….Omo osoogun soogun, gbe arugbo re igbe ree ku si. Ki alarugbo o pa arugbo e mo….Arisekola ooo
I remember listening to the lyrics from Ebenezer Obey’s song sometime between the late 70s and early 80s and I particularly picked interest in that song as the name Arisekola was not (still not) a name you hear everyday, even in the most cultural parts of Yorubaland. When the news broke out regarding the death of the Aare musulumi last week, as much as I was surprised I was even more surprised to find that he was aged 69- considering the fact that the name has been around for what seemed like forever!
When I did a mental analysis, this implied that he had had been in the upper 0.00001% of the world since his 20s. His Lister Building on Ring Road had been built since early 70s, Lister Motors, Lister Insurance, Lister Flour Mills were established long before 1975! His major stake in first Bank he had owned since the very first IPO of the bank in 1983 or thereabout. I was discussing with an Ibadan high chief sometime last weekend and he told me that he knew for a fact that all his known choice properties in Ibadan, Lagos and London he had owned before 1990! That he had been giving 3 square meals to thousands on a daily basis since the early 80s is open to all. Clearly he had been self-made long before Abacha!
All these makes me ponder how some uninformed section of the public make assertions that the govt of the late General Sani Abacha made Arisekola Alao. It is on record that Abacha, as the commander of the 2 Mechanised Division in Ibadan sometime in early 80s had been a huge beneficiary of the late Aare’s philantropy and magnanimity. Unconfirmed sources say that Aare gave Abacha his very first Mercedes car back then as they were bossom friends. Aare was well known to establish, or at least attempt to, all his friends from his childhood that had not been fortunate to make it big in life. I was on the train with an associate who was letting me know that Aare gave his dad the capital to start a now very successful business after the man retired from civil service and was not paid his pension. That act was quite the character of Arisekola.
Despite all these, like every human, he made his mistakes. But to me being associated with a President is not one of those mistakes considering that he had a long association with the latter for decades before he he became a dictator. We have all gone to school or grew up with people that now happen to be various leadership positions, do we become sworn enemies with them because they have been destined to?
As good and great I might think Alao was, methink his public denouciation of one of his sons in the oil subsidy debacle because of the media hype surrounding that issue is absolutely unwarranted, the other well known Nigerians with kids in same circumstances certainly didn’t throw away their babies with bad water. What happened to being innocent till proven guilty as the young man was to have his day in court of law and whatever the outcome of that, parent should always be parent – it is an unconditional relationship. I have kids to and despite the challenges associated with raising one of them, I’d gladly give all I have than leave him out in the cold with werewolves waiting to pounce.
Ours is a society that thrives on rumour, hearsay, half-truths and beer palour talks. Majority of the populace are so ignorant that we believe whatever story we read about people with confirming it’s truthfulness. Everyone become expert and analysts gathered from thin air and most journalists want to impress their editors with semi-fictions, it unfortunate that there’s hardly any difference professional journalism and blogging. The same news we read in print media are same we read on LindaIkeji – no disrespect to those journalists that remained professional despite the culture of brown envelopes for stories entrenched in the industry.
Over the years, selfish politicians that perpetually present themselves as ‘progressives’ latch unto various fictional and unpleasant stories about Arisekola to advance their political careers and look good to unsuspecting electorate. I lost count on those ‘human right activists’ during and post June 12 days that sought relevance solely on tarnishing the names of those they perceive were friends to the late junta. Many of these activists or their mentors then return later in the cover of darkness to apoligise to Alao and beg for assistance for themselves and their families and the man never said no, neither did he use his vast media access to blow their cover, he believed God created all men for various purposes and the purpose of those hypocrites were to be like that – and as a believer in Almighty God, who was mere Arisekola to question God on the way He chose to formulate His creations.
One of my longstanding acquaintance and former schoolmate, on a bbm group I belong to was expressing his freely God-given view on the demise of Alao where he said “it’s good that Arisekola is dead, **** and **** next and Ibadan will be peaceful”. That ignorance doesn’t really come to me as a surprise as such idiotic views are dozen-a-dime in our society, that it is being portrayed by a supposedly emancipated, liberated and well traveled mind is the surprise. However, I quickly realized that we now live in a world where we are all paper tigers that hide behind the anonymity of social media to spew garbage. Maybe I should remind my friend of a statement credited to the late Ibadan political generalissimo Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu during the political imbroglio that seriously threatened the fragile peace in Ibadan and Oyo State – that if not for Arisekola, he would burn down ibadan and deal with so many ibadan people contesting the political structure with himself and that “arisekola is the only true ibadan son I know”. That Arisekola was a pillar of peace in ibadan was never in doubt, he was not a politician but all politicians looked up to him and he embraced and supported all politicians from all political affiliations that would come to him for assistance, he never turned back any of them. He loved Ibadan with a passion but also built bridges with all ethnicity. He was an Islamic leader with a difference, he supported and funded the building of several churches and made friends with people of all religions. His children married into Christians from all races, one of his sons married Iwanyawun’s daughter and another married a priest’s daughter from Yorkshire, they both still practice their christianity religion till date. His being rose far above religions and race.
It is a known fact within the core Ibadan and journalism establishments that in the dark days of an Ibadan based national newspaper belonging to the family of Yoruba late sage, they were printing the copies of the newspaper from Arisekola’s Monitor Newspapers on Ring Road for free, for several months if not years – despite the fact that there were negative articles and stories directed at his person is same newspaper.
Now that Arisekola has gone to meet his creator, I suppose the ‘progressive’ politicians, ‘human right opportunists’ and biased media practitioners will move on to their next victim.
He had good, bad and ugly qualities. But which one of us doesn’t? That’s what makes us humans and mortals. Personally I’d rather have a son like Arisekola than have one like many of his protagonists. Reports from Ibadan is saying the state government is planning immortalize Alao, I however believe Arisekola already immortalized himself in the minds of the several thousands of lives he touched
-Opeyemi Oduwole
