D.O. Martins dancing @90, by Emeka Obasi

2026-02-21 - 03:55

All gratitude to God to see a 90 – year – man stand on his feet, move like a Sandhurst trained subaltern and dance better than most of his contemporaries. Engineer David Oladipo Williams, known to everyone as DO, is just a decade away from 100 years. DO who resides overseas, was in Lagos recently to celebrate the milestone. This senior citizen is a true Nigerian and speaks the three major languages. Every minute with him is full of experience, the one you cannot buy in Jankara market. I was dragged to Martins’ esteemed presence by one his mentees, Engineer Isaiah Kehinde Ogedegbe, a retired National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) topshot. We planed to spend two, three hours with him but ended up doing extra time.I thought we would be asked to go into penalty shoot out. The stay was worth the time. What struck me was the Zaria background of DO. He grew up in that ancient town that was connected to post independence Nigeria through railway lines. He reeled out the quarters in lines. I heard of D Line. I thought such lines only existed in Port Harcourt Pitakwa. Zaria was home to many powerful Nigerian families. General Emeka Ojukwu walked down the streets. His mother, Mama Eunice, owned Jubilee Hotel. The first Northern Nigerian lawyer, Chief Ganiyu Abdulrazaq had chambers in Zaria. That is the father of the Kwara State governor and Senator Khairat Gwadabe. I also found it interesting that DO was at St. John’s College, Kaduna with Chukwuma Nzeogwu and Chris Anuforo. And like Nzeogwu, the engineer was an outstanding sportsman. What separated them was the military. “I was at St.Patrick’s with Nzeogwu and Anuforo. They were a year ahead of me but my set sat for the School Certificate examinations from Class Five at a time our seniors took the same exam from Class Six. We were the first to do it as Class Five students,” he said. And thanks to Dad, Martin’s would have ended up as an army officer like Nzeogwu and Anuforo. He sat for the admission and passed the exam but did not proceed. “My father was really disappointed that I wanted to join the Army instead of pursuing academics,” DO explained. The senior Martins was right. Perhaps, if his son had joined the Army, he would have been part of the January 15, 1966 coup that had Nzeogwu and Anuforo playing key roles. The duo did not live long after that first coup that shook the foundations of the country. Nzeogwu who led Northern Operations found himself in Biafra during the Civil War but died in an ambush near Nsukka alongside Tom Biggar, Ojukwu’s half brother. Anuforo, detained in Benin after the coup, was brought out the prison and executed during the July 29, 1966 coup. St John’s, now Rimi College, did not just produce coup plotters. The second indigenous Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Dominic Bello, a 1963 pioneer Nigerian Air Force cadet, passed through the school. So did former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ishaya Ibrahim and one – time Sports minister, Air Commodore Tony Ikazoboh and former Katsina state military governor Col John Madaki. Ikazoboh continued with the sports tradition as he played for Jos Eleven. One account says he played for Stationery Stores Lagos. In 1986, he was appointed into the Charles Ndiomu led Military Tribunal that tried Gen Mamman Vatsa and others accused of planning to topple the Ibrahim Babangida regime. However, Ikazoboh was dropped when Col. Musa Bitiyong protested. Bitiyong was known to have trained Zimbabwean officers and was almost forgotten as he continued to roam the bush, from Harare, to Bulawayo. Remarkably, Madaki, a St. John’s Boy, was an expert in Jungle Warfare. Getting information from DO was like extracting water from stone. He did not want to say much about the past. At 90, he was more at home talking of the potentials in Nigeria as a country. What interested him more was the abundant natural herbs and fruits all over the environment. And he offered us some. A good man will always be celebrated. Ogedegbe who was in Nigeria in September 2025, flew in again from Houston to honour his former boss. I loved the way they interacted. One in his 70s, the other 90. It was not like Big Man and subordinate setting. Friends, colleagues and well wishers came from all over the world. The party would have been in the United Kingdom but home is the best. They all gathered. Ogedegbe and Gbeke Akeredolu landed from the United States. There was Natalie from Senegal. Media Personality, Kadaria Ahmed gave the birthday party enough space on Facebook. She wrote : “Hard to believe Meshel’s dad ( Engr. David Oladipo Martins ) is 90. The man is indefatigable. He was on his feet more than us, danced more than us.” Kadaria was part of the St. Louis Secondary School, Bompai crowd that included Rosemary Diai, Ochee Bamgboye and Remi Jemitola. DO is a man of the people, from Zaria to Kaduna, down to Jos. And he is an Eko Boy proper, ever ready to mingle. When it was time for us to leave his Lagos Island home, I thought he would just as wave us by from his living room. No way. The man, agile as ever, and bouncing, followed us to the main gate. I looked at myself. My leg ached from waist down to the right foot. I struggled to walk but was encouraged by the strength of the sprightly 90 year – old retired Engineer. This DO did not look tired at all. So full of life. The man I saw is fit enough to take a walk from Onikan to Ikoyi.