By Oladele Ogunsola
Kabiyesi, but for against the run of events of Thursday, 14th of March, this year at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, you would have been 82 years old on this part of the divide today, 18th October, 2024 given your birth on the same date in 1942.
On that day, you bade the world goodbye as you transited to the great beyond to join your ancestors to the consternation and bewilderment of all and sundry. This last Monday, at a Pharmacy Store, an old schoolmate still expressed the sense of shock and surprise felt at the news on that day in March when he told me that he never thought of your demise in the next five years and that was the general feeling of the people.
Your sudden exit left people dazed because there was nothing, nothing (I repeat) to suggest that you would not be around us for much longer. You were not rushed to the hospital as you were your able and bubbling self when leaving your Alarere abode on Wednesday morning as you still cracked jokes with those around you. And the days leading to that Wednesday did not pose any form of anxiety concerning your health as well.
I still remember sitting with you for more than two hours on Monday the 11th of March on the balcony which was the day marking your second year coronation anniversary, where we browsed through the newspapers and after which we engaged in general discussions on the affairs of the country.
I remember you asking me when shall we be going to Kano where you had been appointed as the Chancellor of Sa’adatu Rimi University of Education, Kumbosto, Kano State some months earlier and I replied that it would be after you might have returned from your planned medical trip abroad.
The following day, Tuesday, you directed Oba Hamidu Ajibade, the Ekerin Olubadan and a trusted ally of yours, to coordinate a small committee comprising myself, the Advisory Council Secretary, Mr. Kamorudeen Liasu and two other aides of yours, Abass Balogun and Alhaji Lateef Muibi to work on a position paper on the new Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs as it concerns Ibadanland as demanded by the State Government and which must be unfailingly submitted at the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters on Friday, about 72 hours away.
The committee sat and worked on the issue as directed and it was at the committee level that the need for the Olubadan Advisory Council to meet on whatever we come up with was stressed and agreed upon and Thursday, about 48 hours later was chosen for the Council’s meeting. The logic was that the committee would prepare the position paper and the Council would vet it after which Kabiyesi would append his signature.
I was saddled with the responsibility of putting the committee’s thoughts together upon which I dexterously worked between Tuesday and Wednesday. I got to the palace on Wednesday morning to learn that you had just left for the hospital which did not in anyway jolt me because it was not something unusual.
Where I got the confidence that you would come back home later that day, I didn’t know. So, the following morning, Thursday, when I called Abass before I left home, I was talking to him as if you had been home the previous night after I had closed for the day. It was his response that however raised my adrenaline when he said you were at ICU at UCH as against the private hospital in Bodija where you had gone to.
My faith still did not shake as I told him that ‘ko siku loju Kabiyesi’. He nonetheless reminded me of the importance of the day’s Council meeting and I told him everything was set to receive and host the Kabiyesis. As scheduled, the Kabiyesis came, the meeting was held and the Otun Olubadan, Sen. Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja presided.
Up till the arrival of the Council members, none of them was aware that Kabiyesi was not around and on inquiry, we only said Kabiyesi was out on routine medical check-up to underscore the low level of anxiety placed on the hospitalization. The committee presented the report and after some corrections were made, it was ratified with a firm instruction that Kabiyesi must sign it later that day or very early the following morning for onward submission at the Ministry before the close of work on Friday.
I called Abass later on Thursday to brief him and ask about the time Kabiyesi would be back to sign the paper, but, he didn’t pick my call. I followed up later with watsap message when it dawned on me that even, if Kabiyesi would come back home that Thursday, I would have closed, yet, no response and no indication that the message was even read.
Unknown to me that all the late afternoon hours and evening period had become cloudy and the certainty of Kabiyesi’s survival was already hanging on the balance. I was about going to bed around 11.00pm and felt that I should chat Senator Kola up through watsap and immediately after the message, I was about shutting down the phone when the Baba Kekere, rather than responding to my message decided to put through a call in which the bombshell was dropped that “we have lost Kabiyesi”!
Thus, it was Sen. Ladoja, the Otun Olubadan, who eventually signed the paper for Kabiyesi and on behalf of Ibadanland at Oja’ba palace shortly before he led his colleagues to Mapo Hall to pay their last respect to their chairman of the Olubadan Advisory Council, Oba Lekan Balogun, CFR. What an irony!
Till date, I’m yet to come to terms with the level of contrast between man’s proposition and God’s disposition! It didn’t just add up that the next time I would sight the same person with whom I had robust interaction on Monday and who was full of life would be at Mapo while lying-in-state four days after!
Kabiyesi, the last two years of your life sojourn climaxed your glorious adventure in life as you superintended over the affairs of the most populous city in the sub- Saharan Africa, Ibadanland, being the 42nd holder of the powerful Olubadan title.
Everybody around you felt pained and still feeling it now that you departed too soon, but, there’s the solace in the fact that you lived and tenaciously held on to the take-away from your short speech at your coronation on 11th March, 2022 at the ancient Mapo Square where you said you won’t disappoint the people of Ibadanland as you truly and sincerely served your people with genuine interest. We can all raise our shoulders high and be proud of our association with you.
Your types are very rare to come bye as you made a huge success of everything you laid your hands on, yet, you were unassuming and for this and many other reasons, I personally remain thankful to God and grateful to you for the warmth and love.
Continue to peacefully rest as we on this divide celebrate your special day, Kabiyesi!
Ogunsola was Oba Balogun’s Personal Assistant on Media
