Celebrating Our Friend a Scholar of Princely Pedigree – Professor Oluyinka Olutoye

In the early 70s with Nigeria just emerging from the throes of a vicious civil war, I was settling into Lagos life in the sedate atmosphere of the Akoka University campus. I was enrolled in one of the elite primary schools, The University of Lagos Staff School by virtue of my parent’s employment with the University. On a brisk Monday morning an unfamiliar face sauntered into our classroom, a fair complexioned boy with triangular shaped hair, parting at the sides dominating the top of his head. 

The boy had the courtesy of a double promotion, gained from the lower reception class. Whilst it was the regular frantic clearing of the thick and lush green bushes that concealed the swamps in close proximity to the school that usually captured my imaginations, the boy, Oluyinka being more focused and had his mind on other things as he continued to advance year on year, trotting from class to class maintaining his hold on the first position.  

He gained admission with ease into King’s College, Lagos, obtained a scholarship and I joined him two months later in the College.  It is by sheer coincidence I joined him in the same House, Panes. At college he displayed acumen on the field of sports, Hockey and Cricket, representing the College and even Lagos State. He was also a keen Cadet Unit member rising to temporary Lt. and 3 i c. He had a foray into the realm of politics contesting and winning the post of Assistant Scribe of the Student Council, in a vigorous campaign, which I coordinated. 

He was recognised as a leader of boys, his bearing and comportment always betrayed him and for that he was appointed Assistant Prefect of Panes House. His sheer brilliance ensured that his O’ levels ended in distinction with outstanding JAMB results. He went on to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Great Ife) to study Medicine and I followed two years later and choose to read Law. I drowned myself in the rumbustiousness of student union politics but he immersed himself in his studies.

On his 21st birthday dinner party held in his honour and attended by his father the retired Major-General Olufemi Olutoye, the second graduate to become an officer in the Nigerian Army, I managed to give a rousing toast to ’Yinka. In response he responded graciously that I would have been the next President of the Students’ Union if I had not been in my final year.

It is from here our paths diverged, he went to the US and I to the UK but he has never failed to keep in touch. When I acted as the Dean of the Faculty of Law at Lead City University, Ibadan he visited me with his wife, Olutoyin another accomplished scholar in the field of medicine. They visited not long after he had performed the groundbreaking feat of operating on a foetus outside the womb and returning it back to be born again. He lives in far away United States and I in Nigeria but we have kept a remarkable friendship over the years, I preached Christ to him as a boy and we prayed the prayer of acceptance. I visited him on many occasions at his parent’s residence in Obanikoro. Though of princely Ido-Ani heritage he has always been a gentleman laced with humility and never betrayed his illustrious pedigree. He stands tall in faith and shines brightly in his profession.

We celebrate the achievement of one more laurel today that of the National Merit Award 2020, it is long overdue, it is most deserving and it is very inspiring. I say Floreat!

Olu Ojedokun

The Passage of My Father's Twin...

Out of sensibilities to my mother i refrained from announcing or writing about my Uncle, my father's twin brother and the last of the musketeers of Olasupo, Adeagbo and Oladejo. Now my mother has called to offer me condolence i can eulogise my late uncle. 

I am told that my father grew up working the farm with his first cousin Oladejo Alamu Ojedele until their elder cousin Chief Alani Lawunmi and one Mr. A.A. Ogunrinu rescued them at age nine and insisted they enroll at the local St. Peter DC Primary School in 1945. I sometimes wonder where his path would have ended if he remained on the farm, would he be with us today? After attending St Peter’s School, Oluponna, Christ Church School, Mapo, Ibadan and D.C. School, Araromi, Iwo, in 1953 and 1954 when they went off to Offa Grammar they never had the protections that shoes offered and their uniforms were all bought on credit. 

My father and his cousin then proceeded to attend Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology. They both attended University College Ibadan, then part of University of London. In 1960 whilst at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology my father Olasupo Aremu Ojedokun rebuffed the counsel of his cousin Oladejo Alamu Ojedele who pleaded with him: 

“Ema loo Eko, ani ema lo ekoo.”

He joined other students to demonstrate against the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact. The response they received from the police encountered on their way to Lagos was unexpected brutality, it manifested itself in stifling fumes from the teargas they fired. My Uncle, Oladejo completed his degree in Geography, his performance affected by the loss of his mother and then as his so often the case with siblings their paths and their destinies diverged in differing directions. My uncle was always the conciliator, the contented one and the one with foresight. It might have been this which affected is not being made Head of Service in the newly created Osun State even though he was the most senior Permanent Secretary. However, he accepted the slight with maturity and without rancor.

It was with my Uncle Mathew Oladejo Alamu Ojedele that we spent our holidays while in Ìbàdàn. We stayed at Ago Taylor in Ìbàdàn while he was serving as a senior civil servant with the Western and later Oyo State Government. My uncle was very reserved and it is claimed he remained locked in the grief brought about by the loss of his closest companion, his cousin, my father. I am convinced he would have made more progress, supprassing that of becoming a Permanent Secretary had the tragedy of my father’s loss not befallen him. 

The two cousins were indeed like twins, born around the same period, sharing the same bed, hobbies and indeed friends. They attended the same primary school, same secondary school, Offa Grammar School and the same University at Ìbàdàn. Later on in 1978, my uncle moved into a sprawling but near completed house built and which nestled at the bottom of a hill in Idi-Ape, Basorun a few metres down the road from the Odeniyi’s my other cousins. There was always something interesting to do while in their home. My uncle was very close to Mr. Babajide an indigene of Iwo town, who worked at the Oyo State Sports Commission so he would always take us to visit him. We always came back with some gift or souvenir and he would take us around the Liberty Stadium, the first of its kind in Africa. When we were at Ago Taylor I had little sense of dress code for church so once I attended a service with my cousin in my brown imported stonewashed hot pants, which left little to the imagination! When my uncle and aunty returned from some travel they were aghast wondering why I had worn what they described as ‘Sokoto pepe’ to church! 

At age seven in, 1973 I also remember fondly when my uncle was posted to Sagamu as a District Officer, we spent some holidays with him in his sprawling official bungalow. Once at the urgings of the housemaid my cousins and siblings and I ventured into town, Sabo in particular, and we got lost. We became consumed in a desperate panic, and simply went round and round various alleyways and roads only to become more confused. Thankfully, we hit a stroke of luck when we recognised a car we had passed and made our way home in complete relief. While we were lost panic was coursing through my mind for several minutes thinking that we would be kidnapped and it would mark the end of us and no one would ever find us. In our most difficult and desolate years after the loss of my father Olasupo the cushion of generosity provided by my Uncles Odeniyi, Adigun, Ojedele, Ogunkanmi, Adetugbo and Atewologun bolstered us through our challenges. 

I remember that at the King's College Dance I was bedecked in my 1979 check suit, made in America, purchased for me by my Uncle Ojedele, the only suit I owned. At some stage when my University studentship was affected because of my student union activities it was Chief Odeniyi and Chief. Ojedele who visited the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ife to plead my case. Though the Vice-Chancellor 'Wande Abimbola let them know in certain terms that we were in trouble and the government was minded to be ruthless with us. 

I visited him less than two weeks before his passage to discuss issues to do with the estate of my late father. I was due in the UK on the 23rd December 2021 but a curious fate conspired to ensure that my confirmed ticket was messed up and I could not fly, painful and gut wrenching it was for my wife but now I know why it happened that way, whilst I was struggling to ensure I travelled my Uncle was breathing his last on this earth.

My sense of history and bearing in my origins i got from him. He did not allow his limited means to stop him from assisting and supporting so many. Inevitably the weight was much because of the passage of his twin brother but he shouldered it admirably. I will miss him, I am left bereft and vacant, and i remain grateful to God Almighty for his life and for every kind word that has come my way at this time. He was not my biological father but he was in actions, attitudes and his plans he and my aunty Ojedele treated us as theirs and so we are!  Good night Baba mi, the Patriarch of the Ojeleyes!