Ayo, this tribute is to honour you as a singular particular person and to your vital impression on folks’s lives throughout your time on earth. Although life dealt you its fair proportion of challenges, as it’s doing to all of us, you have been a hero since you labored and fought for the long run in order that individuals who come after us received’t must endure.

The yellow ball of the sky sits on the clouds, watching mortal affairs
Some say the solar has blessed their day when it shines
Others complain it’s too harsh
It retreats and goes residence into the skies after its job is finished.

The silvery pageant of the evening; a delicate glare on beings of the evening
The glow of the moon casts an illumination for the nightcrawlers
Some will say its mild shouldn’t be sufficient for his or her sight
After the evening shift, it disappears into the clouds.

Fiery crimson hearth
Cooks nice meals for one and all; even burns garbage
Some solely level to its capacity to burn, harm, and damage
When the job is finished, quietly, hearth leaves ashes in its wake.

Cool and easy-going water is the pal of all
Water has no enemy; a proverb that’s nearly a reality
As a result of some folks will inform you water is overzealous when it bubbles up
Water makes the subtlest of exits; it step by step decreases and leaves vacancy behind.

Everybody loves the flower although
They love the flower when it blooms and fills the air and nostrils with its fragrances
No one seems twice when it wilts and loses color
Weary and brown, the flower falls off to nourish the subsequent plant.

The earth is a sphere; life is a cycle
We go spherical and spherical on this circle
Some will say we did it effectively; others will say we did it badly
On the finish of the cycle, we exit,
We relaxation, and all the pieces rests…

Days in the past, I referred to you as a “dwelling legend” in an article devoted to you, not realizing I must discard the “dwelling” in a matter of days. Ayo, the person, the parable himself, your demise is nothing wanting a terrific loss to the group and the nation at massive. The eggheads you nurtured throughout your lifetime would go wherever you go, however now, this place you have got gone to is out of our attain. You might have left us behind within the mud.

You might have completed rather a lot for people and the nation. You illuminated humanity. Your accomplishments on earth’s floor can’t be forgotten. The admiration and accolades you obtained all through your lifetime will probably be shining examples for eons to return. Your information converse for you, and so they converse loud sufficient.

I’ve expressed my sorrow via writing on earlier events akin to this. But, the disappointment your loss of life brings additionally insistently asks: To whom will we flip for consolation and your sort of mind? Who, in your shut and prolonged social circles, will we belief for info and insights or the knowledge you have got bestowed upon your rapid group and society? I’m positive you’d have liked to remain longer and to do extra, however we are able to solely want and need; all destinies belong to Windfall. He determined that it was time so that you can relaxation.

You have been a loving husband and a doting father. You can’t be changed within the hearts of the household you have got left behind. Nobody can fill your footwear; even when they may, it could by no means really feel the identical. Your demise is a good loss to your folks, since you have been their pillar, their oasis within the desert. We pray the Lord upholds this household you nurtured and that His grace is ample for them in all issues.

There’s a profound sense of loss and grief when an in depth pal passes away, and although society discourages our gender from crying out in ache or despair, we, your folks, sob in our hearts silently and lose ourselves in soliloquy. The merry desk of buddies will characteristic an empty seat. You introduced life to the desk; whilst we made merry, we’d steal out of your cup of knowledge. We’ll miss you. You might have created a void that can not be stuffed. No newcomer can take your house amongst us. The vacancy of your seat resides in our souls perpetually.

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Males like you’re a rarity. There are only some of your variety in each technology. Now that you’re no extra, when subsequent would the world discover somebody such as you? It’s painful, however the reality stays that society suffers when your likes should not round to information its affairs. You have been a treasure, like valuable stones that present affluence. Shedding you is an enormous blow to Nigeria as a result of who can change you? Nobody.

I recognized you as an àgbà since you heralded many issues for Nigerian society. In a forthcoming guide, I devoted two chapters to you and the way you served because the voice of Nigeria via your weekly column. You issued warnings in several methods and created the required consciousness to make sure the nation’s progress. When the nation wanted a guard to warn and steer it again to the paths blazed by our historic heroes, my pal, Ayo, you served because the nation’s “Olutona”, sounding the alarm towards the nation’s fast descent into catastrophe and chaos. And when the nation’s improvement required a griot who wouldn’t solely recount historic occasions but in addition analyse the current and subject prognoses of the long run, you have been the “Olukoni”. You used tales from the previous to make the populace conscious of how historical past might both repeat itself positively or negatively.

You persistently put the nation first in deed and keenness. Even within the face of political intolerance, you by no means gave up. You didn’t hesitate to wrestle for a simply nation we might dwell in at present; you additionally fought for future generations. Fact be informed, you noticed the highs and lows of life and needed to endure the assorted adjustments the nation went via. Now you might be no extra! Who will proceed the noble path that your searing intelligence has blazed? Who will liberate and stay a mentor? You spoke reality to energy with out worry. You upheld the mental integrity that rendered your opinions neutral, demonstrating your love for Nigeria and Africa.

Expressing grief is an acknowledgement of the position the deceased performed in our lives whereas they have been alive. We mourn to show how priceless the soul we’ve got misplaced is and the way embittered we’re by the loss. Family and friends members endure significantly when a liked one passes away, and at occasions it might appear as if the ache won’t ever stop, however we take solace that regardless that the ache will linger perpetually, the Good E book has assured us that: “Blessed are those that mourn, for they are going to be comforted”. – Matthew 5:4.

Ayo, this tribute is to honour you as a singular particular person and to your vital impression on folks’s lives throughout your time on earth. Although life dealt you its fair proportion of challenges, as it’s doing to all of us, you have been a hero since you labored and fought for the long run in order that individuals who come after us received’t must endure.

Our hearts will sing as soon as extra
For individuals who completely depart from us
by no means to be seen once more
from a stressed, worn-out world
right into a clouded heaven.

Sleep effectively, my pal.

Toyin Falola, a professor of Historical past, College Distinguished Educating Professor, and Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair within the Humanities at The College of Texas at Austin, is the Bobapitan of Ibadanland.