Very few people knew that the late Aare Abdul Azeez Arisekola-Alao had a twin brother. Those who knew that fact either took it for granted or did not duly acknowledge it. Like most human beings, the colossus was not born all alone. He was accompanied by another child who twinned with him into this mortal world. That other child was HUMILITY which Aare personified throughout his life.
In his lifetime, Arisekola-Alao was like the sun. Whenever it bulged out of the orbit with the magnificence of its rays, no star could dare attempt to rise. And when he eventually demised the entire world chorused the lamentations of a rare eclipse.
A colossus
This article ought to have been entitled ‘In Memory of a Colossus’. But the expediency of the moment would rather prefer a more befitting title as found here. Aare was not the only moneybag in the Southwest while alive. What clearly distinguished him from all others was his second twin (humility) which never parted with him even in his grave. Like a famous actor, Arisekola-Alao left the stage when the ovation was loudest but he did not forget to leave behind a legacy that cannot be inherited by any fair weather charlatan. Anybody may aspire to be like Aare Arisekola-Alao or gain his God’s endowed fame but nobody can ever wear his obviously oversized shoes. He was as great in death as he was alive. At least, his humility ensured that. We pray the Almighty Allah to repose his soul in perfect, eternal bliss.
Tribute
At his demise, ‘The Message column published a tribute about him that will for long remain a tribute in the memory of his family and those of his associates. It was entitled ‘Sunset @ Noon’. An excerpt from that tribute went thus:
“…..The echoes of his death reverberated through the length and breadth of the world confirming the fallibility of man… What immediately became shocking in those echoes was not the announced death per se but the consequence of that fortuitous death for hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries of his incessant largess across tribal, religious and ideological divide.
Tripod of fortune
Before now, there were three great Muslim philanthropists in the Southwest of Nigeria who were jointly called ‘a tripod of fortune’. Each of them had a national tentacle that formed a formidable fortress against the poisonous arrows of poverty in the land. But with time, they started leaving the stage one by one. First to go was Bashorun Moshood Kasimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, the Baba Adini of Yoruba land, a man often described as ‘larger than life’. He was followed by the quiet, easy going but kind-hearted Chief (Dr.) Wahab Iyanda Folawiyo, CON, the Baba Adini ‘of Nigeria’. Both of them left behind a very big vacuum that kept most Muslims wondering if there could be any replacement for them.
But surprisingly, Aare Arisekola-Alao the third but anchor leg of the tripod took up the challenge and courageously combined the vacuums left behind by the duo of Abiola and Folawiyo with that of his own. He extended his philanthropic tentacles to areas hitherto covered by his two former colleagues so much that most people hardly remembered that there was once a tripod.
Philanthropy
Like Abiola and Folawiyo, Aare was a stupendous philanthropist with an ever open hand that knew no boundaries of tribe, age, gender or creed. His generosity was legendry and unlimited. And he was never tired of giving the same individuals or groups of people repeatedly. At least, his fervent belief in the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) which says that “an upper hand is far more reward-able than the lower hand” guaranteed the philanthropy in him. Which area of his largess can one really recount with precision? The story of Arisekola-Alao’s generosity can never be fully told either by individuals, groups or institutions in volumes of books.
Attestation
A versatile American poet who came up with the following axiomatic poem could not have imagined that his thoughts might germinate in Africa and nurtured to fruition by an African. Here is how he put it:
“Who shares his life’s pure pleasure and works the honest road; who trades with heaping measure and lifts his brother’s load; who turns the wrong down bluntly and lends the right a hand; he dwells in God’s own country and tills the Holy Land”. We are all witnesses.
Comment
Perhaps no contemporary Nigerian is as fitting to the above quoted poem as Alhaji Abdul Azeez Arisekola-Alao, CON, the erstwhile Aare Musulumi of Yoruba land and Deputy President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), who lived like a sun photosynthesising all the ‘living plants’ around and giving all of them the fulfilled dreams of their lives.
However, like a falcon that suddenly took a flight leaving the surrounding falconers to wonder, this man’s sun fortuitously set at noon when its rays was most needed by the needy. He lived like an era in the epoch of human history and died like an era at the climax of its function.
The similitude of Aare Arisekola-Alao among the sundry elite and masses of Yoruba people of the Southwest in particular and other people of tribal and religious diversities in general is like that of the Queen in a bee hive. Take it out and the rest of the bees in the hive will automatically become stranded.
A case study
Aare Arisekola-Alao’s life is a case study for all well-meaning intellectuals and people of wherewithal. He was a unique colossus whose life and death should serve as a lesson from which to learn the conduct of life. He was political without being a politician. He was religious without being a cleric. He was sociable without being a socialist. He was traditional without being a traditionalist. Yet, he fitted perfectly into each of these segments of life like a scepter in the hand of a king. Aare was a man of peculiar lifestyle with a peculiar focus. He lived for service to humanity just as service craved his penchant for philanthropy. It may take Nigeria another century to produce the like of this impeccable colossus.
Zooming into limelight
As a young man in the early 1970s, this man zoomed into limelight like a crescent of hope despite his limited educational background and subsequently grew into a full blown moon brightening the lives of multitudes that would have remained in rigmarole through the darkness of life. His Midas touch was like an antidote against any potential pecuniary poison.
Arisekola-Alao’s death reminds us of a potent question which some companions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) posed to him out of fear of the unknown. They said: “Oh Prophet, the men of wealth seem to have gone with all the virtues; they worshipped as we are now worshipping; they fasted as we are now fasting and they competed actively among themselves in the realm of philanthropy. And in response, the Prophet pointed out to them that Allah had equally endowed them with a variety of philanthropic means saying that glorification of Allah was an act of philanthropy, so was gratification of Allah and the like. That dialogue has since become a credible Hadith due to its entailed spiritual wisdom.
Solace
There is solace for Muslims in that Hadith which can see them through the ‘Cape of Good Hope’. As a community, they had perennially relied too much on certain endowed individuals in their midst without thinking of what would become of the community should anything happen to those individuals. Now, the reality seems to be dawning on them. Still, the die is not yet cast. Those who have just prominently departed this world amongst us were men of monetary wherewithal. There are still thousands of others whose wealth was not monetary but who need to be studied and emulated in preparation for their possible departure. Some of such people are of wisdom and intellectualism while others are of truthfulness, contentment and integrity. Without adequate preparation for their exit, the shock awaiting the Ummah may be more devastating than that arising from the death of the wealthy few.
Memory Lane
Nigeria’s first President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, did not take cognizance of the lifestyle of Arisekola-Alaos of this world when he alluded to it in the introduction to his autobiography published in 1970 thus:
“Man comes into the world and while he lives, he embarks upon a series of activities absorbing experience which enables him to formulate a philosophy of life and to chart his causes of action. But then, he dies. Nevertheless his biography remains a guide to those of the living who may need guidance either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as encouragement or both”.
Aftermath
There was similarity in the aftermath situation of the death of the trio of Abiola, Folawiyo and Alao which no era before theirs had witnessed in Nigeria. The funeral of each of these great men was either physically attended by everybody that matters including President, governors, ministers, high caliber legislators, topmost personalities of the judiciary and chief executives of the business world as well as politicians and intellectual gurus.
In the case of Arisekola-Alao which is the most recent, it is almost impossible to enumerate the caliber of people who were present to say ‘we are here to condole’. Of all the comments notably made, no one was more precinct than that of Senator Abiola Ajimobi, the Governor of Oyo State who described Aare’s death as ‘the end of an era’. But His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto perfected that comment during his condolence visit to the house of the deceased when he said that “if the title AARE is reversed, it would become ERA”. In other words, Aare simply means an era.
Conclusion
From all conceivable angles, Aare Arisekola-Alao seemed to have studied and imbibed the thoughtful philosophy of another American of notable fame, William Webster, who once coined the following poem to the benefit of mankind:
“If we work marble it will perish; if we work upon brass time will efface it. If we rear temples they will crumble into dust. But if we work upon immortal minds and instill in them just principles; we are then engraving that upon a tablet which no time can efface but will brighten into all eternity”.
As the Deputy President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and a strong pillar and member of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) as well as a patron of over 100 Muslim organisations, the entire Nigerian Muslim Community bids you farewell and pray for the repose of your soul in eternal bliss. We also pray Allah to grant your immediate and remote family members as well as your close associates the fortitude to bear the agony of your departure. We shall keep remembering you.
Rest in peace Aare Arisekola-Alao, as GOD blesses your soul!
