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Tag: Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo

  • Tribute to Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo

    Two years ago when I wrote a griping, moving and well published tribute on my late lecturer and university of Ibadan trained erudite Professor of Political Science, Kunle Amuwo, I had prayed fervently against death’s unkindest and untimely cut on our beloved ones. I had no premonition that in less than two years I would be compelled to render another epistemological dirge on one of Nigeria’s erudite scholars, thoroughbred journalist and humanist, Dr. Adinoyi-Ojo Onukaba who was tragically killed by a reckless driver in a bizarre armed robbery scene along Akure road in Ondo State.

    I read the recent superlative tribute of the celebrated publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu which struck a similar chord in the triangulation of destinies of the late Dr. Onukaba and some of us during our academic and career sojourn. Keller Brown was the adopted school boy (alias or guy name) of the brilliant and swash buckling Adinoyi Shuaibu Ojo as he was then known at Ebira Anglican College, Okene (now Lennon Memorial College). He made a distinction in the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) in 1977, the very year I entered the same school. I never met him in school but his legendary academic prowess and mercurial leadership as the college head boy was a reference point for those of us who saw in Dr. Onukaba a shining star and role model.

    In 1979 after obtaining his advanced level certificate, the young Onukaba came back to Lennon Memorial College to teach us English Literature in our year two and our star novel was “Cry the Beloved Country” a chronicle of the tribulation and dehumanizing plight of the black people in the infamous apartheid regime in South Africa. He demystified the childish and fearful imagery of English Literature as a very difficult subject. Many of us began to show keen interest in the subject but our romance with English Literature was short-lived as Onukaba left for further studies at the University of Ibadan.

    In 1984 when I gained admission to study Political Science at the University of Ibadan the name Onukaba resonated again and the reverberation of his intellectual exploits found expression and anchorage at the Guardian Newspapers as one of its most prolific, investigative and interrogative journalists. I did not meet him again at the premier university but his academic footprint became my prismatic compass as a teenage undergraduate in search of a role model.

    Our path crossed again after my National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) in 1988 when I needed a job badly because my parents had advised me to abandon my M.Sc degree admission to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife in order to join hands with them in training my siblings in the universities.

    In my agonizing moment, I remembered Onukaba, the avant-garde journalist and headed for Lagos. I went to The Guardian to see Onukaba who was at the apogee of his journalism career. As for me, Onukaba was the Cicero and doyen of modern journalism in Ebiraland and I set out to mould myself in his genre. It was a busy period for him on that fateful day so we had a hurried discussion and he advised me to come on board as a freelance journalist for a start. It was a good counsel but not an economic option because my parents were waiting for me to supplement the family budget. Onukaba’s wise counsel however buoyed the confidence in my choice to make a career in Journalism and I immediately left Lagos to Kano to meet one of my aunties who helped me secure a reportorial job with Triumph newspapers under the tutelage of the brilliant and young Editor, Malam Garba Shehu (now Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity).

    I cut my journalism teeth at Triumph newspapers and in less than a year I was deployed to Ilorin as Kwara State Editor and before I could barely settle down, was again moved in 1991 to Lagos as Regional Correspondent with the primary responsibility of covering aviation sector. This was the same aviation beat where Onukaba loomed larger than life because of his reverential exploits as a ruthless, investigative journalist and combatant. Again I never met him on the beat because he had left few years back to pursue his PhD and subsequently a career as United Nations Information Officer but he remained a mirror image and edifying reflection of my struggle for excellence and dedicated service as a journalist.

    It was only four years ago that I became close to him when we met severally at the annual dinner of the University of Ibadan Alumni Association. He later read in details the serialized newspapers interviews celebrating my 50th Birthday on how our academic and career paths crossed some years ago. In his characteristic humility, he telephoned me to congratulate me.

    Two weeks before his tragic death, some old school mates and myself put a call to Dr. Onukaba during one of our planning committee meetings for the forthcoming 50th Anniversary celebration of our Alma Mater (Lennon Memorial College) initially slated for April. He commended our efforts and gladly offered to meet with some executive members of the old boys association on Monday March 6,. A day before the appointed day tragedy struck and Dr. Onukaba was hurried out of this sinful world. His death like so many others has ignited the unresolved debate between the two schools of thoughts, the proponents of predestination and adherents of the free will.

    The school of predestination believe that whatever happens to a man from cradle to grave has been pre-ordained by God and he cannot change God’s agenda in his life. The free will school of thought however argues that man has the freewill to change his own destiny and believes that such fatalistic resignation to fate is untenable. Whatever may be our persuasion and belief between the two diametrically opposed schools of thought, there is no doubt that the omniscience and omnipotent God is the Architect of our destiny who determines the mode of our entrance and exit out of this world. Life is indeed a stage in which we are merely acting God’s scripts. How do we explain the fact that Dr. Onukaba alighted from his vehicle to take cover from the lethal bullets of the armed robbers only to be mowed down on the same spot by a reckless driver? Nobody knows who will be the next victim of the invincible spectre (death) haunting all of us. Dr. Onukaba had written a tearful and emotion – laden tribute on his late wife, Rachel two years ago and ruefully he is now the subject of a national mourning. The management of Lennon Memorial College has shifted its 50th anniversary celebration from this April to July as a mark of respect for its illustrious alumnus, Dr. Onukaba who is resting in perfect peace with God.

    It is with heavy heart that we mourn a rare gem, an accomplished scholar, consummate journalist and shinning role model.

     

    • Dr. Jimoh is Director, Special Duties at NAFDAC, Abuja.
  • NUJ Lagos Council organises tribute night for three late journalists

    NUJ Lagos Council organises tribute night for three late journalists

    The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Lagos Council on Friday organised a Candle Light Procession and Tribute Night for three late journalists: Dr Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, Mr Kayode Atofolaki and Mr Segun Agbolade.

    The Chairman of the Council, Mr Deji Elumoye, said it was regrettable that the council lost three colleagues.

    He expressed the need for members to key into the comprehensive insurance scheme.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that prayers were offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased.

    “It’s a great loss to the practice of journalism and the country as a whole would miss their contributions especially on the floor of the house and during programme and activities of the state council,’’ Elumoye said.

    He said that with less than N10,000, a journalist could pay the Insurance premium for a year.

    “As we speak, Lagos Council has insured 300 practising journalists. What we are doing for every chapel is to pick three or four people.

    “Individuals can also do on their own,’’ the chairman said.

    “We believe the good God will comfort the families they left behind.

    “We have cancelled the monthly meeting scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) due to the incidents,’ he said.

    Elumoye said the union would continue to support the widows and the children of the deceased, especially their education.

    He said already the families of Atofolaki and Agbolade had received N100, 000 cheque each.

    A former Chairman of the state council, Alhaji Wahab Oba, urged members to buy into the idea of the insurance scheme because of the nature of the job.

    Oba donated a sum of money for the families of the deceased and the insurance scheme of the NUJ.

    A former Chairman of the council, Mr Dele Odebiyi, described Adinoyi-Ojo as a humble fellow and a brilliant journalist, he worked with in Daily Times.

    Odebiyi said Atofolaki once came up with an idea to write a book on him.

    He described the deceased as a brilliant journalist.

    A former Chairman of the council, Mr Lanre Arogundade, described the deceased as seasoned journalists who performed excellently well during their life time.

    A former President of the Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN), Mr Adeleye Ajayi, described Adinoyi-Ojo as a prolific writer.

    Ajayi, also a former National Financial Secretary of the NUJ, said Atofolaki was a comrade, a unionist and an “encyclopedia of journalism’’.

    He said Agbolade was a humour merchant, who combined journalism with music and entertainment.

    NAN reports that Adinoyi-Ojo was a former Managing Director of Daily Times, while Atofolaki and Agbolade were Maritime journalists.

     

  • Onukaba: Nigeria’s endless season of ‘cheap’ death

    Onukaba: Nigeria’s endless season of ‘cheap’ death

    Our last set of text messages started on the noon of Friday, July 24, 2015 and ended on Sunday, August 16, 2015. They were short messages in which Dr. Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo sought the intervention of this paper in publishing an online interview he granted this reporter.

    In that interview, the erudite scholar, celebrated journalist, respected university lecturer, playwright and the intellectually savvy author of many books spoke on how and why he was aspiring to govern his beloved state, Kogi.

    Personally, I had taken the whole thing as a joke when he called to ask for my support. Something just told me that this man was too refined to play the kind of do-or-die politics on display in spite of his closeness to veterans of the game like former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Besides, he didn’t have the war chest which is key to staying on top of the political chess board here. His firm grip of media communications notwithstanding, Onukaba just never came across as a politician in the hue of those he was going to face on the battlefield. Even at death, which came like a thief in the night and snatched him away from us last week, this gentle dove would be remembered for what he did outside politics than the feeble steps he made towards actualising his personal convictions that the people of his state deserved better. His, like the death of many others, was a painful exit of a blossoming dream. Highway robbery, road accidents, ritual killings, maternal mortality, infant mortality, grisly assassinations, death from collapsed buildings and all other manners of ‘cheap’ violent death have continued to consume many Nigerian souls without adequate or realistic response from our leaders.

    And so, the man· died. Just like that! He died on one of Nigeria’s famished roads. Onukaba was not the first victim of the many tragedies that take away our nation’s best. He would not be the last either. He left with the rhythm and rhymes of his poetry; his poetic candour and nuances; the mastery of the spoken word and a firm grip of the evocative cadence of the written word. He left with many things left unfinished. Our last one-on-one contact was at a quiet library in Zone 4, Abuja where he was marking some scripts. He was a lecturer at the University of Abuja. I had gone there to pick a cheque for an advert he had placed earlier. In his usual simplicity, he walked me to the car and we spent some time discussing politics, journalism and life generally. He never missed the opportunity to smile. He readily offered tips on how to survive the vagaries of the journalism profession in a mutually suspicious society like ours. He was just that jolly good fellow that was a father or brother to many. A good man who was genuinely concerned by the woes confronting a country that endlessly demonstrates seemingly irredeemable impotence.

    When you interrogate how he died, you cannot help but blame the system – the same systemic failures that Onukaba spent the better part of his life to rectify. It is ironic that a man that spoke eloquently about the tragic consequences of bad leadership and governance structure had become a celebrated victim of that societal malaise. Asked why his state suffered from a debilitating dearth of good governance, Onukaba said that Kogi had the “misfortune of being led by the wrong people, people without vision, people who were clearly ill-prepared for the office, people who believe that being governor gives them an opportunity to primitively accumulate wealth and promote nepotism. This is why we have to be careful this time. We must pick a candidate with the right credentials, including integrity, vision and capacity to deliver. Kogi needs good governance. Kogi needs development. I believe that Kogi needs me to pull it out of this sorry state.”

    Of course, the Kogi narrative is just a microcosm of a bigger picture· at the national level. Kogi, to my mind, shares the same misfortunes with many other states and the only difference is the scale at which some have glamourized the perversion. It is that sort of annoying ineffectualness that emboldens the armed robbers that took over the major road in broad daylight to pump bullets into travelers and rob· them of valuables. Onukaba must have thought his short flight from the robbery scene had saved him from a gory encounter with the dare-devil robbers, not knowing that another fleeing driver would crush him to death in the bush. How sad! Now, we wail and sing his praises. They said a good man who could not hurt a fly had gone to rest.

    If truckloads of eulogies could wake the dead, Onukaba would be cuddling his little children before the sun sets. But that would not happen. His mortal remains are down in the bosom of mother earth. He is deaf to all the good memories we recall about him. Yet a recollection of his excellence remains immortal and we paint him in glorious words and moving prose. The Senate President, Dr . Bukola Saraki, described Onukaba in flowery words. To him, the late dramatist was “a quintessential intellectual, consummate· administrator, complete gentleman and a detribalized Nigerian.” To his state Governor, Yahaya Bello, this illustrious son of the Confluence State was “a rare· gem, a sound mind and technocrat par excellence” who would be· missed not only for what he had written but also for his “kind-heartedness.” Former Senate President, David Mark, said he was ‘devastated by the death of the frontline journalist and playwright.” And Atiku, the man he worked with and was loyal to, even right through the bitter rift with Obasanjo, said the death was “shocking, painful and beyond words” especially because Onukaba was in his house the Friday before he left for Obasanjo’s 80th birthday and eventual death on Sunday. How cruel can fate be? The man who was privileged to write Obasanjo and Atiku’s biographies died while coming from the celebration of life of the latter having bade the former good bye 48 hours earlier. Even Onukaba couldn’t have crafted this scary plot of a fate so wicked. Oh, what a script!

    Yet, the reality is that he is gone. He has bowed to the finality of death for all mortals. But Onukaba’s death would not be in vain if those who mourn him in the corridors of power can make his dream of a just and egalitarian society a realisable project. Without this, this harvest of swan song of praises is nothing short of playing to the gallery (and don’t we do that to perfection here?) Adinoyi-Ojo left behind three· young children— two daughters and a son. He had plans for them. He spelt out his vision for Kogi. These ideas are explicitly expressed. Like an intellectual that he was, his blueprint for development titled “Re-inventing Kogi State” ,among other things, harped on the need to grow internally-generated revenue with innovative and creative methods that would not over-burden the people; block the loopholes and leakages in the revenue-collection process; be a governor to all Kogites and deploy the resources for the benefit of the entire people; maintain equity in appointments and resources allocation while reverting the faithful adherence to the tradition of marginalization by the previous democratically-elected governors of the state; reduce insecurity by aggressively pursuing youth employment; equip the security outfits, broaden intelligence-gathering and maintain a database of known criminals; change the state· of Kogi roads from that of a war-ravaged territory· to that in which the billions of naira spent would reflect on the quality of the infrastructural projects and stop the habit of using the re-awarding of contracts as conduit pipes.

    That was Onukaba in his own words. Good enough, the present leadership in his home state had confessed to holding in high regards. The change he craved is yet to happen. The situation in Kogi under a young· and dynamic governor Bello is anything but inspiring, going by reports one reads daily not only on the plight of workers and pensioners but also on the rate at which heinous crimes are being carried out in the state. For a man who recently got an award for maintaining security, one had expected a drastic drop in the rate of killings, kidnappings and armed robberies. Surely, the governor cannot rest on his oars. He needs to identify the lapses and fix them such that the state can get back on track.

    Yes, the man who crafted “Re-inventing Kogi State” is gone. Nothing stops a serious leadership from taking a cue from that document and return Kogi to the path of sanity. Interestingly, he was on the same page with Bello in the need for a workers’ audit in the state. According to him, there was something curious about the N 3 billion monthly wage bill that demands the scrutiny of an audit control. He said: “We will carry out a thorough audit of the workers in the state to ensure that the 28, 000 – 35, 000 workforce on the state payroll are real. We cannot be squandering state resources on ghost workers. I believe that after conducting personnel audit, we may be able to save· a big chunk for capital projects.

    No state government can develop spending 80 per cent of its revenue on recurrent expenditure. It is the era of small and efficient public service. We will right-size to put round pegs in round· holes. We will rid the state of ghost workers. I suspect that the N 3 billion monthly wage bill is fraudulently padded. Using modern ICT tools, such as biometrics, it won’t be difficult to know the true workers from ghosts. ”

    Now, the problem is no longer workers’ audit as that has been effectively tackled according to reports. What confounds is that Kogi’s finances still bleeds, with reports of frivolous spending and official graft flying in the air. Of course, the government has come out strongly to deny the reports while promising monetary rewards for whistleblowers who can expose the critics or ‘mischief makers’ as the government chose to call them. That is laughable and petty. Were Onukaba to be alive, he would have laughed it off as one of those comic reliefs in a tragic play. Just that this is not stage play. It is a serious matter of life and death. The man died, presumably leaving Kogi in a sorry state. Would Kogi be rescued or would it continue to be under the stranglehold of insensitively primitive accumulators of wealth and grandmasters of shameful nepotism? Only time will tell as another illustrious son of the soil is committed to earth while the unending season of cheap violent deaths sorrowfully continues. Adieu Adinoyi Onukaba-Ojo.

  • Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo (March 9, 1960–March 5, 2017)

    Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo (March 9, 1960–March 5, 2017)

    The book, Atiku-The Story of Atiku Abubakar, has the author’s name as Ojo Adinoyi. Unless, of course, you were familiar with the author or, and, knew that he was a special aide to the former Nigerian vice-president, you would have thought that it is not the same person as Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo.

    But then, when he joined The Guardian as a reporter in June 1983 immediately after his National Youth Service Corps primary assignment at Radio Nigeria, Ikoyi, his name was simply Shaibu Ojo. To date, one of our colleagues at The Guardian still calls him, perhaps jokingly, Shaibu.

    He had written an article celebrating Nigeria’s rich culture including taking pride in our traditional lines, signing it with “Shaibu Adinoyi-Ojo.” A reader responded wondering why he was bearing an Arabic name, Shuaib (that’s the correct spelling and it means “stream”), advising him to live by example.

    Trust Shaibu, a principled person, he quickly dropped that name. His father’s name was Shaibu Onukaba. His own middle name was Adinoyi. So, he became Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo. He likes now to be identified as Adinoyi Onukaba Ojo. As that is mouthful, we shall agree here to call him simply Onukaba, which is what I call him. He calls me Taye, which most people who knew me from childhood still call me.

    Taye, of course, is the abridgement of To aye wo – (I came to) “taste” the world for my twin, Kehinde, who the Yoruba lore says, sent me – which, for convenience, has also been clipped to Taiwo. By the way, Onukaba means hard work and Adinoyi is “father of the multitude.” Seest thou a man who is diligent in his work, that’s Onukaba. Anyone who is familiar with this wonderful guy – and this is not patronising him – knows that he gives his all to any project he commits to, and, yes, he’s truly someone who bears the burden of many, particularly his kin, some of whom won’t think twice before abusing the privilege.

    Onukaba and I bonded almost immediately when we met. He had studied theatre arts at the University of Ibadan and had been taught playwriting by Prof Femi Osofisan, who was the one who influenced his admission to The Guardian.

    He was a quintessential reporter. He shunned unethical practices like a plague. A little digression, please: the other day a visitor in my office overheard a telephone conversation where I was vouching for Onukaba’s incorruptibility. The visitor wondered if he was a Nigerian. Yes, he is and a proud one at that.

    Add to that, we lived in the same neighbourhood of Ipaja in the local government area now known as Alimoso, and the largest LGA in Nigeria’s commercial capital with 1.28m inhabitants.

    Onukaba had a Datsun 120Y Coupe jalopy, so he had no choice but to give me a ride home, most evenings. Yes, that ubiquitous green jalopy. We rocked town together with it; bachelors who were also journalists of The Guardian; what else do you want to know?

    He left The Guardian for further studies in journalism (master’s) and performance studies (doctorate) in the USA. I inherited his Volkswagen Jetta car, yet another jalopy, but it got us from place to place.

    I had actually bought off him a Peugeot 504 saloon car (LA 8053 KE) the car he replaced the Jetta with. On the night that he travelled to the US, after he had unpacked his light luggage, he simply handed over the key of the Jetta to me; no ceremonies. He had felt guilty that he unknowingly sold me a lemon (the 504; which, by the way, I also sold on July 30, 1992 for a “staggering” N32,500:00), although I never made an issue of it. While in the US, we called each other and exchanged letters regularly.

    There was once I wrote him – in my beautiful handwriting– a 21-pager of sense and nonsense – no, let me quote him: ‘Your letter was as interesting as it was bloated with irrelevances. I laughed, laughed and laughed my heart out.’” I was his caretaker.

    If some monies needed to be distributed to his relations, I was the one who carried out the assignment. When he needed Mrs. Remi Obasanjo, the first wife of President Olusegun Obasanjo, to go through the manuscript of his biography of the President, In the Eyes of Time (African Legacy Pr Inc,1997), I was the one who went and met the lady at her home in the Government Reserved Area of Ikeja, capital of Lagos State.

    I combed through Obasanjo’s library (the General, as Onukaba called Obasanjo has always loved libraries) at his home in Abeokuta, for pictures and more pictures for his book.

    In fact, my first meeting with the former president at his Ota farm, was because of In the Eyes of Time. It was a funny meeting. Not minding my presence, Obasanjo then doing more with his African Leadership Forum, dressed in an adire buba and sokoto, grabbed a cob of roast corn from one of his workers he met by the entrance of his office, cut it into two, and said in Yoruba, ki nse iwo nikan lo ma je – you won’t be the only one to eat it.

    For all he cared, I was not in that room. He munched on, without even asking me, even if as a symbolic gesture as tradition demands, to come join me o. I had persuaded him to allow Diamond Publications Limited to publish the book but, somehow, that couldn’t be. While I was in the US, we, of course, found time to hang out together – Onukaba and I, that is.

    In one of his letters to me (December 10, 1989), he concluded thus: ‘I love you more than a brother. It’s a confession.’

    He never tired of being genuinely concerned about my welfare and that of my kith and kin. I repeat that, and even put it in bold: genuinely.

    In registering a company, you are required to have at least two subscribers to the Memorandum and Articles of Association. Who else would I have chosen for a company that has to do with communication but the man called Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo?

    I called him in the US and informed him; I was not seeking his approval, really. It was just a “FYI Only” matter. These are his recollections of that fateful afternoon: ‘Yes I was in New York as a doctoral candidate at New York University when you called to invite me to co-found the company.

    “I was naturally very happy that you, me and other friends were thinking of creating an enterprise in which we could work for ourselves rather spend our entire lives slaving for others. I was happy that you had decided to lead the effort that would see us take control of our future.

    I was asked to purchase some PR and Advertising and Communication books and send home to the fledging company as part of my equity contribution. I got some of the books and that was it.’ (Onukaba had noted in one of his letters which he wrote in his usual scraggy-lettering-camouflaged-as-cursive, thus: ‘I pray never to return to the spectre of poverty that drove me away from home. I wish you all the best for the decade there has to be some action’)

    That was not it, Mr Adinoyi-Ojo: the company had to have a name.

    In my days as a library assistant (if you have not read Chapter II: The Discoveries, you won’t grasp this), I had too much money for a lad. It was the era when commercial jazz was the music.

    It was the era when cartridges and chrome dioxide cassettes were the fad. You were not trendy if you didn’t log those cassettes, BASF, SONY, etc. I collected all the works of Barry White, and I mean all the works; the music of Grover Washington, Jr, Eric Gale, Johnny Guitar Watson, Stanley Turrentine, George Benson and that Japanese alto saxophonist, Sadao Watanabe. It was a good time to be a lad, earning money that I didn’t need.

    That afternoon, when I sat to christen this company that I had told Onukaba about, the uppermost thing on my mind was to come up with a name that won’t be returned by the Corporate Affairs Commission: an uncommon name; without a double.

    So, I juggled the two names of the two promoters, as if I was in a chemistry lab, and while doing the mixing, Sadao Watanabe kept fleeting by. And so was born TaijoWonukabe & Associates Limited.

    We have had immeasurable fun with this name. Perhaps, right now, you are even juggling the letters like tiles in a game of Scrabble; go ahead and have your fun.

    Postscript:

    This morning, the one we called CBN (real name: Chido Nwakanma) called me to find out if I had heard about Onukaba. When a message goes like that, be sure, it is some awful thing that has happened. What happened to Onukaba? He told me someone wrote that he’s dead…No. I called Onukaba’s number and it was a brother of his who picked it and confirmed that indeed, my friend and brother, had died.

    He was talking about what happened, but I barely heard the details. He was driving the car en route to Abuja. Bla, bla, bla.

    I cried like I didn’t even when the death of my own elder brother was broken to me.

    I cried….I who have always counselled people to remember the good times they shared with their loved ones who passed away.

    What is there to cry for now?

    OnuK is gone. To meet His creator. I am sure his soul will find peace, because he was (was?) a genuinely good man. He would have been 57 on March 9, 2017.

    So, in remembering the good times we shared together, I have excerpted from a book that I have been writing almost forever. I now must finish the book. For Onukaba.

  • Minister calls for improved surveillance on nation’s highways

    Minister calls for improved surveillance on nation’s highways

    National Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on Tuesday in Abuja, called for improved surveillance by relevant agencies on highways to stem rate of accidents.

    He made the call in a condolence letter to Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi on the death of Dr Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, on behalf of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).

    The chairman said that the circumstances that led to Adinoyi-Ojo’s death were a painful reminder of the need for improved policing of the nation’s highways. 

    He said that such policies were necessary to rid the roads of insecurity and incidents that had led to avoidable human casualties and loss of properties on the nation’s highways.

    Odigie-Oyegun said that the party’s leadership received the news of the tragic death of Adinoyi-Ojo with grief.

    He condoled with the Government and people of Kogi and the immediate family of Adinoyi-Ojo, adding that he was a veteran journalist and a frontline member of the APC.

    “The death of Adinoyi-Ojo who was a governorship aspirant in the APC’s last Kogi primary election has left us with a great void and deep feeling of grief.

    “He was a versatile, brilliant and celebrated member of the media intelligentsia, literary community and academia who made indelible marks in the various fields locally and internationally.

    “Nigeria and indeed the international community has lost an illustrious son,’’ he said.

    He added that in the course of the deceased’s professional, national and international service, he brought great honour and pride to Nigeria.

    The chairman added that Adinoyi-Ojo had a meritorious and unblemished record of service in the media, saying that his articles, biographies and other literary works remained a collector’s item and reference point.

    “Prayers and fond memories are what we have to remember our dearly departed, please accept my sincere condolences,’’ he stated.

    He prayed God Almighty to give the late Adinoyi-Ojo eternal rest, and his family, particularly his three children, the fortitude to bear the pain.

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