Death comes and we weep with sorrow dumped in our hearts.
Death comes and leaves us grief-stricken under the thrust of an irredeemable loss.
But this death comes with trails of swift and rude bewilderment. One death too devastating, when Strength avails us not
Sometimes the interception of death takes away with it, an Amazon. How long do we keep accepting this terminal fate we cannot change? If not, how I wish death chooses a convenient time to take us or those we love. I ponder over why these things must be.
And so sudden it came again, this time with such rudeness, and took away Olufunmilayo Adunni Olayinka. A reality I took for a joke because Moremi held with me a promise I looked forward for its fulfillment.
My Val, as I humorously called you, I remember with mortal nostalgia how you held my hand after that State Executive meeting which happens to be the last you had with us and asked as usual “Hope you have eaten”?
“My Chief of All Staff, (with a look of seriousness embedded in your usual lively character of joke with me and before I could respond), you said, I am sure you have not eaten. Please make sure you eat on time and take your one-per-day bottle of “Baba Dudu” (Small Stout). You know we need you this period more than ever and you need to also be around our Oga (Dr. Kayode Fayemi) the more. We have much work to be done in the State and you need to remain strong”
I never got the faintest hint from this conversation that you would be around no more so soon. With brightened face, parting me at the back, you held my hand warmly and said, Chief of all Staff, I will see you when I get back and Moremi never came back to fulfill this promise.
But how our God eternally displays His omnipotence! I wish I had an iota of clue this would be our last one-to-one conversation, it would have afforded the Chief and all his staff an uncommon privilege to bid our amiable Deputy Governor a good farewell.
But in this designated territory we held as life, death is one cruel certainty with no timely certainty that affects us all in very different ways. Olufunmilayo Adunni Olayinka’s death is one.
Evidently Ekiti people lost a rare Jewel. We make bold to say, once lived in this world an Amazing Amazon, who gave her best shot at life and left in the anal of Ekiti socio-political history, a quest for more of her
Our common solace lies in your legacy of life of service as a family woman, as Ekiti political icon and intelligentsia in Nigeria as we say adieu to our own treasured Moremi of Ekiti.
Sister mi. may your gentle soul rest in perfect peace. O d’arinanko o di oju ala……
‘Yemi Adaramodu
Last modified: April 24, 2013