good happenings once in God we trust
See! 

*These poems are taken from Eddie Areinokun’s Thirty Thoughts in Thirty