Today, family, friends, political associates will be performing the third year fidau prayers for the continued repose of the soul of former two-term Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency, Senator Abiola Adeyemi Ajimobi. He died on June 25, 2020.
Despite being an annual ritual, the day still comes with nostalgia for all those who have heard one relationship or other with the late former governor popularly known as Koseleri 1, on account of being the first governor to break the two-term jinx in the state. Prior to the advent of Governor Ajimobi, no governor had ever governed Oyo State twice. Oyo was known as a one-term governor state.
People have described my dear boss and late former governor as a uniquely created individual. They would not be too far wrong in their opinion. The trajectory of his life clearly showed this. Though he died at the most unexpected time, death hardly announces its coming. He transitioned as a fulfilled man. He was quick to say that everything he aspired for and wanted from God, he got.
For those who had worked with him in the corporate world and when he was governor, being with him was a learning curve with life- long impact.
Apart from his intellectual capacity, he also had more than a fair share of native intelligence. He understood the nuances and idiosyncrasies of humans. He was perspicuous, with clear mastery of the English and Yoruba languages through which he enthralled his listeners.
But Senator Ajimobi’s life went beyond mastery of languages. Born December 16, 1949 in Oja’ba in Ibadan, Oyo State, Ajimobi was former Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company, a subsidiary of Shell Petroleum, Nigeria, he was in the oil industry for 26 years before leaving in 2002. About a year later in 2003, he contested for the Senatorial ticket of his party, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to represent Oyo South Senatorial district. This was a time late Alhaji Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu held sway in Molete and had the politics of Oyo State under his thumb. Ajimobi won. It was, therefore, a measure of his ability in planning, his unbending personality and focus that he won the senatorial ticket under the nose of the famed promoter of amala politics political juggernaut.
In 2007, he contested for the governorship of the pacesetter state but lost the bid, though a few people claimed he was robbed of victory. Both Ajimobi and Adedibu were in diametrically opposed political camps with the former contesting on the platform of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and the later, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).The strong man of Ibadan politics, Alhaji Adedibu was not going to allow that ‘upstart’ to best him again. Though Ajimobi was not a neophyte in Oyo State political environment, having come from a family with a rich political history. His late father was an associate of the Esa-Oke born late governor of old Oyo State and former Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, while his uncle was also a major political player in the state at the time.
Undeterred by the loss of his governorship aspiration in 2007, he again contested in 2011. This time, his aspiration was successful. He thus emerged governor of Oyo State on May 29, 2011. With his tenure done after four years, he contested for a second term in office and emerged victorious, a feat which was then unprecedented in the political history of Oyo State and which earned him the sobriquet, Koseleri.
As governor, he was dedicated to the cause of Oyo State. He had once told a few gathering of cabinet members how, before he became governor, on his numerous visits to Ibadan from his Lagos base, what he would do to change the face of the state, if God gave him the opportunity to become the governor. Indeed, one of his former Special Advisers and my predecessor in office, Dr Festus Adedayo, captured Ajimobi thus in one of his essays : ‘Ajimobi is a brilliant, perceptive and articulate leader, the type that any society needs. No one, not even his most bitter critic, would doubt Ajimobi’s patriotism and commitment to the development of Oyo State. He has done more roads than any government in the recent history of that state. More importantly, he enthroned and sustained peace in the state infamously described as a garrison at the height of its security infamy.’
Culled from Parrot Nigeria
