Yoruba Blog

Miss Bev Rook of Cammeray, is seen pinning a poppy on Chief E.A. Adeyemo of Nigeria during a remembrance Ceremony and March by the members attending the world Veteran's Conference in Sydney, August 15, 1975.

Chief Adeyemo later became Alayeluwa Oba Emmanuel Adegboyega Adeyemo, Operinde 1, the 38th Olubadan of Ibadanland. He was crowned on January 14,1994.

Born on January 1,1905, in Ibadan, he attended Saint Cyprian School, Port Harcourt, Rivers State and Methodist Central School, Lagos. He obtained the first and second Class Pupil Teachers Certificates. He was a pupil teacher in Enugu until 1930, when he joined the Central Government Civil Service as a clerk in the Prison Headquarters, Enugu.

He later worked in other central government departments across the country and rose to the grade of a 1st Class Clerk in 1940.

The same year, he joined the British Army as the Training Officer of the newly recruited army clerks in Kaduna, during the Second World War. He was later promoted as the Communication Liaison Officer of the Army.

During the second World War (1940 to 1945), he served in East Africa, Burma, India, Somalia and Malta. He was demobilised in 1946 as a Staff-Sergeant. In 1947, he was seconded as the Treasurer to the Ibadan Native Authority.

In 1956, he became the Sole President of the Ibadan Customary Court, Oke Aare until 1960, when he voluntarily withdrew his services.

Following the declaration of the state of emergency in the Western Region of Nigeria in 1962 by the Tafawa Balewa-led Federal Government of Nigeria, he was appointed the Western Region of Nigeria’s Commissioner for Local Government Affairs by the Administrator of the Western Region of Nigeria, the late Dr. Moses Adekoyejo Majekodummi.

Olubadan Adeyemo Operinde 1 later retired from public service into private real estate development business.

He transited on April 8,1999 at the age of 94.
Photo: Getty Images