Tribute: Good Night, Adewale Adeeyo: An Intellectual Giant

 

Olumide Lawal

TO those who are immediate and extended family members, as well as close associates of Dr. Adewale Adesoji Adeeyo (Officer Order of the Niger), an illustrious son of Edeland and a global phenomenon, our world stood still, when we learnt of his transition to glory on October 15, 2021. We were speechless.

But God knows best to have called Dr. Adeeyo, fondly called SIR EYO by his close friends’ home at the appointed time. Adeeyo, you were an eagle that flew home in a blaze of glory, though painfully, but with total submission to the will of the Almighty God, the Author and finisher of our faiths. Adeeyo earthly journey came to an end at the age of 73 and we give the Almighty God all the adulation for the purposeful, delightful, impactful and sweet life of Dr. Adeeyo, an intellectual giant, who traversed the world very gingerly like a colossus.

Kudos to late Papa Aminu Adeeyo of blessed memory for giving you the best education, that money could buy during your time. You were at the prestigious Children Home School, Molete, OLU-IWA COLLEGE (now Adeola Odutola College, Ijebu-Ode, and Ibadan Grammar School, before you proceeded to New York City, USA for further education, where you excelled.

It is still like a dream to us all. Edeland has lost one of its very best. An amiable personality of Mapo Arogun extraction, that truly, but silently identified with its yearnings and aspirations committedly. How are the mighty fallen!!!

The world lost an effervescent board room Guru, a corporate colossus, an administrator par excellence. An educationist of no mean order. That was Dr. Adeeyo of OLODOOBA and ALUSEKERE clans in Ede Timi Agbale. The late Publisher of defunct ANCHOR newspaper titles situated at Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, came, saw and touched many lives, inclusive of scholarship to many students of Adeleke University, Ede among other places. It has been positive testimonies galore to his sweet memory since October 15, 2021 when you transitioned to glory and interred at ETERNAL HOME CEMENTRY, Kilometer 30, Ibadan-Oyo Express Way, for eternal rest with your Creator in Aljanat Fridaus.

Dr. Adeeyo showed tremendous dexterity and drive in the management of human and material resources in all the places, that he was opportuned to serve. His academic prowess was readily made available to Adeleke University Ede, where he was a leading light of its Governing Council. The distinguished son of Edeland, that Adeeyo was, became an encyclopedia of knowledge from whom, high intelligent quotient and native wisdom were tapped.

The immediate past Chairman of Federal Mortgage Bank was an unquenchable Fountain of Knowledge. Sir Adeeyo was a detribalized Nigeria citizen, who saw every parts of Nigeria as his home. Always impeccably dressed and elegant in his carriage. A good mixer. A witty debater and prolific writer on any subject. Dr. Adeeyo commencement speech at the maiden convocation of Adeleke University in 2015 with the title: ENCHANTING REAL WORLD, remains a reference point on how students should live after their graduation from the Ivory Tower. In that literary endeavor, Dr. Adeeyo said and I  quote: “my dear graduates, you morally have no choice but to cede compassion and benevolence to whomever, that you may encounter in your life trek, so that none shall be the weakest link”. That was vintage Adeeyo, the intellectual giant.

On power and its use; late Adeeyo told an impressive gathering in August, 2007 in Sheraton Hotel, Abuja at the occasion of the valedictory ceremony for a retired Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Salihu Modibo Alfa Belgore, that power should be dignifiedly applied. Again I quote him: “True men of power do not pace the earth wildly nor trudge any path clumsily. So deep and mysterious is the nature of power, that we may never grasp its staggering complexity. Real men of power, never yield to blind arrogance and delusional self-importance. And they always recognize; that the source of their capricious influence, can only be ratified by God’s mercy”. An orator of the finest order. These are literature pamphlets for every library. His intellectual jobs should be well preserved for generation yet unborn.

Dr Adeeyo made the Almighty God his pillar of strength. He maintained a weekly strip column (Barka Jumat) in the Vanguard newspaper for so many years, from which he served spiritual diet to the Muslim Ummahs. That column was availed numerous people including non-muslims with its sharing on the What’s app. Human race, would say of you, Dr. Adeeyo, that you mastered your moment. You were an invaluable asset to national growth, as evidenced in your article on statecraft, titled: BUHARI AND GAMBARI SIGNPOST A NEW DIRECTION, which was widely published in many national newspapers on October 1, 2020 to commemorate the 60th Independence anniversary of our great nation. Another selfless service from a man of nobility, that Dr Adeeyo was. A brain-box on any issue  under the sun. A rare gift to humanity. Our own Barrack Obama. Dr. Adeeyo, your life achieved a glorious accomplishment that assembled all the goodness of your life into a feast of triumph and happiness that is immersed in God’s boundless powers of love for all that came your way.

Wishing you eternal blissful eternal life in Aljanat Fridaus.

• Olumide Lawal, wrote from Ede State of Osun.