By Taiwo Adeleye

Remembering you today, the 31st year anniversary of your departure to the fortress of eternal bliss is not due to instinctive feelings, ejaculatory thoughts or spontaneous nostalgia. It is a ritual of constant yearnings, daily reminiscences and yearly memory recalls of the life and times of a quintessential cornerstone- ÒPÓMÚLÉRÓ. A giant of history who lived noble and died in nobility and who was part of the eloquent history of my transformative years. An icon whose creed determined his conduct and whose valued asset was his reputation ! 

While others make history even when they undo nations and corrupt ideals, your actions were always propelled by the irresistible summons of honour and integrity, devoid of human philosophy and blind gropings of human wisdom.

Your strength of character, depth of conviction and obstinacy in pursuit of worthy causes were verdicts cast in stone and iron, and moulded on the anvils of posterity. Unlike those who succumbed to the stupidity of greatness, you carried yourself with the poise, dignity and carriage of Omolúàbí- noble and honourable !

Being our father, though by providence, divine coincidence and share conspiracy of destiny and circumstance, you never left us in our agonies and struggles, seeking us out in our trying moments, guided, goaded and guarded us in our exuberance and prodigality. And even, till date, you are not perfunctory in your ancestral and progenitorial responsibilities, regardless of our derelictions and shortcomings towards you. 

You did not only give to us the sweetest sweet of your palms, but also provided us light that illuminates in our canals of darkness, throughout your rich, radiant and colourful life. As a father, you spoke to us words of wisdom, admonition and encouragement, in the most earnest, frank and eloquent manner, in a language of love and affectionate intimacy. You inspired intense personal love and interest in our hearts, such that, till date, your words, lessons and appeals, in which we see echoes of ancient wisdom, still reverberate down the corridor of time.

As a cultured family man who knew the beauty of genealogical reckoning, you radiated so much zest in fellowship and cultivation of acquintanceship.You pulled down the ‘Berlin Wall’ of separation and extended unblistered hands of friendship across your parental family frontiers. With a sense of strong family ties, you created a bond of enduring affinity and umbilical intimacy among them, to which they are eternally grateful ! 

Despite your indigent background, you sprouted like a carnation, with resilience, share tenacity and inexplicable pendulum of fate, to become one of the celebrated building contractors of your time, not only in Ijero LG but throughout the old Ondo State.You built houses, hospitals, bridges, culverts, open and lock-up shops and markets for govts. Also, you built mission houses, churches for faith-based institutions and constructed classrooms, hostels, libraries for schools, as well as renovated private houses for individuals. 

Presently, one of such projects that still maintains the virginity of its beauty, having weathered storms, defiled age and withstood the vagaries of the harsh conditions of the elements, is the only one storey building at the Anglican Cathedral Church, Ijero -Ekiti. It is a structure in esthetic beauty that still evokes commanding attraction in its present location. The top-notch tortoise-like design of the building’s outlook, all made of stones, stands it out and makes it a bewitching amazement and fascinating masterpiece of an edifice. 

It is an optical diet of sort to on-lookers and passersby, as they marvel in bewilderment at the classic building that has lasted over 70yrs, which is currently used as mission house by the church.The monument is not only an evidence of your professionalism, skillfulness and dexterity in building construction, but a credence to your achievements as a talented notable personality; a symbol of self made possibilities among your peers.