By Chief Femi Adagunodo.
Abi, was there a better way to understand it? Was there a more humbling measure of equanimity with which to bear it? more than to accept with shock, as his body was being carried to the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Aisegba-Ekiti yesterday morning, that again it was “Akin Ogunmola reporting”, this time however, not by his personal self. This time it was his body, and in a casket.
Folks, that would be it. For Ogunmola, as for everyone else, nobody leaves this world alive, whoever anybody is now or becomes later, ko ju bee lo. This phase would end, and another will start. That one is the final report.
For Ogunmola who just passed and for us still hoping to live, a reality, exists that is both bigger than the enjoyment of living or the pain of dying. It has just started unravelling, especially for those special kinds of human beings of which Ogunmola is one; people who entertain strangers, people who stretch out their hand to raise the weak and folks who get passionate with friends until they become families.
For the people of Aisegba, for his journalists colleagues, for the landlords and residents of Elemi Estate, Afao road, Ado Ekiti, a man of extraordinary existence has just left.
Now and forever, once anyone who has gained in one form or the other, who has benefited on whatever scale, whether small or big, continues to render the stories of how Ogunmola was a factor in their success to friends, families and even their own children, such reports of good deeds, would still be “Akin Ogunmola reporting” again.
Ogunmola’s vast contribution to the journalism profession is not hard to trace. He worked for first class media stables like Television continental, TVC, Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State, (BSES) and AYOBA 95.1 FM radio station and have continued featuring in media activities before his death. In 2000 and 2005, he received the prestigious NUJ award of Best Reporter of the Year by the Ekiti State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists. This writer of beautiful language both in English and his native Yoruba actually got his nickname Othello far back during his high school days at Oyemekun Grammer School in Akure.
Gentility and quietness is Ogunmola’s most apparent quality. But these traits conceal an array of highly responsible and deeply humane positive attributes. A lot of people has already spoken glowingly of his good deeds and this author is a witness and beneficiary of one unforgettable example.
None can tell this story better than Ogunmola’s childhood friend and former school mate, former Chief Press Secretary and APC leader, Chief Biodun Akin Fasae, who is still smarting from the shock of his death.
Fasae said that for the past two year, he was my assistant and colleague as Technical Advisor, SARVICOM. But beyond officialdom, he was a great writer with many manuscripts including my own biography. Akin was a very strict person. You know where you are with him.His thought process was straight and direct. He was a master in the use of language. He was Ekiti State government house correspondents while I was CPS for four years.
As the Ogunmola’s lifetime phase closes, his post- humours life time starts. He will keep reporting in the minds of the uncountable number of people whose lives he has touched and who he has shown the away forward.
Like Sir Winston Churchill retorted when he was asked why he was sure posterity will be kind to him after his death, the great British writer, leader and politician said he would write it by himself.
Akinboye Ogunmola wrote a lot both on paper and in our hearts before he suddenly left this world. But his great works live on in the minds of many rare but fanatical practitioners of the indestructible art of appreciation.
The good deeds of people represents their true immortality. That is how we will be sure to always have “Akin Ogunmola reporting”.
So, nothing will make us forget him.
