His Excellency Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola (left) with Oloye Lekan Alabi
By Oluwayemisi Oloyede
Nigeria – The Ekefa Olubadan and Maye-Olubadan-designate, Oloye Lekan Alabi has describe the Nigeria High Commissioner to UK, His Excellency Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola as a kindhearted man.
Oloye Alabi, a veteran journalist, author and public relations guru, made the statement when he paid a courtesy call on Ambassador Isola.
According to Maye-Olubadan-designate, he arrived at his description of Ambassador Isola as a kindhearted man after meeting with him one-on-one.
He said, “When he was the SSG of Ogun State, I had cause to seek an appointment with him in his office. Ambassador Isola’s nod to my request was rather un-Nigerian – too fast, in local parlance”.
Below is his recount text about Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola:
“I am not certain if His Excellencey Sarafa Ishola will take kindly to the facts I am about to spill in public. But since I consider it for public good, here I go.
When he was the SSG of Ogun State, I had cause to seek an appointment with him in his office. Due to the “hot-knife-in -butter” process that my application was treated by him, I had to depart Ibadan, my beloved hometown and base, at very short notice, for Abeokuta, to meet the time given me by his protocol staff.
Let me digress by stating that as a regular visitor to Abeokuta, my style is to keep the night before any appointment that I may have in Abeokuta.
But as I have stated above, Ambassador Isola’s nod to my request was rather un-Nigerian – too fast, in local parlance.
My heart was in my mouth as we tore through the Odo-Ona-Apata Ganga- Omi Adio-Bakatari-Kila-Olodo-Osiele-Eleweeran-MKO- NNPC- Secretariat traffic ‘free flowing’ route to the the Ogun State Government SSG Office complex in the nick of time – ten minutes to the allotted time of appointment.
A big relief surged out in my face when I saw the late Baale Lafenwa, Chief Tajudin Alabi Yusufu-Olatunji, the Aremo(eldest male child)of the late Sakara music icon, Yusufu Olatunji(Baba l’Egba) already seated among the visitors of the SSG. I had called him to get to the Office of the SSG before me as I was hitting the road to Abeokuta from my home in Ibadan, at about 7.45am, almost 4 hours before the time of my appointment.
And what was Baba l’Egba’s Aremo own in ‘my’ matter with the SSG, you ask?
A lot. Baba l’Egba, God bless his soul, was an older friend of my late father, Pa AbdulRahim Oladosu Alabi, alias “RIGHT TIME” may his noble soul continue to rest in perfect peace. Amen. The sakara music doyen played at my naming ceremony in Ibadan from Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th November, 1950.
In 2000, the then governor of Ogun state, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, my professional senior, approved my application to his government that I wanted to found the YUSUFU OLATUNJI FOUNDATION. His government not only approved my application, but also supported us morally and financially to get the YOF off the ground.
Suddenly, Baale Tajudin fell I’ll in 2005, and needed surgery. My mind went to Alhaji Sarafa Ishola, as he was then addressed, for assistance in settling the medical bill of the popular but poor patient, Baale Lafenwa.
It took a bullet-train time for protocol to usher me into the presence of the SSG after my presence had been announced to him. I went straight to business, as it were, as there was a huge crowd of visitors waiting to see him. I explained that the YOF that I presided over, and still do, could not afford the bill to treat Baba l’Egba’s eldest child’s ailment. At first I thought I was dreaming when the SSG said something close to this: “Akogun, you could have given me a call rather than risk your life by coming all the way to Abeokuta from Ibadan early in the morning”. He pressed the bell and told one of his aides who answered the bell to invite Baale Tajudin in.
A short exchange of words between the SSG, Baale and I ended with a short directive from the Alaanu (kind) SSG: “Akogun, please return to Ibadan. We shall handle this matter to everybody’s delight.”
I took my leave and was pleasantly surprised later that day when one of Baale’s children called me on phone and broke the good news that his father had been admitted into a standard hospital in Abeokuta for care. Wait for this, please-all expenses to be borne personally by Alhaji Sarafa Isola, currently Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Since I threw a precautionary notice ahead of this testimony, if His Excellency objects to this ‘exposure’ of his 2005 kind deed, WE ARE ALL CULPABLE, for reading my post from the beginning to the end.
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