By Anote Ajeluorou
NEXT year, 2026, 40 years after the famous Ajo Fest showpiece changed the face of theatre in the country, its founder and patron, Pa Fred Agbeyegbe, 90, has promised its return. For a man in advanced age, this is somewhat of a miracle. Slightly stooped but still standing and walking unaided, his voice still firm, 90 years sit well on the man fondly called Uncle Fred by the Ajo Fest production cohort, some 39 years ago, and many admirers. And his promised reenactment of Ajo Fest elicited much excitement from everyone at Freedom Park, Lagos, venue of the celebration on Thursday, July 24, as they stood both to honour and film him with their smartphones, eager to catch and imprint the moment for keepsakes.
“Thank you all for coming,” Uncle Fred said as the celebration came to a close after dancer and songstress, Jumoke Oke, ushered him out to the front after serenading the audience with her unique vocal prowess.
“Good as it is to be 90, if by any chance I stop in the middle of this rendition because nature has called, I’m sure you will agree with me that that call of nature is better than the one in which it will be ‘the type of person he was and the good life he led’. Like it has been said, everything here is novel to me. I’m still alive and you have come to give – some were songs, some were poems, and some were beautiful words – all about me. I prefer this type of tribute to the one you will give when I’m dead. What has happened here today is absolutely incredible.”
He paid tribute to his friend and collaborator in the Ajo Prpductions/Ajo Fest pioneering journey, Jide Ogungbade, who he said a lady from NTA partly inspired the emergence of Ajo Productions by introducing playwright to theatre director. Agbeyegbe recounted how she’d visited his furniture company for set design materials. He didn’t want to be paid for what she wanted, but asked for credits in the production instead. She wondered what Agbeyegbe knew about TV production and credits and why it was more important for him than money. That was when Agbeyegbe dipped his hands in a drawer and brought out the plays he’d written. Then the lady said Agbyegbe must meet one Mr. Jide Ogungbade; thus began a lifelong production relationship between the playwright and his director.
“When Jide Ogungbade and I started out in 1983, we did not envisage what has happened here tonight,” he reminisced. “But it’s happening, because 39 years down the road, you could not stop talking about Ajo Productions. Let us honour the memory of Jide Ogungbade with one minute’s silence… So really, it’s wonderful what you’ve done tonight, and we will keep the flag flying. Ajo Fest returns next year!”
INDEED, it was an evening of nostalgia as everyone acknowledged and testified to the pioneering role elder statesman Pa Fred Agbeyegbe played in setting a template for the establishment of theatre production companies in Nigeria. It was through his Ajo Productions (1983-86) and later monthlong Ajo Festival of Plays in 1986, that the belief in theatre as a viable career path became most evident and many adventurous practitioners took their cue.
It was the 90th birthday celebration organised by Theatre Collective for a man who has made significant strides in law, political activism and theatre as playwright and theatre company founder thereby changing the face of theatre for good. Indeed, as professor of technical theatre, Duro Oni, duly acknowledged, many Nigerian actors over 50 likely passed through Pa Agbeyegbe’s Ajo Productions/Ajo Fest crucible.
Actor and compere for the night, Edmund Enaibe, Secretary-General of Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) (promotres of the Lagos Book & Art Festival (LABAF), Toyin Akinosho, Founder of Crown Troupe of Africa, Segun Adefila, Prof. of Theatre Arts at the Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, United States, Segun Ojewuyi, actor-director, Fred Amata, actor Lara Akinsola, National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) chieftain, Ayo Opadokun, actor-culture activist, Lookman Sanusi of Bubbles FM, songstress Yinka Davies, founder of Pawstudios Africa, Kenneth Uphopho, folklorist-singer Jumoke Oke, actor-director, Toritseju Ejoh of Oxygen Theatre, former Deputy Vice Chancellor University of Lagos, Prof. Duro Oni, Culture communicator and Programme Chair of Lagos Book & Art Festival (LABAF), Jahman Anikulapo, organiser of Lagos International Animation Festival, Muyowa Kayode and President of National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), Makinde Adeniran and his predecessor in office, Israel Eboh and Olatunji Makanjuola, among others, including the celebrity’s family and other extended friends graced te occasion joined a motley crowd of younger theatre and art practitioners to honour the man fondly called Uncle Fred.
Uncle Fred’s niece and US-based academic, Prof. Lilian Agbeyegbe, took the first shot, paying glowing tribute to her uncle who made her enrol in school earlier that was required back in the day, saying, “He made me start school earlier than I should, when my hands couldn’t reach over my head to touch my ears. He’s a very passionate, caring person. We wanted to do the tributes, so he can hear what we have to say about him, his impact in our lives. He will hear all of it today.”
Actor Edmund Enaibe who was stampeded into compere role, remarkably set the tone by giving thpose who didn’t witness Ajo Productions/Ajo Fest a taste of what it was like by enumerating the sterling qualities that stand Agbeyegbe out from the crowd and what his platform did for Nigerian theatre.
“He’s a nationalist who used his art to create political awareness, to accentuate national conversation,” Enaibe said. “Ajo Fest was a carnival, a celebration for a full month. The King Must Dance Naked, Woe Unto Death, The LAst Omen, Budiso are some of the plays that were staged. Unfortunately, we have not been able to replicate the same Ajo Fest feat ever since. We have attempted, tried but we have not been able to do it again. Fred whose touch is still burning still. We must give applause for his prolific writing, for his plays that we have not been able to replicate. Those plays gave us opportunity to be what we are today, both in Nigeria and overseas. I travelled because of Agbeyegbe’s The King Must Dance Naked.
“On behalf of Theatre Collective, that you have through your plays inspired us for the last 39 years, we say thank you. Thank you for being creative, for being relevant. This celebration is a scratch for what you have done. Your works won’t only be talked about but will be performed.”
The tributes took a political activism tone when his friend, fellow political activist and confidante, Opadokun, gave the audience a snippet of Agbeyegbe’s other lives the culture community only know in passing.
According to him, “My friend and confidante has turned 90. Many of you know things about him in the theatre world, but there are others you don’t know. When you talk about law, there are lawyers and there are lawyers. He’s the most important maritime lawyer in Nigeria. Fred is one of the most important finance experts in Nigeria today. I’m always amazed that a man at his age, when he gets to his laptop, he types like a young child. He learnt typing at a young age. Once upon a time, he was a politician. He was once the Mayor of Warri Municipal Council when Warri was the big one; he was the chairman. At the commencement of the Second Republic, he participated in some of the activities, but he couldn’t last long because he was not in the mould of Nigerian politicians of that era who were corrupt.
“I can say to you authoritatively that Fred Agbeyegbe is not a politician but a political activist like myself. I know for a fact that Fred has not taken a contract of ₦100 from any government as well as I have not in my life. He went to Ghana to stage a play at his own expense. He represented Nigeria at his own expense; he put the artists together to stage his plays. And on his way back to Nigeria, immigration people cornered him and asked for bribe, but Fred showed them pepper.”
The moment gave Opadokun the opportunity to talk about his harrowing experience as a fugitive in his own land when maximum dictator Gen. Sani Abacha wanted him dead or alive for his co-political activism with Agbeyegbe in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) after the annulment of June 12, 1993.
“I’m grateful to God that Fred survived the travails of life till today,” he said. “When we launched NADECO on May 16, 1994, within one month, because I was the general secretary and spokesman during General Sani Abacha’s era, he came for my head. Only two people knew where I was hiding at Onikan: my late friend Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, and Uncle Fred Agbeyegbe. I was arrested and put in jail for 24 calendar months. Then they released me. But after one year, Abacha concluded I’d learnt nothing from my prison period, and I was rearrested and put in Ikoyi Prison; I was there when Abacha died.
“Uncle Fred has been a reliable friend. He was one of the resource persons responsible for composing those serious educational and informative NADECO releases. He’s an intellectual giant. The way he reasons, I’m always amazed. I thank God that this man is still alive, and he will still be alive for us much longer. Sadly, the Nigerian state has not honoured this icon enough. God will honour you at His own time. Nigeria cannot remain a country of opposites. We export what we don’t have: democracy, and import what we have: petroleum! It’s a shame.”
For the university don, Prof. Oni, “Not many people have the grace to stay up to 90 like Uncle Fred. Perhaps, the artistic world know him more as a playwright than as a lawyer. We salute you sir. Many artists who are 50 years and above cut their teeth in Uncle Fred’s plays. I remember when Uncle Fred’s The Kind Must Dance Naked was staged at the University of Lagos, and the king this time around was a woman – Clarion Chukwurah! And we were wondering: how is a woman going to dance naked on stage? We were watching keenly to see what was going to happen. At the point where the king was to dance naked, the lights were switched off! Uncle Fred, we are very happy to have you with us. We will continue to celebrate you beyond 90; it takes the grace of God for a man of 90 to stand upright and be able to walk unassisted. Some use walking sticks or walkers.”
Prof. Oni expressed regret that Agbeyegbe had not been inducted a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters’ (NAL), promising that it would be done soon.
“Uncle Fred’s productions – Woe Unto Death, The King Must Dance Naked and others – have been important plays in the annals of Nigerian theatre, and quite a number of universities stage these plays on a yearly basis. And someone asked me if Uncle Fred is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. I think we have not done our work well enough. But I can assure you that this is something that will happen in the foreseeable future. We are very happy that Uncle Fred has made tremendous contributions to the humanities. He’s a humanist, a lawyer, a playwright and everything put together.”
One of Agbeyegbe’s daughters, who takes accolades for Ajo Productions/Ajo Fest being named after her, Mrs. Ajo Balogun also paid glowing tribute to her father whom she described in flowery words.
Lara Akinsola, who performed in all the four plays, recreated the feel-good mood of the 1986 Ajo Fest era and sang one of the fiesta’s songs as she paid tribute to the man who has been a mentor for many. “He was always there to inspire us in camp,” she reminisced. “He took care of us. I was in all four plays, and we had a beautiful time together. Uncle Jide Ogungbade was the director. You (Agbeyegbe) brought something to the theatre that was new and which has not be done again ever since.”
US-based academic and theatre scholar, Prof. Ojewuyi, lent a critical dimension to the Agbeyegbe celebration, reminding everyone how the immediacy of his plays spoke to the Nigerian condition. He also recounted how Agbeyegbe’s plays provided a needed support platform for graduates of theatre of the era and became a career point for so many of his generation.
“Two things – if you’re aggressive and ambitious – if those two things are not properly managed, you slip from sanity to insanity,” Prof. Ojewuyi philosophised. “What stands Uncle Fred out from the crowd is not the money, it’s the lack of it. He’s a rare Nigerian man. If you begin to understand the trajectory of this man, you’d be so amazed and humbled, and most of us here will begin to celebrate him the more. And he has never made noise about it. He’s always so humble. There’s another Nigerian, and today we concluded the celebration of him – that’s Professor Wole Soyinka. In my own world, there’s Soyinka and there’s Fred Agbeyegbe!”
Prof. Ojewuyi commended the rare artistic vision of Agbeyegbe for investing his hard-earned money in making theatre; which gave a platform and opportunity to graduates like himself who were hungry and yearning to put their training in theatre to practice.
“By the time we left university in the mid-80s, there was no job waiting,” he said. “We were hungry; we were ambitious, and we were well trained. All we needed was a platform, a platform to be able to practise what we had been taught. And then there was this man, who put his own money, his own hard-earned money, not to buy chieftaincy titles, not to run for office, not to buy himself some stupid honorary degrees from somewhere, but to invest in the practice of theatre.
“While Ajo Festival was going on, we hardly saw him around; he didn’t hang around dictating what we should do. He was just quietly in the background, supporting heavily. He probably might not remember my face; if he knew my name it would be from the credits. That was how absent he was after he’d put down his money. This is rare, this is very rare. Like Edmund said, that platform (Ajo Productions/Fest) helped in crafting our careers. By 1986, I’d just returned with Prof. Duro Oni to the country from Germany, where we’d performed Bode Osanyin’s Woman. So the rehearsals for Ajo had commenced.