Why I'm unmarried at 70 - Awolowo's private secretary -

Celebrated poet, author and former Private Secretary to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Odia Ofeimum has explained why he remained unmarried at the age of 70.

Ofeimum, who clocked 70 0n Monday, March 16, made the disclosure in an interview published by Saturday Punch.

He explained that the pursuit of knowledge made him incapable of committing to any relationship that would distract him from his goals.

Asked why he did not marry, Ofeimun said, “It is an irrelevant question. I always knew I would do most things in my life later.

“The amount of knowledge I needed in order to live the kind of life I wanted to live was difficult for me to acquire.

“I therefore did not really trust relationships that tended in any way to detract from my capacity to function as I wished to.”

“I was bound to wait until I was no longer afraid that somebody would stop me from achieving the goals I wanted to.

“I so dreaded the possibility of not being able to do the things I wanted to do in the world, whether with a general relationship or with women.

“I ensured that whatever could tamper with my dreams was quenched.”

Ofeimun added, “I have never apologised for it and I will never do that because as good as the people you relate to might be, they may just not understand your dreams and if they don’t understand your dreams and you want to spend your life fighting, you have actually destroyed the basis for realising those dreams.

“Once I knew what I wanted in the world, I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way.

“I have not quite become the writer I want to be but I assume that the labour I have put into trying to be a writer is enough to get me where I want to be.”