Those who say that a picture speaks a thousand words are not wrong. This picture, taken at Carleton University a week ago, exemplifies that. All of us in this picture are linked by an unbreakable chord – ties with our brother, friend, and fellow compatriot, the late Professor Oota Adebola Pius Adesanmi, who raced through this planet in 47 incredibly impactful years like a luminous comet.
Our lives were jolted like a bolt of thunder on March 10, 2019, with the news that Pius, an outstanding academic, social critic, and erudite head of the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, was on the ill-fated plane that crashed in Ethiopia.
As often happens when tragedy strikes, family, friends, and associates expressed their condolences, and we all moved on. It is not callousness; it is just life. When death occurs, all we are allowed to do is mourn for a while and leave the impacted and the most affected to pick up the pieces.
One of the few humans whose life Prof Adesanmi touched is Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, called BAO by her close friends and Yeye Oba by the rest of the world. BAO and Adesanmi shared an incredibly tight bond that, in the hearts of people of little minds, might look deeper than the ordinary. There are those whose minds are warped enough to believe that there could not be a platonic friendship between a happily married woman intellectual and her equally married counterpart. We live them to their fertile imagination and corrupt minds; truth is as constant and veritable as the sun rising from the east anywhere. In life, there is no pillow as soft as a clear conscience.
When tears had dried from many eyes, and the love of many had been tested, leaving Prof Adesanmi’s aged mother, his two beautiful daughters, Oluwadamilare and Oluwatishe, from his two marriages, to pick up the pieces, one human who stood like a rock behind the family was Lady BAO.
From her personal resources and without prompting, Mrs. Olateju hired a lawyer in America to pursue and ensure that every entitlement is received from the airline whose negligence took our son, brother, and friend away. Those who know what it means to hire attorneys in the USA should let the financial cost of that sink in for someone who stood to gain – NOTHING! Nothing except loyalty to friendship and the preservation of the bond that exists between two individuals who sometimes meet and become closer than people with whom they share a blood bond.
Through her influence, former Ekiti State First Lady, Mrs. Fayemi, adopted Mama Lois Adesanmi as a mother, putting her on a stipend well beyond her stay as first lady. The unflinching effort of Yeye Oba has resulted in the development of the only plot of land that Pius inherited from his late father, a land he had wanted to transform into a writers’ resort. By Mrs Olateju’s single resolve, that land will now eternally stand as a legacy in Isanlu, Kogi State, Prof Adesanmi’s hometown.
Definitely, every human needs a BAO. Because it takes adversity to determine who stands by you through thick and thin. There are friends who do not have the patience to stand by their friends when things go south; Mrs. Olateju is the practical epitome of a real friend in need. The Adesanmi family owes her a depth of gratitude for all she has done for the preservation of the legacy of their son beyond the razzmatazz of his funeral, which became a global event the like of which has not been seen since.
It is true that during last week’s session at Carleton, a disgruntled individual attempted to rake up old wounds with their insensate petition trying to stop her from giving her keynote. It was the latest attempt at minimizing every effort to keep Pius Adesanmi’s legacy alive, and it failed woefully.
It was a unique pleasure to finally see Yeye Oba. With Pius, we both share the same better by far #Unilorin. The excellence that glued Pius and Yeye Oba shone brightly when she mounted the rostrum and delivered a keynote that still resonates beyond the walls of that institution. She delivered it the way her late friend would have been most proud to see her do, right on the same campus, invited by the same department he headed. Beyond the keynote, she followed the other events in halls and rooms where the picture of Prof Adesanmi stood like an eternal witness.
Pius Adesanmi is more than the husband of his surviving wife and father of his two brilliant children; he is now a global property, an icon whose influence still crosses rivers and climes. He has been gone for seven years; in the hearts of those who truly love and value him, he is alive! And in the intellectual circle where he remained a towering colossus (pun intended), his memory will never die.
We are waiting for Oluwadamilare and Oluwatishe to someday mount the intellectual rostrum and deliver with the same vigour and intellect that brought him close to Yeye Oba. When that happens, I pray that all the people in this picture, great Unilorites, except for our brother Bayo Emm, will be there smiling, egging them on with pride in our hearts. Because, our elders say Àjànàkú ò ní bí ọmọ tiẹ̀ kó ya aràra, ọmọ tí ẹkùn bá bí, ẹkún ní ó jọ.
This is a formal letter of appreciation to Yeye Oba on behalf of the Adesanmis and all their friends across ponds. Thank you, thank you, and as the Yoruba would say – a ò ní fi irú ẹ san fúnra wa. Àjọṣe wa kò ní bàjẹ́ .