By Kola Animaasahun
“Ah! There’s a ‘Whiz-Kid’
Fash the Flash right in your
Very backyard…
Who holds sway over a
Terrain called Eko
Of the Eko ‘O nibaje fame
Also there is another
‘Wander Kid,’ Tayo, …
Fash the splash tinders
Gingerly away with his transformational finders
On a confusion called
Lagos
This megacity bursting at

The seams
With diverse peoples of diverse
Levels,
Ever questing for more, and
More oxygen of life!
Oxygen for living
Oxygen for sweet lollies

Oxygen for sweet sweet
Sensations

Ah, Tayo
Ah, Fash
May your tribes increase

For Oshodi Fash first
Turned into ‘Odi’
Before turning same
Into today’s ‘Ode to paradise!’

Some fittingly ask, Is Fash
The splash not out – Awoing
Immortal Awo? … Awo
With a huge halo on his
Head?
Tayo and Fash surely share
A common golden nest
With compatriots boasting
The allure of the AZURE”
–Aderinokun, from his poetry ODE to Artis-Without-Compare.

My friend, Eddie Kolawole Aderinokun, came to see me last Monday July 5 incidentally it was my 71st birthday.  He had turned back to his house the day before because of the snailing traffic.  He would not have met me because I had gone to Ibadan to see my young cousin, who was holding the introduction of his daughter.

We see from time to time.  Either at his base or in my home on each occasion we fill each other in on the latest.  Edward and myself have been friends unbrokenly for the last 51 years.
He followed me into journalism – I, January of 1961 and he, in August 1961.  He visited us (myself, my wife and children) in Sweden in 1974 or so.  We were then on posting to the Embassy.

When I returned from England in 1963 and Eddie came to see me in my temporary abode in Ebute-Metta, I moved to Eddie’s place in Oko Brick – Yaba.  That was Hubert Ogunde’s building.

In the turbulent times of Western Nigerian politics, we pulled together.  Together we saw the storms gathering in Nigeria and together we wrote the stories and rode the storm.

Edward was first and foremost a reporter and he was a foremost labour reporter and he had many labour men as friends.  He was a poet and I have volumes of his works on my shelf.

A very well-travelled man, in the course of journalism, and as a leisure pursuit.  For his 70th birthday, Eddie has published two volumes of poetry – ODE to Artist-Without-Compare and Thirty Thoughts in Thirty Cities.

In ODE, Eddie did a history, anthropology in the evolution of Europe and Asia and the Isthmus of Suez.
Our friend, Ben Lawrence in his Preface should know.  We have been coming a long way.

By the way, ODE is an acknowledgement of the Almighty, the ultimate artist-without-compare.
Eddie’s Thirty Thoughts in Thirty Cities was true to his billing.  From Madrid, Spain to Athens, Greece; from Tripoli in Libya, he touched ports in Caracas, in Venezuela.  He was in Banjul in the Gambia and he was in Iceland.
The reader will enjoy reading the INTERLUDE

“… within the broad bounds of your Nigerland,
Prodigies have sprouted,
And many more are
Agate?”

I hope Tayo and Fashola will see how the elite take them.  Eddie is a very responsible man.  He was a father figure for his brothers and sisters.  They hold him in high respect.

Of course he also has been a loving father for his children and loving husband of Biola.
I salute my friend, the journalist and poet; the manager of managers, on his 70 years on earth.

Why? (Lagos from the eyes of a foreigner)
Why does living in Lagos make one uncomfortable?
Many reasons can be listed.  However, there is one common reason shared by the rich and the poor – poor state of the roads and the accompanying traffic!

It is however surprising that the people responsible turn a blind eye.  It seems the tall fences not only protest them but also prevents them from seeing the masses and happenings around them.

I would like to invite these people to take a ride along Agege Motor Road.  Maybe, the torture they experience while traveling on this stretch of road might open their eyes to the suffering of the masses.

Nigerians are very patient and cool headed people.  However, they are watching.  The people who ignore them now will be ignored during the next election.  It is as simple and easy as that.

A beautiful Lagos is not a dream.  What the administrators only need to do is to move around without their escorts and mingle with the people and before you know it, the problem will be solved.  Don’t forget, before you, there were some administrators.  Many more will come and go after you.  The major difference is that those who win the hearts of the people will be remembered as heroes… We don’t even need to talk about those who do otherwise!