By Wale Ojo-Lanre
Yes. I mean it. The late Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala might not rest well in heaven.
This is a plain truth that is hard to bear. But Alao Akala caused it while on earth. He used ‘his hand to cause it.’
It is not my making.
Look at this picture.
Can you see a young boy who rests on the shoulders of the late Otunba Alao-Akala?
Many people have been talking about the goodness of the late Christopher Alao-Akala, Otunba and former governor of Oyo State.
Almost everyone that has spoken about him since his death testified to the fact that the late police officer was kind-hearted and open-handed. They eulogised him to high heavens and treated him like a saint who swam the filthy water of the earth without a blemish.
No one was able to tell his other side and those unworthy steps he took while walking on the face of the earth. One thing I dislike in the behavioural patterns of we, the Yoruba, is our culture to paint the dead good, no matter the evil which they might have committed on the face of the earth while alive.
It is a common saying that we ‘don’t talk ill of the dead.’ But this saying is misunderstood, because we have failed to decipher its true position, which is that you don’t lie against the dead; not that you have committed heresy by telling the world in exactitude the good and the bad of his deeds on earth.
The injunction is don’t tell a lie against the dead. That is if the dead had perfectly wronged you, kindly tell it the way it was, or the other side.
Hence, this gives me the audacity and effrontery to expose the deeds of Bra Christopher, Omo Iya Alaro of Ogbomoso, as it concerns me, Wale Ojo-Lanre, Omo Iya Oniru from Usi-Ekiti.
Let me, first of all, tell all that the late Alao-Akala was not nice to me personally, except that he hosted the church service, which I held in his Baptist Church, Ogbomosho, during the first year of my first tenure as the Chairman of Oyo State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ.
He did not deem it fit to offer us any travelling or visiting allowance! Also, I remember paying him an official visit as the Chairman of Oyo State NUJ in his office in Agodi, after all was said and done, he grudgingly oiled my pocket to go and eat amala and gbegiri at Nastraight, with only lump sum at Mokola, Ibadan.
Remi Oladoye and his Police ADC, the one with tribal marks can also testify. Honestly, if going by my experience with him, Alao-Akala might not rest in heaven
How can he rest well?
It is a common saying that the evil that men do lives after them on earth. Many people have also forgotten that the good men do not also live after them, but also resonate and make so much noise that it performed the seven heavens to disturb them in the presence of their Lord.
So Alao-Akala might not rest well in heaven
Forget about my encounter with him.
Even, with this picture,
I don’t think Alao-Akala will have enough rest in heaven
For there is no day that this boy will not lament over the death of Alao-Akala and what he did in his life.
I don’t know this boy from Adams.
He just walked into my office then at the Press Center, Iyaganku, Ibadan, looking for the Chairman. I engaged him and he told me he was a digital-savvy fellow.
I engaged him to be my tutor. A week after, he asked me to give him a card and a note to Alao-Akala.
Promptly, I reached out to my card, scribbled something on it and I asked him to head for the Governor’s Office.
One of the Press Assistants to the governor, AB Ojo, was ready to facilitate. The very day he saw Alao-Akala with my note, that very day, Alqo-Akala hired him as a Special Assistant.
This guy is blessed now and forever through Alao-Akala, and you think Alqo-Akala will rest well in heaven?
Throughout this boy’s sojourn with Alao-Akala, I never paid him a visit or asked him for a favour.
For, Dr Morohunkola Thomas. This brilliant Ibadan man is an asset to the nation
Hence some of his friends always look forward to fix him to contribute his quota to the nation. I decided that he would be useful around Alao-Akala. So I decided to try my luck again with him.
On one of my trips to London, I realised that former Governor Alao-Akala was in London.
I pulled a call through and booked an appointment for Dr Kola Thomas, who was also in London reading Law.
Otunba Alqo-Akala personally went to the bus stop to walk Kola to his house and they later went out to buy laptops and other electronics for his children.
I could not join them at the meeting because I had a meeting in Manchester. When Kola came back to Nigeria, AB Ojo was on hand to facilitate a meeting with the governor
This Dr Kola Thomas was involved in the then Alao-Akala’s administration. Also, I never visited him in his office or asked him for an obligation.
And you think a man who did this kind of goodness will rest well in heaven?
If only for the sake of Fadeke, the daughter of Ajagura, whose my single note to Alao-Akala paved the way to fortune for will not allow Akala to rest well in heaven.
Fadeke was considered as not a very serious girl, who I sheltered at one of the boy quarters of NUJ, Iyaganku, Ibadan.
People believed nothing good can come out of Fadeke.
But I don’t believe in this kind of nonsense.
Fadeke was a student of IIJ, Ibadan Campus, like Remi Ladoye and others.
I believed Fadeke could be a good girl.
First, I sent her to learn professional photography at this guy in Challenge, Ibadan, Oyo State, who upon my note gave her free training.
After a 9-month training in video and photography, Fadeke wished to establish.
We thought about who can I send her to for support. Governor Alao-Akala came to my mind.
Thus a note on my card got a blessing from Bra Christopher, who, that day made available close to a million for this young girl, who later established one of the most efficient photography and video studios in Ogbomoso.
Also, I have not set my eyes on Fadeke, since that time. But she is a success now, beyond the imagination of many of us.
And you think, people like that will allow Alao-Akala to rest well in heaven? Never! Their prayers and prayers for his good and generous soul will always soothe his soul in heaven.
May his soul rest in perfect peace! May God bless his family on earth.
Oga Bayo, Omo Iya Alaro, orun rere oo!!!
•Ojo-Lanre, a repertoire of tourism and culture, writes from Usi-Ekiti.
