By Festus Adedayo
Within a week, two great Nigerians celebrated their birth anniversaries of 70 and 80 years respectively. They are, Olusegun Rahman Mimiko and Akinyemi Farounbi. While the former, a medical doctor-turned politician, was governor of Ondo State, the latter, a broadcast journalist of over six decades, was Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Philippines. In my estimation, what links both men is a mental acuity, brilliance and patriotism that are difficult to define. I begin with Farounbi.
Till today, what drives Farounbi is a puzzle that may take a very long time to unravel. Woven into a common whole in him is an optimism and faith in Nigeria which many may find hard to access. He prosecutes this faith with a matchless energy that he devotes into his daily activity of speaking truth to power. Farounbi’s voice is almost a daily echo on Ibadan, Oyo State radio and television stations where he blends a profound knowledge of history with his hope that Nigeria will be better. An avid reader with an elephantine power of recall, he is a role model to anyone who still banks on redemption for this country.
At a point, Farounbi and his friend of over 60 years, Tola Adeniyi, of the inimitable Abba Saheed fame, noticed that my zeal in talking to deaf leaders and seemingly dead Nigerian situation was extinguishing. Immediately, he reached out to me sermonizing like a pastor on the pulpit. He followed it up with, in alliance with his friend, Adeniyi, convoking a miniature confab in Adeniyi’s Ibadan home. There, Nigeria was on the table for dissection and at the end of the day, they both succeeded in revving my zeal and commitment to a better Nigeria. Many Nigerians still wonder how an 80-year old man like Farounbi could still retain this high-octane zeal and patriotism for a country whose essences are dropping off like the wings of a sparrow in the hands of political vultures. I sill do, too.
Mimiko and I met for the very first time in December last year in his Ondo town home. At our meeting, I pointedly asked if he knew that I never liked him while he governed my State. He acknowledged that he knew. My Akure people believed that as governor, he held huge hatred for them in his heart. I told him. He then went on an explanation of all he did, driven by patriotism and an eye on the future.
While I wrote against his government, a détente in my heart came when a relation had to make use of the Mimiko government’s medical initiative called Mother and Child hospital in Akure. I couldn’t believe that any Nigerian leadership could conceive and execute such great medical intervention for its people. My relation was delivered of her baby without a dime demanded of her under very amazing medical care. With a general review I have been able to do about Mimiko after that encounter, especially placed side by side the general rot in governance going on in Ondo State today, I believe Mimiko is a leader whose time posterity will judge kindly.
As these two great Nigerian leaders and patriots celebrate their 70 and 80 years on earth, kindly permit me as I make a toast to their long life and good health.