Sir: Like the flash of lightening, 50 years have passed since the demise of the merchant, aristocrat and community leader, Chief Isaac Ajayi Folayan, Saba of Obalu, Efon Alaaye, Ekiti State.
The ancient town was united in sorrow when it was announced that he had passed on in an auto crash. That was on May 18, 1974. He left a legacy of hard-work, honesty and integrity.
Folayan was born in 1889 into the illustrious family of Chief Inajoju, first Saba of Obalu. His grandfather, the late Chief Obaloko, was the third Saba of Obalu, and his father, the late Chief Adelusola, was the Oisadefi of Obalu. His mother, the late Chief Bolaku, was the Eye Logudu of Obalu.
At an early age, Folayan trained as a professional tailor under his uncle, the late Pa Gbadamosi Dada. He learned how to read and write as an apprentice, and with that minimal informal education, he recorded and documented events.
Despite his lack of formal education and paucity of funds, Folayan was undeterred. Realizing that he was disadvantaged financially as a result of poor returns from tailoring, he promptly opted for trading and merchandising. The little informal education he had paid off as he became his own clerk, recording his trading activities, up to the minutest detail.
Being a shrewd businessman, and a financially scrupulous person, he soon attracted the attention of the eagle-eyed roving multinational agencies like John Holt, GBO, UTC, and UAC, and became their approved agent throughout the then Ekiti Division of Ondo Province. His trading activities took him to places like Lagos, Ibadan, Osogbo, Ilesha, Ipole Iloro, Ikogosi, Aramoko, Okemesi Ekiti, Ila Orangun, Esa – Oke, Ido Ile, and Ogotun.
Folayan also dabbled into big time farming to complement his trading activities. He specialized in the cultivation of cocoa, oil palm, kola nut and plantations. By the time of his death in 1974, he was among the foremost prominent cocoa farmers in Ilawe Ekiti in Ekiti State.
He became the Saba of Obalu in 1947 till he died in 1974, a period of 27 years. He was succeeded as Saba by the late Chief Oderinde, who was also succeeded by the late Chief Egbekunle. Later, Folayan’s son, Chief Tope Folayan, became the Saba and occupied the position till he died on December 1, 2021.
Pa Folayan was a handsome man. He was a polygamist to the core. He was survived by seven wives, many children, grand-children and great grand-children.
A devout Christian and a staunch member of St Paul’s Anglican Church, Idagba, Efon Alaaye, the anniversary of his death and those of his wives will be celebrated on Sunday, May 19, at the church.
•Sunday Olagunju,Ibadan
