Between Samuel Johnson, the English lexicographer, Louis VI (1078-1137) King of France and Horace Mann, the American lawyer and educator is a common thread underlying the salient essence of death, impinging on the life of revolutionary activist, Baba Omojola.

“Prepare for death if here at night you roam, And sign your will before you sup from home. It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives”, says Johnson. “Better a thousand times to die with glory than to die without honour” is Louis VI wise counsel while Mann says: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity”.

Adewole Babarinde Omojola Ajibola, 75, gave his entire life to the cause of the oppressed and the betterment of humanity not only in Nigeria but the African continent.  Unlike the burden of Mark Antony after the assassination of acclaimed Roman statesman, Gaius Julius Ceaser, we are here not only for the celebration of an enviable life but to eulogise Baba.

Born on July 13, 1938 and popularly known as Baba Oluwide Omojola, he lived for what he believed and was on his feet fighting for social justice till sunset.

After a tortuous life laced largely by commitment to the empowerment of the working people and the struggle for social justice, Baba took a bow in glory and honour on Saturday, October 19, 2013. Although the circumstances of his death still ring around some mystery, we are gladdened that he acquitted himself very well in the revolutionary vineyard.

With his peculiar wise crack and a disarming sense of humour which distilled tense discourses, Baba neither was undaunted and never wavered for a minute nor mortgaged his belief for a mess of pottage.

A great mobiliser, organiser and humanist who was generous with all he had, Baba who worked as private secretary to Labour Leader No 1, Pa Michael Imoudu and revered elderstateman, Chief Anthony Enahoro, was practically a prime mover to virtually all the revolutionary groups crystallised in the last 60 years.

Baba provided the elixir for formation of the Movement for Popular Democracy in Nigeria, MPD( 1976), People’s Redemption Party, PRP(1978), Socialist Revolutionary Vanguard, SRV(2001), National Consultative Forum, NCF, that spearheaded the 1990 National Conference aborted by the Babangida junta; Campaign for Democracy, CD and the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO.

He was the fulcrum of the Socialist Conferences in Nigeria between the 1960s and 2000s, and played a vital role in the formation of the All-Nigerian Socialist Alliance, ANSA; Pro-National Conference Organisations, PRONACO, Socialist Party of Nigeria, SPN and the June 12 Movement, among others.

As the struggle to resolve the national question intensified in the latter stage of his life, he became active at the level of Yoruba self- determination groups.

He considered every political platform an opportunity to deepen the crisis of the bourgeois state. Baba collaborated with leading lights of the revolutionary movements like Michael Imoudu, Wahab Goodluck, Dapo Fatogun, Eskor Toyo, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Aminu Kano,  Obafemi Awolowo,  Gambo Sawaba, S.G. Ikoku, Mokwugo Okoye, Anthony Enahoro, Alao Aka-Bashorun, Mayirue Eyeniegi, Kolagbodi, Ola-Oni, Balarabe Musa, Abubakar Rimi, General KKM Kassonghov, Abayomi Ferreira, M.T. Akobo, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jonathan Ihonde, Edwin Madunagu, Arthur Nwakwo, Alfred Ilenre, Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransome-Kuti, Ambassador Otunla and many others.

Even at 75, Baba, also a member of the Zikist Movement, was not given to slowing down his revolutionary fervour. At the National Political Summit held recently in Uyo, AkwaIbomState by the Nigeria Consensus Group, Baba, armed with documents and leaflets, was at every gathering pushing for the adoption of the PRONACO peoples’ constitution.

On the morrow of the summit, a meeting to perfect strategies for popularising this agenda was convened at his hotel room. A post-summit review also held at his instance to take stock of the gains of the meeting. Baba passed on a day after he had presented copies of the PRONACO peoples’ constitution and other documents to the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue in Akure, Ondo State.

Away from the opportunism and crass exhibitionism that seem to characterise the work of many comrades, Baba was humble, unassuming and brought a peculiar candour to the conduct of the revolutionary movement.

His life evinces a dialectical relationship not only between form and content, underground and open work of the revolutionary movement but also theory and praxis. Even with his waning health, he still partook in all manner of revolutionary work.

An avowed internationalist, Baba was a vital link with Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara in the African liberation struggles in Algeria, Congo-Zaire and Southern Africa. Following the vanquish of French colonialism, he became a revolutionary confidant to Ahmed Ben Bella, the first Algeria president.

He also worked with Winnie Mandela at the Mandela House in London which served as a coordinating centre of the international phase of the African National Congress, ANC, struggle against Apartheid South Africa.

Reputed for deepening underground revolutionary work, Baba, the author of the biographical work on Imoudu titled, The Imoudu Biography – a political history of Nigeria 1939 – 50, provided cover for most African freedom fighters who were in Nigeria clandestinely at one time or the other in the ’60s to early ’80s, including Thabo Mbeki, former South African president.

He related very well not just to his peers but to the younger comrades. He practised the essence of humanism and flung his doors open to all manner of people. Besides his four biological children – Adeola (who died in London), Eyinade, Akinola and Morenike, he fathered so many other children.  After the usual morning devotion laced with sonorous hymns and music emitting from Baba’s mastery of the piano, this is gleaned from the sea of heads at his breakfast table.

Delighted I was when Baba who reinforced my revolutionary theory and work, was at the head of the table as chairman of my wedding ceremony also graced by Comrade Ola Oni, Professor Gordini Darah and many other comrades, 20 years ago.

Though he had a middle class upbringing as son of the late Canon Emeritus of the Diocese of Ibadan, Emmanuel Ajibola, he opted to commit class suicide.

Even his father perceived early that his son who made a first class from London School of Economics and was at the InnsTemple was cut out to devote his life to humanity and gave his blessing. “He told me if I wish to serve humanity it’s my natural turf”, Omojola reminisced.

Baba opted to take his exit fighting for the cause of social justice and the empowerment of the oppressed and the betterment of humanity not only in Nigeria but Africa.

Adieu Baba, we shall miss you

Tony Iyare, a former Special Adviser to Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole is Editor-in-Chief of The Gleaner News Online.