I learnt with heartfelt sadness about the passage of the Ondo High Chief, Alexander Akinyele, who was one of my informal advisers when I was privileged to be the military governor of the old Ondo State from 1987 to 1990.
He struck me as an ebullient man; full of energy, vibrant, gregarious, loud in genial conviviality.
He was a man of culture, proud of his heritage, indifferent to the stings of malice, stoic and unmoved by the taunts of envy, woven in a world of his own, regaled in an orbit defined by boisterous affability and what others may perceive as dramatic, instinctive showmanship.
But he was genuine, sincere, scripted in an original liberty in his large beaded accouterments, striking and distinct even in a crowd. He was an amiable elephant you couldn’t miss in any particular space.
Student activist, Public Relations icon, Minister, man of tradition and a patriot, Akinyele lived a fulfilled life, stripped of rancour, always friendly, boundless in boldness, firm and sure, latched to a world of personal wonder and attractiveness.
He will be sorely missed. Goodbye and Goodnight, an enigma nicknamed “Baba Aleco”.
May you find eternal peace in the repose of the good Lord.
