Dele Arogundade: Officer, gentleman and…poet

Dele Arogundade is a colonel in the Nigerian Army, and he’s also a poet, writer and life coach. His recent collection of poetry, titled ‘Perceptions Unabridged’ is a smash hit, featured across the media. We cornered him for a chat on his preference for verse, the relationship between military men and literature, his family, and more. Herewith, are excerpts:  

Daily Trust: Given the hectic schedule that an army officer has, how do you find time to write poetry?

Colonel Dele Arogundade: Writing is part of my life, so I don’t create a special time to write but do so whenever it comes. Sometimes I wake up very early in the morning and it just flows. I always know when I get the prompt. Also, anytime I have the opportunity to travel anywhere, within and outside Nigeria, inspiration comes. I guess you could say the environment speaks to me. 

DT: How do you zero in on a particular topic or feeling, to expand it into a poem?

Arogundade: There was a time I came back from a mission in Sierra Leone and was home for a weekend and just felt I should return. When I told my wife, she was sad and wept. She said I just came back on Saturday, and Sunday morning I wanted to go back. I said I needed to go back because I was on duty and needed to be in my place of assignment. She kept crying, urging me not to go. When I was travelling that morning, what happened played back in my head and I just picked my pen and started writing. The thoughts just flowed. 

DT: How do you handle the obvious paradox born by impressions which people have about the military profession, and artistic pursuits?  

Arogundade: I think I am a peculiar person, so to speak. I always tell people that it’s like God wants to use my life to prove a point. This is because even in my family and among four boys, I was the least qualified for the military. Originally I wanted to do something else, but one way or the other, I found out that God wanted me to be in the military. 

I was telling some of my friends recently that I believe that my being in the military is more of the mind, than the physical. That my mind stayed on even when there were challenges. There were people that were stronger than me when we were training, but could not really cope. This was not because they were not physically strong, but perhaps because they lacked the mental capacity, they dropped out. Although there were times I had serious physical challenges, I kept hearing my spirit telling me to hold on and keep on for a second and then for one more day and then another day. Before I knew it, I found myself spending five years at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), and then I became an officer, and over time was a able to cope with the rigours of the job.

DT: Your collection of poetry, ‘Perceptions Unabridged’, came out a couple of months ago, and is still making waves. How does the reception feel?

Arogundade: It feels very good. What’s unique about it is that it’s a global book. Most of the poems there talk about my travels. When I went to Kenya, I wrote about ‘Green City in the Sun’, in Malaysia it was ‘Soul of Asia’. When people from these places read the book, they got excited. That, in turn, is exciting to me.  

DT: Have any of your children begun to write?

Arogundade: My daughter is a poet, a performer and an actress, and she is quite imaginative. She writes stories about the village that she has not visited. She even performed during my book launch, and did it so well. 

My son likes Accounting. He tried to write poems but that went nowhere fast, as I’m sure he only wanted to imitate me. But he’s brilliant with numbers.

Interestingly, my parents didn’t really encourage me in the artistic line, because they felt I was brilliant and should go and study Medicine, Engineering, etc. But my main strength was writing and literature, so when I discovered those things in my daughter at a tender age, I began to encourage her.

DT: There is virtually a tradition with Nigerian army officers, with famous poets like the late Mamman Vatsa, retired Brig-Gen. Hassan Mamman Lai, and more. Now that you have also joined their ranks, can you tell us what it is about the military that tends to bring a poet out of a warrior, so to speak?

Arogundade: I think the peculiar nature of our job is one. Apart from the famous ones, there are many others who don’t have the confidence to put together their writings. One of the poets that I know, of blessed memory, is Brig.-Gen. Giwa-Amun, and he has told me that he has his poems kept somewhere. 

There are many army officers and soldiers who love to write poetry, but don’t know how to bring it together. I think that’s one of the things that caught the attention of the Chief of Army Staff, which was reflected in the letter of commendation he issued me, that I have been able to put this together for twenty-three years. 

There’s a need for consistency, and focus. For about three years I couldn’t write anything, like when I was serving in Maiduguri. I was so engaged in the operation that I had no time for poems. I however decided that they must see the light of day, and I’m happy today that the book is in print. 

DT: You are going to be in Jos for a reading of your book. Can you talk some more about that?

Arogundade: I was contacted by the Coalition of African Literature, a group led by Patience Andrew, They promote African literature, and invited me over to share. She pointed out that my poems were peculiar, and she was interested in that. 

DT: What’s your message for younger officers who have creative or intellectual interests?

Arogundade: When they have dreams, they shouldn’t let them die. I try to encourage them. I give out a lot of my books for free, making some wonder about the economics of that. In my unit, I gave copies to officers and soldiers free of charge. The only promise I take from them is that they read it. When they read and we had a reading session together, they talked about where it touched them and some of them said they would buy for their children. If something is your passion, you will create time for it. 

DT: How’s your wife taking it, having to share you with the army and poetry?

Arogundade: (Laughter) My wife is praying earnestly for the day she can have me wholly to herself. As for poetry, she enjoys it because I write a lot of poems for her. When we got married, she would tease me that my writing is my girlfriend. ‘They are always around you’, she would joke.