By Kenneth Imansuangbon

“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal”—  Albert Pike.

The above aphorism was the watchword of my greatest and dependable ally, course mate and brother, the late Barrister Ayodeji Falae. He believed in it and lived by it before untimely death snatched him away like a daylight robber via the recent ill-fated Associated Airline crash in Lagos.

Deji,  our path crossed when we secured admission to study law at the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife in Osun State.

In the beginning, not many of us in our class knew that you were the son of the renowned technocrat, public servant and politician, Chief Olu Falae. This was because you were humility personified and freely associated with the low and the high. The pomposity that is usually common amongst big men’s children was nowhere near you.

For people like me who came from a humble background, I saw you as a role model and a comforter. You were always there for every of our coursemates no matter the situation. Many of us had thought that considering your background, you were supposed to study overseas. But you made us to understand that your parents believed so much in the country called Nigeria and had always wished and wanted their children to believe in the same. You once told me that it was not that your parents could not afford to send their children oversea to study, but they believe that there is no place like home.

Despite your involvement in almost all the extra-curricula activities within and outside the campus, you never played with your academic works and it showed in your outstanding performance in the class.

Upon our graduation in 1991, we proceeded to the Nigeria Law School Lagos in 1992 where you were exceptionally good in almost everything, a unique quality that endeared you to many who did not know you before then.

It was during this time that you took some of us to your father’s house in Lagos where we met him and the late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (rtd). It was since then that I became part of your family, just the way you were a part and parcel of my immediate and extended family. During my wedding ceremony in 1995, you were my best man. You provided all the needed support for me, which made the ceremony a huge success.

After our days in the Law School, I thought you would travel to overseas for further studies, but the Nigerianess in you did not allow you. You stayed back in the country and started practice at Chief GOK Ajayi (SAN) chambers, from where you moved into property management and consultancy.

It was from there that I encouraged you to explore the opportunity of joining politics because I strongly believed you could do well there. That was how you contested for the House of Representatives seat, which you lost, before you were appointed the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism by Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State.
I remember that you had always told me that you hated travelling by air because of the rot in the aviation sector, leading to the loss of several lives. You were a very good driver, and on several occasions you drove yourself to Abuja to see me and my family. And I had always made mockery of you by calling you, ‘Deji, the good driver son of a big man’.
Two weeks before your untimely demise, you had complained to me on phone that you spent 11 hours from Lagos to Abuja because of the deplorable state of federal roads. I was in the United States then and I never knew it was the last interaction we would have.

When I heard about the ill-fated Associated Airline crash in Lagos, I never had any feeling that my bosom friend, Deji Falae would be one of the victims because I know he hated flying so much. So it came as a rude shock to me when the passengers’ manifest showed that we have lost a gem called Deji Falae in the crash.

It was at this point that I hurriedly cut my trip short, and returned to the country. ‘Deji, where are you and why now,’ I could not help but ask rhetorically  while crying over your untimely demise in your father’s house in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

When I was held and consoled by Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi (rtd), your father, Chief Falae said: “Ken, death is not the worst thing that can happen to a man. What if Deji was alive and had permanent injury that will bog him down in the next 50 years?”

At this point, I remembered the words of Luther Martin King Jnr that a man who won’t die for something is not fit to live. Deji, you truly believed in the country Nigeria; you lived and worked for Nigeria and at the same time died in active service for Nigeria. Your footprints as a lawyer, detribalised Nigerian and renowned public servant would always remain indelible in the sands of time. Posterity will always remember you for good, because you came, you saw and you conquered.

Adieu, my good friend, dependable ally and a humble son of a good man. Goodnight Deji as you rest in the bosom of the Lord, where you will have everlasting peace and joy. It is hard saying goodbye to you, Deji.

*Mr Imansuangbon, a lawyer, wrote from Abuja.