BY TAIWO ADELEYEMy look was eloquent in its depth of sorrow and bewilderment ; it was more of gloom and disillusionment as I swallowed down my saliva in agony of frustration, surprise and disappointment when I heard the news of your sudden death .Initially, I thought of the story as merely disturbing speculation, if not outrightly fictitious, until the Facebook account of the sickening narrative confirmed the unfathomable, the unthinkable and the reality of the obvious.
Quite unfortunate that death has become a sample of human abberation and a monster who robs individual beings of a dignified life and a befitting existence !
Curiously, you came along in my early life as part of the fantasy of my childhood years when I was so fascinated by the imperial bearing of your influence while living with you at Iyere- a village in the present Osun State, and subsequently in Ibadan, Oyo State respectively in the seventies.
It was right from this period of my transformative years under your mentorship and tutelage that I got to know you as a breed of tireless intellectual sparring partner who could provoke and keep one in continuous animated debate until lunch dissolves into dinner and then into late supper without batting an eyelid . As a man of character trait that borders on the brash and the audacious, you lived true to your vaunted fearlessness. You were a writer of profound merit and Catholic impact ; a towering figure of universal native intelligence and wisdom. In your mastery of words, you were witty, weighty, vivacious and eloquent in speech ; versed in sophistry and grandiloquece with broad and infectious smiles and laughter !
Even though we cannot dwell on remembered glory, but it is instructive to note that you lived a full circled and action – packed life of accomplishment. Your rise to prominence was a story of courage and conviction by going through the furnaces and the crucibles of life through personal or vicarious experiences.
As the Secretary General of the Student Union Government in your studentship days and until your last breath as the Councillor in Ijero Local Government, you have been a man with the history of sustained marathon ideology who had embraced the noble virtues of democratic credentials and the ennobling and ethical values of leadership by nurturing the grains and culture of democratic decency. As a parliamentarian, you did not lack the courage of your convictions and your views were expressed on many subjects of interest to you without disguise or deceit with uncanny audacity and relentless commitment.
As a general’s place in history is assured by his feat in battles, your contribution to the security architecture of Nigerian State as a Commandant of The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence, cannot be over emphasised. By assisting to promote peaceable coexistence among the citizens as well as curbing crime and criminality within the polity, you contributed a quota of your time and treasure to the development of the country.
Oga Dayo ( brother Dayo), as you were being called, your loss bequeaths a legacy of pain and lament, and what we are seeing today is the transience and ephemerality of life and its appurtenances ; the vanity and the evanescence as well as the vaingloriousness of the illusion and delusion of the grandeur of power and influence.
As we mourn the reality of your death in submissive silence, it is our prayer that what we lost in innocence we gain in hope.