A veteran journalist and co-founder of the famous Newswatch Magazine, Dan Agbese is dead. Family sources said he died in Lagos State today, November 17, aged 81. Other co-founders of the now rested Newspaper magazine were Dele Giwa, who was killed by a parcel bomb in 1986; Ray Ekpu and Mohammed. He was until April 2010 the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine. Dan Agbese held degrees in mass communications and journalism from the University of Lagos and Columbia University, New York, respectively. He also served as editor of The Nigeria Standard in Jos, Plateau State, the New Nigerian in Kaduna as well as General Manager of Radio Benue. He was the author of several acclaimed books, including Nigeria their Nigeria, Fellow Nigerians, The Reporter’s Companion, Style: A Guide to Good Writing and The Columnist’s Companion: The Art and Craft of Column Writing. Agbese was also a highly regarded newspaper columnist.
Alhaji Adubi was his popular name. Many of us fondly called him so. Ohueta and Ihima are hard-hit by his demise. So are Ebira-land and Kogi State as a whole. He lived a cheerful, impactful and exemplary life. Why then should his death not shock those who knew and or closely interacted with him? I am one of them. My consolation is that his actions, trade, and character are impressive legacies for our youths in particular, and our adults as well, to emulate. During his youthful days, uncle Adubi chose tailoring as an occupation or trade. He was committed to it diligently. He later took this trade to a higher level by dissipating energy to travel out of Ihima (his native home) to learn embroidery – a fashion design that was not in supply in Kogi Central at that time. His enterprising demeanour and innovative mind brought him into limelight in Ebira-land. He became very popular by his trade. It is heart-warming that most of our youths are doing well in their studies and other endeavours today, but Alh. Adubi has thought the vulnerable ones that no trade is small; it is what you make of it. What matters most is the seriousness and/or innovation you bring to it. By having a sure and lucrative trade or occupation, our vulnerable youths could shun political thuggery, cybercrimes and other social vices and triumph. Alh. Adubi has given a good example. Alh. Adubi was a progressive man who put high premium on the education of his children. He obviously made some sacrifice and wise investment in this regard, and these have paid off today. By God’s grace, he has produced a University Professor, a Mass Media guru, and a top-level Nursing Officer, among others. We give glory to God that these children gave him comfort and good welfare before he departed. Ohueta adults have something to learn from this, the youths too should note the successful children under reference above also put in hard-work, self-development and commitment. Through Alh. Adubi, Ohueta has produced her first Professor. What is more, Ohueta has now joined the special club of professors in top-most tertiary institutions that prepare the academic excellence of the country’s future leaders. May Ohueta produce more professors, for us, Amen. It is however sad to disclose that I had personal experience of some close youths who were given academic admission opportunities but declined them with a ridiculous excuse that their brains would not be able to cope. Please some of our youths should shun laziness or slothfulness, and be enthusiastic to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is not only power, it is also wealth. Uncle Adubi was an Ambassador of peace. Aside from what he did for others in this regard in Ohueta and Ihima, I too personally benefited from his peace mission twice. First, when serving as Permanent Secretary, Kwara State Liaison Office, Lagos in the early 1980s I used, through the grace of God, my friendship tie with Hon. Salami Robin of blessed memory, to secure elevation/appointment of Local Government Education Secretary for our able Chief I.A. Jegede (now His Highness). The appointment attracted, inter alia, allocation of Official Car and driver, and Chief Jegede was well qualified for the post. There were additional two or more of the same position that were still vacant at that time. Hon Salami Robin from Okene was then the Chairman of Kwara State Education Board, Ilorin. But the late Dr. John Lawani who was then the Hon Commissioner of Health, Kwara State, felt that he was the political head of Ihima and that I did not clear the appointment with him. He therefore used his closeness to the State Governor, Alhaji Adamu Atta of blessed memory to halt Chief Jegede’s appointment. The crisis that arose made Alh. Adubi and the late Alh. Siaka Yakubu to take the trouble of going to the Ministry of Health in Ilorin for a peace meeting with the aggrieved Commissioner. I too had to abandon my liaison functions in Lagos to meet them in Ilorin for the scheduled amicable settlement. Alh. Adubi was a vocal, diplomatic, sincere, and patient personality – the rare ingredients required in peace – making. Secondly, when I was in the National Population Commission, there was an unfortunate political difference between me and our brother, His Excellency, Dr (Barr.) Philip O. Salawu, the then Deputy Governor of Kogi State. As some people were enjoying the dispute, others were even fuelling it. Only Alh. Adubi and Pastor Manjoe Suleiman that consistently worked assiduously to end the rift. Both of them had to travel to Lokoja to meet the two of us involved, and finally settled the dispute. My joy therefore is that the word of God in Matthew 5:9 says: “Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the sons of God” I therefore fervently pray the gracious Lord to let the deceased be one of His sons that will make heaven in Jesus holy Names, Amen. Also, may the good Lord bountifully reward Pastor Joseph Suleiman (Manjoe) for his ever-impressive exploits in both the vineyard and the community, Amen. There is truism in the wise saying by Henry W. Longfellow, an American poet, who stated that: “Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Foot-prints on the sands of time” Truly, Uncle Adubi has departed. But as revealed in the foregoing write-up, he has left behind worthy virtues such as hard-work, innovative spirit, sincerity, progressive ideals, the spirit of peace mission, etc. These are commendable legacies that should be emulated by those of us that are still alive. At this juncture, I fervently pray God Almighty to grant His Royal Highness, the Obobayin of Ohueta; the wives and children of the deceased; and all other sons and daughters of Ohueta (including my humble-self); and other relations/associates of the deceased, the fortitude to bear the heavy loss, Amen. In conclusion, I say to Uncle Adubi: Adieu, Adieu, Adieu!
Lere Olayinka, a media aide to Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory has given a graphic details of what actually happened in the alleged assassination attempt on the life of Navy Lieutenant A. M Yerima yesterday, November 16. In a post he made on X, Olayinka claimed that Yerima “made up” the story of an assassination attempt on his life at a Police checkpoint in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, but that it’s not true. According to him, the naval officer was driving around town with a tinted and ‘unplated vehicle’ and that when he was stopped at a police checkpoint and asked to wind down his car window and identify himself he refused. Olayinka wrote: “You were driving a car without a plate number. The car was tinted. At the Police Checkpoint, you were stopped. You were asked to wind down, you refused. “After you eventually wind down, you were asked to identify yourself, you refused. Instead, you were calling other Naval Officers while insulting the Policemen on official duty. The Policemen didn’t allow you to go until your colleagues came and identified you. You left and sold the story of escaping assassination. “So the Policemen who kept you waiting until your colleagues came to identify you were the ones who wanted to assassinate you? “Or was it part of an order for you to use an unregistered car and refuse to identify yourself when asked to do so by the Police?” Olayinka queried. He said that Yerima’s action was out of place in his meeting with the police, possibly due to the recent validation he has been getting from social media users over his encounter with the minister. Olayinka accused Yerima of taking advantage of the recent social media hypes. The social media was awashed last night of assassination attemp on Lt Yerima which he escaped from. This is barely one week after Yerima was involved in a heated verbal altercation with the FCT minister, Nyeson Wike over a piece of land belonging to a former Chief of Naval Staff, Zubairu Gambo in the Gaduwa area of Abuja. Yerima, who led a team of military officers had in the past week, prevented the Minister and officials of the FCT Administration from gaining access to the property.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has finally expelled the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose and the party’s former National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu.
Their expulsion was announced during the ongoing PDP convention at the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, Ibadan, Oyo State capital. Former National Vice Chairman of the PDP (South), Olabode George, moved the motion for the immediate expulsion of the three high-profile members. George, one of the party’s oldest power brokers, insisted that the party must restore discipline and unity in its ranks. The motion was promptly seconded by the Chairman of the PDP in Bauchi State, Samaila Buga, and the convention promptly adopted the motion.
Top commander of the Ansaru terrorist group in Nigeria, Abdulazeez Obadaki, alias Bomboy, has been captured by the Department of State Services (DSS) three years after he escaped from detention. Obadaki is believed to be the mastermind of the August 7, 2012 attack on a Deeper Life Bible Church near Okene, Kogi State. The attack carried out by three gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles during a night worship service, left at least 19 worshippers, including the presiding pastor dead, with many others severely injured. The attack drew nationwide outrage and was widely condemned as one of the most heinous acts of terror in the region. Security sources confirmed that Obadaki not only coordinated the 2012 church massacre but also played a central role in the February 2022 coordinated bank robberies in Uromi, Edo State. The robberies claimed the lives of several police officers and civilians and resulted in the theft of hundreds of millions of naira. Obadaki was earlier captured by the security operatives but escaped from lawful custody during the July 2022 attack on the Kuje Custodial Centre. He is now said to have confessed to masterminding the jailbreak after his transfer from the Kabba Custodial Centre in June 2022. After more than three years on the run, DSS operatives tracked and recaptured the fugitive early morning yesterday, December 14, in what officials described as a “meticulously coordinated, intelligence-led operation.” His re-arrest came two months after the Service arraigned five suspects implicated in the 2022 attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has scrapped the national policy mandating the use of indigenous languages as the medium of instruction in Nigerian schools. The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, who made this known at the 2025 Language in Education International Conference, organised by the British Council in Abuja, said that the cancellation was approved at the 69th meeting of the National Council on Education, held in Akure, Ondo State, from November 3 to 7. The policy, approved in 2022 as the National Language Policy, stipulated that children from Early Childhood Education to Primary Six should be taught in their mother tongue or the language of the immediate community. But the minister regretted: “We have seen a mass failure rate in WAEC, NECO, and JAMB in certain geo-political zones of the country, and those are the ones that adopted the mother tongue in an oversubscribed manner. “This is about evidence-based governance. English now stands as the medium of instruction from pre-primary, primary, junior secondary, senior secondary, and tertiary education. “Using the mother tongue language in Nigeria for the past 15 years has literally destroyed education in certain regions. We have to talk about evidence, not emotions.” Over the years, there have been calls for Nigeria to adopt the use of indigenous languages as a method of teaching in schools, claiming it will make students understand better. In countries like China and Russia, indigenous languages are often used to teach students.
Governor Ademola Adeleke has presented a 2026 Osun State budget of the sum of ₦705 Billion to the state House of Assembly for consideration and approval. The budget, tagged: “budget of economic transformation,” has 55 percent as capital expenditure and 45 percent as recurrent expenditure. The Governor confirmed that his government has attained a remarkable milestone in the implementation of the 2025 Budget, and that the 2026 budget is built on the achievements of the last three years of his being in charge. Giving a breakdown of the budget, Adeleke said that the total revenue is made up of Recurrent Revenue, where Government Share of FAAC is ₦221,680,000,000 and Independent Revenue is ( ₦199,573,229,320. “Th other receipts are Two Hundred and Sixty-Eight Billion, Three Hundred and Forty-Eight Million, Five Hundred and Eighteen Thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty Naira (₦268,348,518,860.00). “The Expenditure comprises of Recurrent Expenditure of Three Hundred and Seventeen Billion, Four Hundred and Fourteen Million, Three Hundred and Fifty-Three Thousand, Three Hundred and Fifty Naira (₦317,414,353,350.00), which is 45% of the total budget. “Recurrent Expenditure is divided into Personnel Cost of ₦135,005,722,430.00. and Overhead Cost of ₦182,408,630,920.00 made up of Salaries and Allowances as well as Pensions and Gratuities. The Capital Expenditure has the total sum of ₦388,379,695,320.00, which is 55% of the total budget. “The 2026 Budget Proposal is prepared on the projection of the 2026 – 2028 Medium – Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) as required by the Osun State Fiscal Responsibility Law 2012.” The governor recalled that the State Infrastructure development of the state which has been on the decline before the inception of his Administration has changed for the better since he came on board, reinstating his commitment to development in every nook and cranny of the State. “With the Construction of over 300Km length of roads spread across the three senatorial districts, flyovers constructed to enhance smooth movement of vehicles and decongestion of bottleneck road junctions. By the grace of God, we have delivered over 75% of the road infrastructure embarked upon by this administration and we will not leave any project uncompleted. “It must be stated that our administration will continue to ensure prompt payment of full salaries and pensions to Osun workers and pensioners which we have been committed to since assuming office in the year 2022. “We had embarked on Imole Medical and surgical outreach to provide succor for people in the six (6) Federal Constituencies across the State between January and February this year, 2025, this is a continuation of what we started from December 2024. “We inaugurated Ten Thousand (10,000) Youth into Imole Youth Corps Scheme, to reduce the menace of unemployment, poverty and youth restiveness. The beneficiaries have since been deployed to various sectors such as Imole Environmental Corp, Imole Teachers Corps and Imole Medical Corps. “On our Secondary Health Care facilities, I am delighted to tell this Honourable House that Mrs Folorunso Alakija has handed over the Medical Research and Training Hospital, which she built, to Osun State. I want to sincerely appreciate the family for this good gesture. Moreover, the UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital has witnessed infrastructural renewal, digital innovation, and genuine commitment to staff welfare and patient care.” Earlier, the House Speaker, Adewale Egbedun had praised the governor for his transparency, prudence and accountability in the management of state finance and resources, assuring him of the support of the legislature for the executive arm in the running of the state. “The implementation of previous budgets, particularly the 2024 and 2025 plans, has produced measurable outcomes in infrastructure, education, healthcare, social inclusion, and workers’ welfare. These successes are evidence of a government determined to turn policy into tangible benefits for the people. “Your Excellency has displayed exceptional leadership, wisdom, and composure in navigating the State through challenging periods. The House notes with appreciation your restraint, diplomacy, and dedication to peace during the Local Government administration disputes, which, if mishandled, could have undermined stability. “Your approach, grounded in fairness, dialogue, and the rule of law, demonstrates statesmanship of the highest order. I would also like to highlight and commend your prudence in financial management, especially under the constraints arising from the withholding of Local Government allocations by the Federal Government since March 2025. “Despite these challenges, your administration has consistently met its obligations, maintained developmental projects, and safeguarded workers’ welfare – a testament to visionary and responsible leadership.” The Speaker said that the House would conduct careful legislative scrutiny to ensure that the budget reflects the hopes and aspirations of the people of Osun State. “Every allocation must serve the public interest and contribute meaningfully to sustainable development across all sectors”
I have read competing perspectives on the correctitude (or lack thereof) of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and Lt. A.M. Yerima’s conduct in the viral video of their gladiatorial rhetorical combat. My concern, however, is different. Several social media commentators, irrespective of partisan affiliations, appear united in proclaiming that Wike finally “met his match” in Yerima. Interestingly, the Wike-Yerima confrontation reminded me of a puzzlingly paradoxical but deeply philosophical aphorism we were fond of as student union activists in the 1990s. We used to say that when an unstoppable force (which Wike fancies himself as and which many people ascribe to him in light of his unfailingly boisterous, venomous-tongued cantankerousness that causes him to get whatever he wants all the time) meets an immovable object (which Yerima unwittingly became), something has to give. Yerima has emerged, without planning to, as the first person, at least publicly, to make it clear to Wike that although Wike has acquired well-earned notoriety as a vicious, perpetually drunk, psychotic pocket tyrant who railroads people into kowtowing to him through intimidation, boozy taunts, and primitive vituperative aggression, he is “not a fool” who yields to inebriated, power-drunk, geriatric bullies. Yerima’s repeated refrain of “I am not a fool, sir,” in response to Wike’s crude, unwarranted insults transcended a mere forceful retort. It communicated respectful but firm defiance to an insufferably self-important ministerial hoodlum. Many people almost heard Yerima as saying, “I am not Fubara, sir.” Fool and Fubara almost have the same phonetic beginnings. Of course, I know that this is taking an innocuous, unplanned resistance to pocket tyranny to a partisan terrain. But I am using Fubara here as the most recognized referent for disempowering spinelessness in the face of Wikean terrorization. And it helps that fool and Fubara share a curious, even if meaningless, initial pronunciational kinship, at least in demotic Nigerian English speech. My second thought is on the admirable unflappability, courage, and self-assuredness that Yerima evinced in his encounter with Wike. There are vast generational, symbolic, social, and even political asymmetries between the two. But Yerima was not the least perturbed. He stood his ground and caused Wike to beat a humiliating retreat. You don’t buy that kind of valor and self-confidence in the market. You unconsciously cultivate it from an impressionable age. It came as no surprise when it emerged that Yerima is the scion of an upper-crust military family. Yet, at least from the video clips I saw, Yerima didn’t come across as arrogant or as someone who has a chip on his shoulder. But he showed that he wasn’t a fainthearted pushover, ether. His father must have taught him a version of one of my favorite Malcolm Xian exhortations: “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.” Yerima was polite, cordial, and conciliatory, but when Wike metaphorically put his rude, lowbred, insult-stained hand on the young man, he sent Wike to the rhetorical cemetery. Malcolm X characterized that as teaching people not to “suffer peacefully.” My final thought on the confrontation is the almost involuntary predilection for gerontocratic egotism among older people in Nigeria when they have any dealings with younger people. I called this “reverse ageism” in an August 11, 2022, article I wrote titled “Reverse Ageism as a Tool to Gag Criticism in Nigeria.” I reproduce the last few paragraphs of the article below because they speak to Wike’s gerontocratic putdown of Yerima as a “small boy” who was in “primary school” when he graduated from the university. I wrote: “One of Nigeria’s enduringly lumbering cultural burdens is that it’s hopelessly trapped in regressive reverse ageism, i.e., the idea that only old age, not youth or knowledge, should confer authority on people. “Everyone who is older than the next person thinks his numerical age bestows some superiority on him over another. “Emotional and intellectual age are immaterial in this culture of reverse ageism, so that even emotionally and cognitively immature dimwits trapped in adults’ bodies think of themselves as superior to biologically younger but intellectually superior people because of the accidents of their years of birth. “But if you’re older than someone, someone is also older than you are, and the person you’re older than is also older than someone else. It’s an infinite continuum. “Only backward, lowbrow bumpkins are hung up on age and invoke it to delegitimize valid criticism that they can’t confront with the resources of logic and evidence. “Anyone who is over the age of 25 is a full-grown adult.” Everything I wrote in that three-year-old article applies to Wike. Yerima (incidentally, Yerima is the Kanuri word for “prince,” which most northern Nigerian ethnic groups, including people of northern Edo, now bear as a personal name) is infinitely more mature and certainly more dignified than Wike can ever be in a million lifetimes, in spite of his youth. So, who cares if Wike is older than Methuselah, especially because he behaves like a rambunctious toddler uneasily stuck in an adult’s body?
“I’m not one of those kinds of persons that will succumb to blackmail or intimidation. “It’s really unfortunate, and you heard what the officer said, that he was sent by the former Chief of Naval Staff. I don’t understand how somebody who attained that position and he sees that he has a problem, cannot approach my office to explain what is going on. Or simply because he’s a military man, he felt he could use that to intimidate Nigerians.” The minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, made the statement shortly after he encountered a bitter confrontation with military officers from the Nigerian Navy on a piece of land under development in Gaduwa District, along the corridor of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Way in the FCT. The land in dispute belongs to the former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo. Speaking to newsmen shortly after the tense standoff, Wike condemned the actions, describing them as an act of lawlessness on the part of the Nigerian military. The minister vowed that retired Vice Admiral Gambo would not be allowed to carry out what he called “this illegal development and land grabbing, simply because he was a former Chief of Naval Staff. I will not allow that.” He said that he had instructed his men to make sure that the construction is halted forthwith because the owner has no legal paper in terms of building approval or even acquisition of the land. The Minister questioned the use of military personnel to protect what he described as a clear case of illegal development and land grabbing and vowed that he will not allow such to continue. “You can imagine where you cannot even prove that you have the documents. You don’t have the title documents and you don’t have the approval for building. “How can we continue to allow lawlessness to prevail in this country? What about those who don’t have the military? What about those who don’t have security?” The Minister said that he has already engaged the Chief of Defence Staff and the Chief of Naval Staff, both of whom have assured him that they will intervene to resolve the matter.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyeson Wike rained insults on one of the soldiers drafted by high military authority to stop him from having access to a plot of land belong to the Military Chief. In bitter exchanges of words, the minister called the soldier in full military uniform a fool. “You are a full” the minister thundered, to which the soldier responded “I am not a fool.” Video clips of the confrontation between the minister and the military personnel has been trending in social media in the last two hours today, November 11. It is not clear where the plot of land is located, but Wike was overheard ordering the officer:“shut up, keep quiet, you are a fool. As at the time I graduated, you were still in primary school,” Wike raged. Referring to their boss who drafted them to the land, Wike raged on: “you send soldiers to intimidate who? We are all from this country. If not for the CDS who spoke to me now, you would have to kill everybody here,” but the soldier responded: “we are not going to kill anybody.” The minister went on: “I am not one of those that you can intimidate. Wike stressed that the land had no required documents, but the soldier said “the land has papers sir.” Reacting to the bitter contribution, Wike’s media aide, Lere Olayinka, in a post on his official Facebook page, said: “Because he was told to stop building on a land he has no title document and building approval, former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo, sent his armed military security details to attack men of the FCTA Department of Development Control. “He also stationed armed military men to protect the illegal development, with the military men threatening to shoot anyone who interfered with them. “Today, the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, visited the site after talking to the Chief of Defence Staff on the phone.”
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Positive Impact Of Alh Adubi On Ebira Community Before He Departed, By S. S. Lawal
Alhaji Adubi was his popular name. Many of us fondly called him so. Ohueta and Ihima are hard-hit by his demise. So are Ebira-land and Kogi State as a whole. He lived a cheerful, impactful and exemplary life.
Why then should his death not shock those who knew and or closely interacted with him? I am one of them. My consolation is that his actions, trade, and character are impressive legacies for our youths in particular, and our adults as well, to emulate.
During his youthful days, uncle Adubi chose tailoring as an occupation or trade. He was committed to it diligently. He later took this trade to a higher level by dissipating energy to travel out of Ihima (his native home) to learn embroidery – a fashion design that was not in supply in Kogi Central at that time. His enterprising demeanour and innovative mind brought him into limelight in Ebira-land. He became very popular by his trade.
It is heart-warming that most of our youths are doing well in their studies and other endeavours today, but Alh. Adubi has thought the vulnerable ones that no trade is small; it is what you make of it. What matters most is the seriousness and/or innovation you bring to it. By having a sure and lucrative trade or occupation, our vulnerable youths could shun political thuggery, cybercrimes and other social vices and triumph. Alh. Adubi has given a good example.
Alh. Adubi was a progressive man who put high premium on the education of his children. He obviously made some sacrifice and wise investment in this regard, and these have paid off today. By God’s grace, he has produced a University Professor, a Mass Media guru, and a top-level Nursing Officer, among others. We give glory to God that these children gave him comfort and good welfare before he departed.
Ohueta adults have something to learn from this, the youths too should note the successful children under reference above also put in hard-work, self-development and commitment. Through Alh. Adubi, Ohueta has produced her first Professor. What is more, Ohueta has now joined the special club of professors in top-most tertiary institutions that prepare the academic excellence of the country’s future leaders. May Ohueta produce more professors, for us, Amen.
It is however sad to disclose that I had personal experience of some close youths who were given academic admission opportunities but declined them with a ridiculous excuse that their brains would not be able to cope. Please some of our youths should shun laziness or slothfulness, and be enthusiastic to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is not only power, it is also wealth.
Uncle Adubi was an Ambassador of peace. Aside from what he did for others in this regard in Ohueta and Ihima, I too personally benefited from his peace mission twice.
First, when serving as Permanent Secretary, Kwara State Liaison Office, Lagos in the early 1980s I used, through the grace of God, my friendship tie with Hon. Salami Robin of blessed memory, to secure elevation/appointment of Local Government Education Secretary for our able Chief I.A. Jegede (now His Highness). The appointment attracted, inter alia, allocation of Official Car and driver, and Chief Jegede was well qualified for the post. There were additional two or more of the same position that were still vacant at that time. Hon Salami Robin from Okene was then the Chairman of Kwara State Education Board, Ilorin.
But the late Dr. John Lawani who was then the Hon Commissioner of Health, Kwara State, felt that he was the political head of Ihima and that I did not clear the appointment with him. He therefore used his closeness to the State Governor, Alhaji Adamu Atta of blessed memory to halt Chief Jegede’s appointment.
The crisis that arose made Alh. Adubi and the late Alh. Siaka Yakubu to take the trouble of going to the Ministry of Health in Ilorin for a peace meeting with the aggrieved Commissioner. I too had to abandon my liaison functions in Lagos to meet them in Ilorin for the scheduled amicable settlement. Alh. Adubi was a vocal, diplomatic, sincere, and patient personality – the rare ingredients required in peace – making.
Secondly, when I was in the National Population Commission, there was an unfortunate political difference between me and our brother, His Excellency, Dr (Barr.) Philip O. Salawu, the then Deputy Governor of Kogi State. As some people were enjoying the dispute, others were even fuelling it. Only Alh. Adubi and Pastor Manjoe Suleiman that consistently worked assiduously to end the rift.
Both of them had to travel to Lokoja to meet the two of us involved, and finally settled the dispute. My joy therefore is that the word of God in Matthew 5:9 says: “Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the sons of God” I therefore fervently pray the gracious Lord to let the deceased be one of His sons that will make heaven in Jesus holy Names, Amen. Also, may the good Lord bountifully reward Pastor Joseph Suleiman (Manjoe) for his ever-impressive exploits in both the vineyard and the community, Amen.
There is truism in the wise saying by Henry W. Longfellow, an American poet, who stated that:
“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Foot-prints on the sands of time”
Truly, Uncle Adubi has departed. But as revealed in the foregoing write-up, he has left behind worthy virtues such as hard-work, innovative spirit, sincerity, progressive ideals, the spirit of peace mission, etc. These are commendable legacies that should be emulated by those of us that are still alive.
At this juncture, I fervently pray God Almighty to grant His Royal Highness, the Obobayin of Ohueta; the wives and children of the deceased; and all other sons and daughters of Ohueta (including my humble-self); and other relations/associates of the deceased, the fortitude to bear the heavy loss, Amen.
In conclusion, I say to Uncle Adubi:
Adieu, Adieu, Adieu!