A mighty Iroko has fallen, the lion of Ikun Ekiti-Moba will not roar again!

BY ADEKUNLE ADEWALE AJIBOYE

“Remember the Son of whom you are!” This foundational Yoruba statement has echoed and reverberated from the first time I must have heard my father utter it to me while growing up. I remain guided with this and many more proverbs as I continue to reside in North America.

As I write this barely 24 hours after the physical remains of my father was committed to earth @ Agunfoye Lodge, I am struggling to grapple with the loss of a Father to all! Growing up, he repeatedly declared to my siblings and I that “Education” was all he had to bequeath us.” Dad-you gave me more, you modelled integrity, hard work, diligence, compassion, public service and biblical ethics.

Aside from the Grace and Favor of the Almighty on my life, the first-class education my father ensured I had continues to enable me lead and excel @ Aajimatics and other positions that I hold. Baba Ekiti as he was known by his colleagues in the 7th National Assembly was as strict and caring as they come.

He raised us with love and affection and a disdain for everything immoral and unethical. He assembled my siblings and I at the beginning of every new year and led us in a tradition laid by my Grandfather-Pa John Ajiboye.

We sang Olorun t’odun to koja among other songs and prayed. I inherited some cooking skills from Daddy who had to hone his cooking skills while studying in the UK in the mid-60s. The prayers my father showered on me on the eve of my departure for North America in the mid-90s are all fulfilled and manifested today and for the rest of my life.

Daddy had to buy me a new toy from UTC & Kingsway everyday he came home from work in the early 70s. He had to because I would disassemble each new toy every day which led him to say that I would be an Engineer! I am glad that he was alive when I was honored as one of the outstanding 150 Engineering Graduates of McMaster University.

My father was the single most important person in my life prior to my Queen and boys and leaves a gap that cannot be filled. He must have sung one of his favorite songs-On familo si ilemi- as he departed this earth to be with the saints and our ancestors. It remains an honor to be the first son of Robinson Gbadebo Ajiboye.