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Farewell Tribute Delivered by His Excellency, Governor of Oyo State, Sen. Abiola Ajimobi, at a Special Session of the Oyo State House of Assembly in Honour of ALHAJI LAMIDI ADESINA, November 16, 2012
1. On January 20 this year, I led the entire members of the Oyo State Executive Council on a birthday goodwill visit to the residence of Alhaji Lamidi Onaolapo Adesina (a.k.a. Great Lam) on his 72nd birthday.
2. It was an elated Great Lam that pronounced that with that singular honour, he had lived a fulfilled life and was ready for the final home call by Allah.
3. How prophetic he has turned! When I went to Lagos last weekend to pay yet another visit to my leader, it was without any inkling that he was about to complete his earthly mission.
4. I had visited him few days earlier and we had hour-long discussions. He was mentally alert. He was abreast of national and international current affairs, including the position of his favourite clubs in league tables.
5. He was full of ideas especially on how to make Oyo State and the South West safe havens for the progressives in Nigeria. It was inconceivable that one week down the line, I would be partaking in a special commendation service in honour of our leader.
6. My memories of the Great Lam are memories of an uncle, a teacher, a mentor, a political leader, a columnist and social crusader, an administrator and a man with the fear of Allah.
7. I begin with the last. The image of the Great Lam evergreen in my heart is that of the man who was at peace with his God in his last days. For about two years now, Alhaji Lamidi Adesina had devoted the most of his time to prayers and supplications to Allah. His thoughts had become more like those of clerics. Such earthly things as anger had become alien to him. At every instance, his conversations ended with expression of total submission to the will and dictates of Allah.
8. I met him for the first time in 1965 as my teacher in Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan. Fresh from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he had just bagged a Bachelor Degree, he was the favourite of students. Very often when he realized that his affinity to students was becoming an albatross, he would say “Don’t take my simplicity for foolishness….” He was bright and eloquent. I owe my little command of English Language to his tutelage. His mastery of Shakespeare’s quotations were legendary and he was never tired of drawing our attention to the life lessons in every single line in the Shakespeare’s plays. We cannot thank him enough for his impact on our lives.
9. It was indeed in the process of the acknowledgement of the impact of the teacher, Mr. Lam Adesina, in my vocabulary by my father learnt about him and recalled that Mr. Adesina was indeed my uncle. The combination of his roles as teacher and uncle to me endured until his last days, long after our days together at Lagelu Grammar School.
10. When I returned from the United States of America in the 1970’s, I was re-connected to the Great Lam on the pages of the Nigerian Tribune where he wrote a weekly column entitled “The Struggle Continues…” Lam had grown to become a renowned advocate of justice and democracy. He was courageous and daring. Every time I feared for his safety because of his writings, I always recalled one of his favourite quotations from one of Shakespeare’s books, Julius Caesar, “Cowards die many times before their deaths;” The valiant never taste of death but once”.
11. It was therefore not surprising that when the downside of politics of the First Republic scared away many professionals from party politics at the advent of the second Republic, Lam Adesina gallantly fought his way into the House of Representatives in Lagos. He was a parliamentarian’s delight, enriching legislative debates with socialist candour and his insistence on equality of men and the duty of the Nigerian State to its teeming population.
12. Lam returned to advocacy for the rights of Nigerians and early return to democracy when the soldiers sent politicians packing in 1983.
13. It was the fight of his life and it was not surprising when in 1998, he was “captured” as a prisoner of war by the military government.
14. But like Joseph who was catapulted from prison to the throne, the “capture” was the platform on which he rode to become the Governor of Oyo State a year later.
15. The Great Lam joined the tribe of progressive governors of Oyo State, contributing his quota to the building blocks on which the incumbent government of Oyo State is building. His footprints are evident in the landscape of Oyo State particularly in the area of education which was very dear to him and his administration.
16. By stepping into the shoes of governor, he also became the leader of progressives in Oyo State. He was a party builder. A Community leader;a leader of men.
17. Words cannot describe our loss on the passage of Alhaji Lamidi Onaolapo Adesina. But we take solace in the knowledge that he lived a fulfilled life. He lived for his people and his memory shall remain evergreen in our hearts.
18. During our birthday goodwill visit to Alhaji Lamidi Adesina, he said by our historic visit, he had become convinced that he would receive a befitting burial on his death. Again, he could not be more prophetic.
19. For us, we cannot afford to let him down. He was our leader on whose shoulder, Allah chose to put us in the current position. He was a former Governor who had given all he had in the service of the people. He was the friend of the masses to whom government has a duty to demonstrate appreciation of his service. We cannot do but celebrate a hero of our time. The outpouring of emotions of the last one week has demonstrated our grief. Indeed, as Shakespeare’s said, “when beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes”.
20. In the words of Mark Anthony at the funeral of Immortal Julius Caesar, there – inside an ordinary vault of sand and mud in Felele, Ibadan, lies the body of Great Lamidi Adesina. Inside that vault lies an avatar, the likes of whom they say come to this world sparingly. Inside the vault lies a great leader of men, a friend of the masses and the quintessential builder of leaders.
21. We mourn our great leader. The people and government of Oyo State mourn a great lover of the common man. We wish thee well….
22. Adieu, the Great Lam.
