‘Mum almost aborted me’

Author of two commendable books, Dickson Ekhaguere, tells Medinat Kanabe the story of his struggle in life, his difficult childhood, and how he almost never was.

But for providence and the intervention of his aunt, who halted arrangements to abort his pregnancy, Dickson Ekhaguere would never have been born to this world and his blossoming talent as a playwright would not have had the opportunity of expression.

Sharing the story of his life, Ekhaguere, who has written two commendable books, Unstable, a play  and wealth- a children’s book, said life has not been fair to him.
Aside escaping into this world by the whiskers, Ekhaguere said life has really never been fair to him, saying he did not have a fair share of childhood. “My father and mother were never married. They had an intimate relationship which led to her getting pregnant, but which automatically ended their relationship because my father was already married.

“My mother’s family thought my mother was too young to have a child, so they concluded arrangements to abort the pregnancy. According to my mother, they went to some hospitals, where the doctors turned down their requests because they didn’t want to be involved in abortion, but later got a doctor who accepted to abort the pregnancy.

“Fortunately, my mother’s sister who was against the arrangement thwarted their plans at the last minute by volunteering to take care of my mother and I.

 “However, the problem did not end after I was born. My benevolent aunty had seven children at that time and all she had was a petty trade. To assist the family, I hawked everything my aunty sold such as tubers of yam, plantain, cassava, onion, pineapple, cocoyam, potato and other things.

I also assisted her in frying bean cake in the morning before going to school; and when I get back from school, I also hawk in the evening before going to bed.”

Continuing, Ekhaguere said he almost could not make it to the university due to lack of money. His mother had also told him to forget about the university and enrol at a roadside computer school, but because he was determined, he took up different petty jobs and writing, which he began to demonstrate a flair for at a very early age. It was in the course of this that he met Mike Abiodun, publisher, Best Solution Books.

“Mr Mike Abiodun, started to pay me for my works, so I was able to pay and write my JAMB examination.  It was when my mother and grandparent saw that I was determined to go to the university that they rescinded their initial position and decided to support me.”

Describing his university experience, he said “It is not a period I want to go through ever again, for the pains and sufferings I went through could drown a whale.”

Ekhaguere says his play, Unstable, published by Kraftbooks, Ibadan best describes his life and fear.

“Writing Unstable was more than just writing a book or play. I dug deeper and farther beyond myself, beyond the physical into the spiritual, into the metaphysical and back to the physical. From the design of the book cover to the method used in writing the title, up to the choice of words and down to the main story itself.”

He said “Maybe I should say I was inspired by my psychological concept or paradigm of success as a ‘whore’ vis a vis my life’s ordeal, or by the never-ending win-lose relationship between God and man.”

Explaining the use of the word ‘whore’, Ekhaguere said, “Here is why I might use the word “whore” for success. I am from a very humble background and in search of success; but the more I go after this success, the more it drifts away from me, but stay with people who don’t work as hard as I do. This inspired the story.

“Also on the aspect of God-man relationship; I saw God consistently giving so much for man, loosing and taking too much for the sake of man, just to have man find his way back to him, but unfortunately the reverse is the case as man keeps deviating, but yet God keeps going after him.”

Asked who encouraged him to write, Ekhaguere who started writing at 13 and got his first pay at 16, said he believes encouragement has to come from within, adding that the inner encouragement births the outer.

“If you do not have anything for people to see and encourage, they cannot encourage you. So first, I encouraged myself. Also, Mr Abiodun really encouraged me at the very early stage of my writing career; seeing sense where I felt there was none, telling me to send more of my writings to him, whilst he sent me money.

He and my grandparents who are late now, with my friend Emeka Dumnoi, encouraged me.

 “At a point in the early stage of my writing career, I almost gave up. I had gone to a publisher in my usual style of going from one publisher to the other and the publisher collected my work and asked me to come back after two weeks. I called him after two weeks and he asked me to come over. I was broke financially, so I had to trek a very long distance under the scorching sun to go see him. On getting there, he criticised my book so much so that I told myself I was never going to write again.

“But there are things that you can never ever leave behind; and that is your passion. So I continued until I met Mr Abiodun, who appreciated my works and gave me room to grow.”

On his inspiration, Ekhaguere said he is inspired by many things. One of them, he says, is his past experiences. “After the long relationship with Mr Abiodun went cold, I had to leave Akure and that was just three months or four after my Youth Service. I wanted to leave Akure but did not want to go back to my home state in Edo state; so I called my friend Hakeem Adeleke, who lives in Lagos.

“Hakeem however told me there was a job opening where he worked, but that he could not guaranty me accommodation. I call everyone I knew in Lagos, friends and family, but no luck. Every one of my friends had just finished service like me and had yet to settle down on their own.

“In the end, one of them told me that I could find a place to stay at the Mountain of Fire Ministry Prayer City Camp. It was quite funny at first, but I realised it was the only option left. So the next morning, I carried my ‘Ghana Must Go’ bag and headed for Lagos. I got to the camp and went to the hostel, but I had not settled in before I was forced out for not paying for the hostel accommodation. I resolved to go live in the open auditorium, where I slept sitting on one white seat, with my legs on the seat opposite. And then I would wake up very early in the morning, so I could steal into the hostel and take my bath before setting out for the day. Sometimes, if I couldn’t make it back to the camp from the city, I would look for another church that was observing a vigil and pass the night there. All of these inspired me. But above all, God is my inspiration.”