For the records: Tribute to Chief Olatunde Ayinla Abudu

By Olusegun Obasanjo

I do appreciate the immense pain that the unfortunate death of my dear Egbon and confidant of so many years, Chief Olatunde Ayinla Abudu, has caused his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and the entire members of Abudu family who must be grieving at the demise of their beloved patriarch and this great and illustrious son of Africa.

I am privileged to be among those who knew Chief Abudu very closely and intimately. I worked with him more than once and enjoyed the privilege of his deep insight, focus, commitment, good judgement, and tenacity. As a younger brother, I also drank from the fountain of his knowledge and benefitted immensely from his good judgement, goodwill and undying love, which he had in abundant quality and quantity for fellowmen and humanity. We were co-travellers and collaborators on many community projects, national assignments and continental initiatives and I can attest to the fact that you can take his words to the bank. Come shine or rain, Chief Abudu will journey and soldier with you, no matter whose ox is gored. Once he’s committed to a cause, there is no going back.

My Egbon, Chief Abudu, deliberately wrote Abeokuta into the global encyclopaedia of the industrial world. After waltzing through the drudgery of early life in Abeokuta, he pursued the proverbial Golden Fleece and returned in flying colours to the life of a Solicitor and Advocate and making good fortune in legal practice. Soon after, Abeokuta became a sedentary State capital and there was a clarion call to well-meaning and well-to-do Egba sons and daughters, by the immediate past Alake of Egbaland, Oba Oyebade Lipede, to return home for the challenges of modernising the ancient city. For all he was privileged to achieve, Chief Abudu could have restricted himself to playing big at the global stage which his stature eminently fits, but he would rather deploy the weight to where providence spurs him, without forgetting his own Egba people. Metoxide Limited – an aluminium, plastics, kitchen and toilet hardware factory – promoted by Chief Abudu was sited on the city’s outskirts. The company pioneered the efforts at transforming Abeokuta into a burgeoning industrial city. He pulled other Egba aristocrats to join him in investing their wealth in Abeokuta and today’s sprawling agro-allied factories, fruit-canning plants, sawmills, aluminium-products factories, breweries and plastics, educational institutions, granite quarries are direct consequences of his foresight, sagacity and never-say-die spirit.

His traditional title of Maiyegun (one who makes life worthwhile) of Egbaland is an acknowledgement and cognomen to him by his appreciative kinsmen and women to this man widely described as a doyen whose hard work and selfless service to the people made him the most generous person in the ancient kingdom and beyond.

I collaborated with Chief Abudu on many fronts. We shared the same dream about the welfare, peace and prosperity in Egbaland, Ogun state and Nigeria. We were even on the same page talking about issues of sustainable development. The inspiring qualities of Chief Abudu brought us together for the realization of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) project. He was an inner member of the Library’s Board of Trustees. There was no single soul connected to him that did not benefit from his goodwill, kind gestures and wealth, either directly or indirectly, far and near, Egba sons and daughters and non-Nigerians alike.

This brings me to his scrupulous adherence to Islam and its injunctions. He was a faithful Muslim.  He built and contributed to building several mosques, including the Baytus Salam inside the OOPL. He was involved with numberless Islamic centres and charities, building of Arabic and Koranic Academies and propagation duties like Quranic Recitation competitions for children and youths. Nevertheless, he was an epitome of mutual consanguinity and respect for the nation’s secular and multi-religious setting. He managed this diversity to the chagrin of those who despise mutual co-existence and mix religiosity with Godliness.

His commitment to re-engineering moral rectitude through formal and Western education can also not be over-emphasised. He established Nobel House College here in Abeokuta after 26 years of introspection. His primary concern was not profit-making. He told a few of us about “standards of excellence equitable to the best in the world” and return of the virtues of hard work, discipline, moral values and patriotism as the driving force for the ICT- focused school. Also being concerned about the future, his catch-them-young annual Chief Olatunde Abudu Primary Schools Essay Competition (COAPSEC) continues to win plaudits as a platform for teenagers’ creative thinking and dialogue.

I, like many of his associates and family members, am lucky to be associated with him and looking back, we all can only take solace in the fact that he lived a life of notable achievements and triumphs in his earthly sojourn. God has made him a great source of blessing and inspiration for his family, his peers, his community, his region, his nation and his world.

As we mourn this great man, an achiever and a patriot of our time, kindly accept our profound sympathies and love.  May Allah continue to protect and bless the entire family he left behind and may He also grant his soul Aljannah Firdaus.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is Nigeria’s former President and Egba High Chief. He writes this piece from his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital.

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