BY ABUBAKAR YUSUF
The former Minister of Youth and Sports and current Special Adviser to the President on Public Communication, Chief Sunday Akin Dare went down memory lane to X-ray the political sagacity of the late sage , Late Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, SLA , the Aare ona Kakanfo of Yoruba , “The Generalissimo” and former Premier of the old Western Region, who was killed sixty years ago during the first military coup in the country in 1966.
Though , I was not born at then , but I had the experience in the early eighties and nineties crisscrossing the palatial residence of the late Premier, who strategically occupied a larger portion of land in the heart of Ogbomosho town at his Oke Ado residence , a bit far from the house of his former Minister of Regional Planning , Late Chief Oladejo Adigun , who was also son of the soil.
Even though, later on the large space of the land spanned to Sabo and close/sharing a fence to a primary school, my late friends mother, Babatunde Ajagbe , a former Airforce personel, an engineer, Mrs Hannah Ajagbe , a retired primary school teacher used one of the facility to run a primary , secondary nursing school before her death to protect and discourage dilapidation.
During the tender age , and my opportunity to visit the residence of the late Premier through the main gate, with the cynosure of his tomb and his picture conspicuously standing straight in front of his colonial and highly reversed mansion, my thoughts then , he will wake from death to confront me from the grave with a question , “Who are you looking for, and Why are you here.”
The dawn later came to me , that he was really no more , an iroko has really fell of highly revered top Nigerian.
My access unofficially then was through the security man to the house, and officially when Ambassador Yomi Akintola visited during Christmas or any special occasion.
Mama, the late wife of Chief Akintola who usually come occasionally resides in the Ibadan home of the late sage, or in Osogbo were she hailed from, from time to time , with a similar palatial residence built in Oroki town.
I made the historic visits to the residence a recurring decimal when atimes and season, we went to get a ripe mangoes and other fruits in the garden and compound untouched and rotten away.
The SLA residence till now occupied more than 50 plots of land from one end of the road to another in Ogbomosho town .
We were made to believe that Chief Akintola decided to acquire the land that was a complete bush to bring and attract development to the ancient town of Ogbomosho, without any iota of personal interest and intentions of aggrandizement as it is obtainable today.
Therefore, the Agba Akin of Ogbomosho land, Chief Sunday Dare assessment of the late Premier of the Western region at the 60th anniversary reflected my practical experiences of visiting the residence in the eighties and early nineties.
Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, SLA as enumerated by Chief Sunday Dare was a complete and unhidden display of his experiences and achievements during his life time and in government.
He was everything to the Yoruba race and resolved all communal , local , state and regional issues that boarders on Health , Education , Electricity, Roads , and social services,as the establishment of Ogbomosho General Hospital with replication in other major towns of the old Western Region, was his handiwork among many other skilled development establishment.
The proliferation of schools from primary, secondary schools was the brain child of the late Premier, who prioritised educational development of the old Western Region.
The joy of the establishment of Ladoke Akintola University, LAUTECH , by the military administration was a fulfillment of his investment in Education in the Western Region, Nigeria at large when he was no more.
According to late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola , MKO, the first Chancellor of the University, the vision of Oladayo Popoola’s administration in establishing the state university in Ogbomosho, was in fulfillment of SLA dreams while on earth.
While commending the Agba Akin of Ogbomosho land, Chief Sunday Dare for going down memory lane through history , even though younger when the sage led the region.
With the spirit of Samuel Ladoke Akintola, SLA, it reminded me of how he is always in touch with his background, even though, a “Burdillion Boy”.
His touch with his ancestral home was the bane of his relationships with the President, Ahmed Bola Tinubu and his assets in the public before and now .
A seasoned journalist, the Agba Akin of Ogbomosho land has attracted all forms of development to the town, even when living most of his life in Lagos.
My emotional write up on SLA and the assessment of the Agba Akin of the late Premier is to buttress the good works of Chief Sunday Dare,to mark the departure of the late sage six decades ago with an eulogy , an indication of a good ambassador to Ogbomosho land.
My wish he didn’t die then , only God knows the level of developmental advancement of the Western Region, other regions in Nigeria.
Eku ise oo, Agba Akin of Ogbomosho land, Chief Sunday Oluwadare.More grease.
Written BY ABUBAKAR YUSUF on yus.abubakar3@gmail.com
