By Tunji Oladejo
He was a man before his time—Chief Zaccheus Adewumi Adeyemi, JP (1913–1986). I met Prof. Isaac Adebayo Adeyemi, the second Vice-Chancellor of the Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria and a distinguished alumnus of the University of Ibadan by chance and found myself talking about his father, Chief Zaccheus Adewumi Adeyemi, who died forty years ago. E9/7 Itutaba-Gbenla still stands in Ibadan; that singular house he built when Ibadan was young is still a magnificent edifice. Fewer people recall every Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Ibadan anniversary interviews until the end of his life. I remember those interviews as a lad to date.
Pa Zaccheus was born on 29 April, 1913, at Itabale-Olugbode. On 1 October, 1919, his father died in a car crash on the Ibadan–Akanran–Ijebu-Igbo road; Zaccheus was six. His mother, Madam Dorcas Mabamiduade Adeyemi, “Mabandu” raised him and his siblings without help, enforcing Christian and royal discipline even when money was tight. She died 15 March, 1939. Years later, Zaccheus dedicated Dorcas Chapel, Christ Anglican Church, Mapo, in her honour.
He attended the Ibadan Government School, Oranyan, and then Ibadan Grammar School, founded weeks before his birth. After school, he trained as a Sanitary Inspector in December 1932, resigned, and, on 25 August 1933, joined the Native Authority. He served as a Clerk in Ibadan, Eruwa, Igboora, Gbongan and Ilobu before returning to Ibadan and retiring on July 31, 1952. He then did what his father would have done: started a business, Z. A. Adeyemi and Sons.
The firm sold goods and timber and built things. As a transporter, he ran the first indigenous private bus service in Ibadan outside the municipal operator—also the Ibadan–Lagos and Ibadan–Ilesha routes, plus lorries and tankers. As a Contractor, he built free primary schools, post offices, the land registry in Ibadan, and the first two-story blocks on Awolowo Avenue in Bodija’s Western Nigeria (now Oyo State) Housing Corporation Estate. In later years, he distributed essentials and steel, including food supplies and construction materials, to support the community during economic hardships. He scaled back construction but never quite stopped, working with the same honest, conscientious style people remembered.
That reputation carried weight: he became the President of the Western Region Transportation Association and through the 1950s–60s, the President of the Contractors Union for the Western Region and the Federal Territory of Lagos. The Olubadan-in-Council made him Mogaji Adeyemi on 12 March, 1979—thirty years after initial approval—and the state swore him in as Justice of the Peace on 21 March, 1979.
He was a devoted Christian and philanthropist — and yes, the proud owner of Africa’s first television set. NTA Ibadan called him for every anniversary interview; in 1985, he advised young viewers that education and personal development were non-negotiable. He believed in Western schooling for his children and lived the public duty his mother had drilled into him, emphasizing the importance of education as a means to uplift their community and contribute positively to society.
Chief Zaccheus Adewumi Adeyemi died on 17 March, 1986 and was buried on 21 March, 1986. His family kept his word: a Chapel was built on the land he had set aside as a family burial ground. Today, Zaccheus Adewumi Adeyemi Memorial Anglican Church, Alakia, Ibadan, inaugurated 21 March, 2021 as the seat of the ZAAMAC Archdeaconry, by Bishop Akintunde A. Popoola. ZAAMAC Archdeaconry now plays a significant role in the Ibadan South Anglican Diocese.
In 2021, the family instituted two Chief Zaccheus Adewumi Adeyemi Prizes: one for the best graduating student in Building Construction in UI’s Department of Civil Engineering and one for the best graduating student in the Obafemi Awolowo (OAU’s) Department of Building.
It is a fitting caption for a life drawn straight and lived in public, a man whose house and whose habits are still visible to anyone who cares to look.
May his soul continue to rest in peace.
Tunji Oladejo, mnipr, JP, MANUPA, writes from the University of Ibadan, is the Chairman of The Progressive Forum, Ibadan (TPFI) and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bayo and Bimpe Oyero Foundation (BBOF) via oladejo65@gmail.com.
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