Tribute By Segun Adeyemi
”Where in the world are you?” Ojo had asked in a text message to me during my recent quick break.
That set the stage for our meeting the moment I touched down in Abuja.
We were together on Thursday March 2nd, 2017.
It was at our usual watering hole, Baytown Lounge, Abuja
We packed so much into the three hours we spent together
In between some quick bites and quaffs, we talked business, family, whatever caught our fancy.
We do that anytime I could take a quick break from my frenetic pace
As it now seems, it would be our last meeting on this side of the divide
Ojo (that’s what I call him) did not need to make that trip: To attend Obasanjo’s 80th birthday
He told me he didn’t get an invitation.
I told him he didn’t need any, that it was his ‘Baba’s’ birthday.
A wry smile on his face, he said I was right, and quickly added: ”He (Obasanjo) won’t forgive me if I didn’t go”
There and then he decided he would go…..
I feel a sense of guilt for not stopping him
But that’s playing God. I shouldn’t! I know. But what can I say now?
I am grateful for all the time we spent together as friends and brothers
Though we both practised as Journalists in Nigeria
We became friends only in New York
I was there as a Foreign Correspondent, he as a doctoral student at
New York University
We and other Nigerian journalists (Sonala Olumhense, Tunji Lardner
Junior, Stanley Ogunedo and the only
non-journalist Daniel Akerejah)
Who were ”stranded in New York by choice” – apologies to Yinka
Adeyemi, another journalist then based in NY
Formed what we called the ”Goat Club”
Once a month, we would retire to Akerejah’s home in New Jersey
From where we headed to a farm to slaughter a goat, share it and head
back to Akerejah’s
to eat, drink, dance and remember home sweet home.
It looks like eons ago now….So much for that.
In a world of treachery, disloyalty, dishonesty, indolence and hatred
You can’t find a more loyal, more honest, more hardworking and more
loving fellow than Ojo
He was reliable, dependable and straightforward to a fault
Yet he had more than enough of his own share of tragedy. What an irony.
No. Ojo is not dead. He can’t die. Good men don’t die.
