For Chief Emmanuel Adesoye, the Offa, Kwara state-born industrialist and educationist, longevity that is not combined with good health is not desirable. Adesoye, who succeeded the doyen of Kwaran progressive politics, Chief Josiah Sunday Olawoyin (CON) as the ‘Asiwaju’ of Offa, spoke with ABIODUN FAGBEMI at his Offa country home on the occasion of his 75th birthday recently.

What motivated you to set up one of the leading post primary schools in Nigeria some 26 years ago?

Adesoye College is a co-educational college founded in January 1987 to educate boys and girls from all the states of Nigeria as well as from overseas whose parents want to have the best of upbringing for them. With this compliment of students, the school strives to achieve an international character. The college provides a science oriented education and encourages a wide range of interests within a disciplined framework.

Are you of the view that the standard of education has fallen in Nigeria?

The answer I will give you is yes and no. Yes, in the sense that there is that yearning demand for growth in the sector. People’s expectations are very high on education but government is not meeting those needs. Government-owned schools are left uncatered for. There is infrastructural decay and there is that dearth of instructional materials and so on. Again, the standard is high where all the above listed materials and quality teaching are available. The standard is high where students are well groomed, and where examination standards are not lowered. So it is very wrong to say that the standard has fallen or risen.

In this era of joblessness when government is thinking of the best way out, one of your business concerns has been rested, I mean Okin Biscuits at Offa. What are you doing to resuscitate this company to at least serve as a channel of employment to qualified people?

Okin biscuit is passing through a rehabilitation process. When we finish with that we shall surely come back. It requires a good atmosphere to continue to be in business in Nigeria. We need to get it right from here. I will not say more than this.

The Federal Government recently constituted a committee aimed at brokering peace with members of the dreaded Islamic Sect in the country. Do you see the step by the government as the right one?

The issue of insecurity in the Northern part of Nigeria is not an isolated phenomenon. It exists everywhere, in Britain, America and even the Middle East. So Nigeria can’t be an isolated case. One interesting thing about it is that there is no single solution to curb it. This is because every affected nation has its own peculiarities. In the Nigerian situation therefore, the government has taken the step it deemed best for the nation, all we need to do is to allow the system to work so that peace can continually follow us. The Federal Government is doing its best in this circumstance.

As the ‘Asiwaju’ of Offa, the occupier of a very important office in the hierarchy of Offa Traditional Institution, what are your plans for your people especially in ensuring a permanent peace between them and their neighbouring Erin–Ile community?

We have taken some steps to halt a future recurrence of the ugly internecine crisis between members of the two communities. I believe those steps would work and our generation and those of our children will continually live together in peace and harmony. I don’t want to talk more on this on the pages of newspapers so that I will not be acting like a betrayer of trust.

But I can tell you that as ‘Asiwaju’ of Offa, I am facing many challenges, especially those that require us to bring together our people. Look, it is even one thing for them to agree to come together as a people, and another thing is for them to agree to live together in peace and harmony. But we are trying our utmost to bring back the lost glories of our people in Offa, via love, hard work and fear of God. But you will always need a dynamic leader to show the way forward in such areas as socio-economic and political sectors.

Assess the performances of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) led government in your state.

I think so far the government is trying its best. If it must continually be relevant, it must up hold the principle of fairness to all the parties involved in the project called Kwara state.

At 75 years, any regret about the ways you spent your life and would you pray to live up to a 100 years?

If I have the opportunity to live my life all over again, I will do exactly what I had done in the past 75 years. I have no regret over the way I had lived my life. Again don’t forget that I am Emmanuel Adesoye. So I could not have lived like somebody else. God created us with individual ability and peculiarities I am happy for who I am.

You see, nobody loves to die at any age whatsoever, but I will only pray to live for a 100 years only if God will guarantee me good health. What is the essence of life when the health is bad?