Sitting beside Mr. Dipo Fagabamila in the staff bus was always a gladsome experience as we were sure to have a discussion along our lines of mutual interest which include music, the army and current affairs.
But as we linked the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on our way from work that day, the topic was different. “I have this mail from the Pro-Chancellor, Professor Ibidapo-Obe and it is addressed to Dr. Omololu Olunloyo. How can I reach him?” he asked. “Let me call Aunty Ronke”, I replied. “And who is that?” he asked again. So I explained that because of her sisterly disposition from my days as a Correspondent in City People, almost everybody in the office referred to Dr. Olunloyo’s wife, Chief (Mrs.) Ronke Olunloyo as “Aunty Ronke”.
After the pleasantries over the phone, I explained the situation and she said, “Well, Doctor is here. You can come now”. So I volunteered to deliver the envelope on Mr. Fagbamila’s behalf. It was already getting dark so I thought of maximizing time. As I handed her the envelope, she announced my arrival as she told her husband the parcel was from “Broda Oye”. I could hear Dr. Olunloyo asking “which of the Adejumos” and she said it was the one who worked with City People but had moved to the newly established university. She later told me a Doctor was attending to him, so I could wait to see him.
When I had waited a while, I took my leave and on my way home, I reflected on the frailty of life and its ephemerality. The once energetic Victor Omololu Olunloyo was being attended to by a physician! Of course he was already in his eighties and had been rumoured dead about thrice. Memories of the many tales about him started coming back to mind. Personally, I would say Dr Olunloyo’s reputation precedes him. My mum once told a story of how Olunloyo as a Commissioner in his 20s saw a schoolboy roaming the streets when studies were supposed to be ongoing. On sighting him, the boy reportedly ran and the youthful commissioner gave chase. The boy scaled a window but that was not enough to deter Dr. Olunloyo who jumped after him and continued the pursuit.
I could remember thinking about that event when we accompanied him to Idanre where the Owa, who was then celebrating the 30th anniversary of his coronation honoured Dr. Olunloyo. The monarch recognized his role as the then Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters in his ascension.
My cousin, Chief Adegboyega Adejumo who doubles as Mogaji of the Ikolaba Idiagbon Family of Agbeni where I come from, had also told me of how Dr. Olunloyo visited their house decades ago on his return from Cuba. What was strange was that he came with a gift for his dad, Reverend M.O Adejumo my Uncle, and the gift happened to be a box of Cuban cigars. The story had it that “Baba Alufaa” as we fondly called my uncle protested that “Mololu, ki ree? (Mololu, what is this?). His conclusion that the gift had been brought to the wrong place elicited explanation from Dr Olunloyo that the cigars were personally given to him by Fidel Castro, the legendary Cuban leader.
I didn’t realize the reason behind the move until the former Governor passed. Mogaji confirmed that he and his elder brothers gathered and asked their dad why he, a Reverend gentleman accepted cigars as gifts. That was when he told them that they, in their youthfulness could not understand that Olunloyo in his analytical mind knew that the only way to preserve the gift as a memento of his meeting with Castro was to put them in a safe place. Of course, giving them to a Reverend who would neither light nor smoke them was the surest kind of preservation.
His life was obviously an odyssey of achievements which climaxed in style with his exit days before his 90th birthday. As a Commissioner, Dr. Olunloyo oversaw the coronation of Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, the immediate past Alaafin of Oyo, who bestowed the Balogun title on him. It was iconic that he waited to see the ascension of Alaafin Owoade Elewu Etu before taking his exit.
Those who knew him well would attest to the fact that his love for mathematics was glowingly manifest in all he did. Not many people have ever bothered to find out how many times “Halleluyah” came up in George Frideric Handel’s Halleluyah Chorus/ Well, Dr. Olunloyo did!
Another time he amazed me was at the reception held in his famous Garden after his son, Ayo’s wedding. Being a photojournalist, Wale Adenuga, my colleague from City People started taking pictures of the celebrities around. He was about to take a group photograph when Dr. Olunloyo furtively left the arranged group. Attempts to get him to rejoin were almost unsuccessful. His response was, “the best pictures are spontaneous”. That statement has refused to leave me and over the years, I have realized that the spontaneity of taking pictures has produced some astonishing images for me. A scuffle with armed policemen who dispossessed me of my camera some years after, was enough a reminder to stick to that principle. Though the camera was eventually returned with apologies by the Public Relations Officer of the Command, I saw sense in Dr. Olunloyo’s brilliant postulation.
At the reception, he held one of his grandchildren and told some of the guests that the boy had a great love for mathematics. He said he arrived at that conclusion when he asked a question from his grandchildren and it was only the boy that got the answer right. As the older guests left, Doctor Olunloyo simply told the boy, “let us go and work mathematics”. Wale and I exchanged glances and our thoughts were in sync, who on earth works mathematics with a three-year-old boy?
And talk of family traits, brilliance is one thing the Olunloyos have been known for over the centuries. When the first missionaries started their school in Ibadan, they requested all Ibadan chiefs to send one child each. While some did not, Balogun Olunloyo sent two of his children, a boy and a girl who became part of the first Ibadan indigenes to receive Western education. The young boy happened to be the grandfather of Victor Olunloyo.
Lest I forget, I adopted that appellation after hearing Aunty Ronke addressing him as “Good Old Victor”. Though his taste for wine and music were evocative of age-long connoisseurship, one other thing distinguished him from most of the others in his category; his politics was devoid of bitterness. Absolutely loyal to whatever he stood for, he would say his mind not minding whose ox was gored. He once explained how his friend, Professor Ogunmola told him that the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was looking for him. He confirmed that he went to Awo’s Oke Bola residence in Ibadan, took a bottle of Guiness Stout and when the sage asked him to join his party, he declined. He said he told Baba Awolowo that he wouldn’t win an election in Nigeria because only liars could do so.
He remarked that he once asked Chief Bola Ige whether Nigeria was worth dying for. He went further that Ige in his response was not sure if Nigeria was worth dying for but he was sure the country was worth living for. He had also stated in an interview that Chief Ige should not have contested the 1983 governorship election as he pointed out that Chief S.M Afolabi should have been the candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria (U.P.N).
That is one reason Dr. Kemi Olunloyo never surprises me. The unprecedented Olunloyo bluntness has become her epithet over the years. I had followed her on social media for some time before eventually meeting her at the memorial we organized for Bola Davies, who was my Bureau Chief at City People. Following a disappointment by the young man who was supposed to anchor the programme, members of the organizing committee unanimously decided that I should take over as the anchor. The responsibility however came with a strict warning, “on no account should Kemi Olunloyo be allowed to have the microphone” and the reason was because “no one is sure of what she would say”.
After the event, I met her and she quipped, “you did a good job of anchoring the event, by the way, my name is Kemi Olunloyo, what’s your name?” My answer was followed by another question, “are you related to Gboyega Adejumo?” That led to a lengthy conversation that went on till the driver came to pick her.
Aunty Kemi’s decision not to attend her dad’s burial is hers and I respect that. But in my opinion, life is an equation, death is a common denominator and the differential is that there is an appointed time for each person. And as long as I remember that Good Old Victor is a man whose encyclopaedic knowledge would be sorely missed, I think he deserves every honour done in his memory.
- Wole Adejumo sent this piece from Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State
