To my father: A Remembrance Note

Exactly 16 years today, my father, Alhaji Chief Sani Adeoti Giwa Adedoyin, Majeobaje Adinni of Okeya-Ipo, Osolo of Okeya-Ipo and Ada of Okeya-Ipo, was recalled by his Maker, Allah (SWT).

It was like yesterday. It was a Tuesday. A week earlier, I had travelled home to see him. He was old and feeble. Very old. Although without a birth certificate, when we calculated recorded historical events which he witnessed, Baami could have been a little over 100 years by the time he passed on on 2nd November 2004.

I grew up to know a man who was a gentleman in the true definition of that word. He was meek and unobtrusive. He was a man at peace with himself and with others. A man who abhorred intrigues and detested conflicts and crises.

Yet he was very firm on matters of principle. I grew up to be regaled with his exploits as a young man, an activist and a leader of men. He was the Giwa of his Egbe, hence the sobriquet Giwa. His Egbe, at the zenith of its glory, was reputed to have the largest population of indegenes. Egbe Olorunnishola was the Egbe that every young man wanted to belong to. The Egbe was active and took positions on the issues of the day. Most of them belonged to the Action Group, AG, Egbe Olope.

His activism and principles, Mama told me, almost cost him his marriage to her. My mother, the daughter of a Princess whose father was the reigning Oludopo, Oba Oyebanji Ajagbe who was on the throne from 1938 to 1976, had been betrothed to my father. For obvious reasons, the Oludopo and his Council, were NPC, Northern People’s Congress, partisans. Before long there was bound to be clashes on critical issues of the day. Father found himself leading the opposition against the Oludopo and his future in laws.

Matters got to a head and the palace decided my father’s ‘intransigence’ was unbecoming of someone who wanted to mary the daughter of Oba’s Bere (Female first child).

The marriage must be stopped.

Thank God my mother had a different plan. She escaped from Okeya-Ipo and arrived Ajasse-Ipo to the warm embrace of her future husband and his acolytes. They headed straight for Lagos. The rest, as they say, is history.

Now, age has a way of slowing one down. By the time I was growing up and Baami had advanced in age, his activism had become a matter of historical recalls. I was a child of his old age, his last born.

I may not have met an activist and a fire brand, growing up, but I met a man of principle, a man of impeccable integrity and untainted reputation. A man respected by his clan as can be attested to by his traditional and religious titles.

I cannot recall my father wielding the cane. In fact, mama was tougher than him as she never spared the rod. But then, father had a way of admonishing and counselling you and you will be persuaded to toe his line. He had so many experiences to.draw from to teach you the lessons of life.

Baami, Sani Adeoti Adedoyin, omo Yesufu Edunjope Adedoyin, omo Abubakare, omo Itialayo Aderounmu, omo onibuara, omo ada dudu yo m’egbe da, omo Oodua, omo Aganju, omo Oran’yan, omo Ogbooru Ile -Ife, omo Adade owo, Ife Ooni, omo Ajibowo, yi i p’omo elomii lole. Sun re, Aremu Ade.