Alao-Akala: Gone But Forever Etched In My Heart..
Here lies a man described by many as a liberal politician and an apostle of politics without bitterness.
This explains why he was able to mingle freely with many of those people who worked tirelessly and succeeded in truncating his second term ambition…he was even the chief promoter of one of them as the probable candidate of his last political party before his sudden demise.
He was also described as the best governor Oyo State has ever produced, in terms of human relations…his friendship cuts across the political divides.
A friend, who is an influential and very successful Ibadan indigene, told me recently that he was the governor that made the people of the state to know that, indeed, there is money in the state.
“He is one of the best governors we ever had in this state. Unlike many others before him, he made us to realise that, indeed, there is a large deposit of money in this state, in terms of IGR.
“Honestly, the man did us no wrong. It was the arrogant pride in us that he is not from Ibadan that made us to go against his second term bid. But God is a rewarder of every human action. We regretted and still regret what we did to the good man,” my friend said.
The confession of this my friend is a confirmation of what the former governor said, before and after he lost the election in 2011 that his only sin was his accident of birth; his not been an Ibadan indigene.
Looking at his lifeless body in the casket, a thought surged through me…
Here lies a man with a very huge frame…
Here lies a man who was once a lively human…a man full of very contagious laughter…
Here lies a man who, until January 12, 2022, was traversing the landscape, within and beyond Oyo State…positively touching the lives of whoever comes his way…
Here was a man in whose palm, largely, was the fate and destiny of many actors in his last political party while here on earth.
Here lies a man who demystified and simplified governance and spread development across the nooks and crannies of the Pacesetter State…
Here lies a man whose deep pocket was quite as large as his large frame…people are still attesting to his large-heartedness, even after his passage to the great beyond.
Your Excellency, Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala, you are human and you are not infallible. But you did your best for humanity. Ariselarika.
Indeed, erin ti wo, ajanaku nla ti lo ni iju.
You have gone, but your image and memories of your good deeds and kind-heartedness will remain forever etched in my heart.
Buoda Bayo, may you find rest as you trudge on in your journey to the Land of the Spirits.
Adieu, O Digba, O Digbere, Tiger.
