The demise of Senator Bayo Osinowo, who served as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Commerce, Industry and Investments, has left many of his supporters, associates and family in shock, writes GBENGA ADENIJI
The late Senator Bayo Osinowo who represented Lagos East in the Senate spoke philosophically on June 11, 2020, at the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly during the first anniversary of the 9th Senate. The Senate was inaugurated on June 11, 2019.
Dressed in sparkling and voluminous attire (agbada) matched with an embroidered, wine-coloured native cap, Osinowo bluntly urged his colleagues to be grateful to God rather than mourn over past deaths in the Senate.
He said, “God didn’t sign any agreement with anybody when he created us. He just created us without notice so he would take us away without notice. Death is inevitable. It will come of a sudden (sic). Many never witnessed their first birthdays. Which of the blessings of the lord will you deny?”It thus came as a shock to his supporters and political associates when four days later, he breathed his last in a Lagos hospital. He was buried same day at his residence in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. Osinowo is the fourth senator to die in the 9th Senate.
Before joining the Senate in 2019, the deceased held sway as lawmaker representing Kosofe constituency at the Lagos State Assembly where he served four terms from 2003 to 2019. While in the assembly, he chaired the Committee on Lands and Housing which Sunday PUNCH learnt was his favourite.
Perhaps, his experience as a land officer with the Federal Ministry of Works, Lagos State, made him choose the committee. He managed some businesses before joining politics in the Second Republic when he served as a youth wing chairman of the Social Democratic Party. Osinowo also endured military jackboots during the National Democratic Coalition struggle to validate the mandate of the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
In 2019, Osinowo eyed the Senate and pulled his political weight to replace the then incumbent, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, to represent Lagos East.
A former ranking member of the 40-member Lagos Assembly who spoke on condition of anonymity told our correspondent that Osinowo was imbued with native intelligence which manifested hugely in his dealings. He noted that the late senator was also a powerbroker who assisted many politicians to realise their ambitions.
Osinowo, a core Mandate Group member and devoted Muslim, was the eyes and ears of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, when he was in the Assembly.
“If the Assembly needed the attention of Tinubu on any issue or a lawmaker wished to get anything from him, Osinowo was the man to meet. He was loyal and close to the former governor of Lagos State and the ex-Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola,’’ a serving member of the House said.
Described as the ‘unofficial leader’ of the Lagos Assembly during his time as a member, Osinowo was instrumental to the emergence of two Speakers. Sunday PUNCH gathered that he once took a former member, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, to Tinubu on behalf of other members for endorsement as a Speaker, and also played a vital role in the emergence of the current Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa with the support of Aregbesola.
Multiples sources narrated how a member of th e House was removed and he used his political clout to save him. Our correspondent learnt that his popular sobriquet, Pepper or Pepeerito, was earned from his political calculations which often left opponents mesmerised.
One of the sources said, “His political game is akin to putting pepper in the eyes of opponents hence the nickname, Pepper.” Others argued that it was a nickname from his school days.
Before his death, four members of the Assembly from his senatorial district were suspended by the House leadership for what it termed gross misconduct, insubordination, and actions capable of destabilising the assembly before the intervention of the Governor’s Advisory Council; the highest decision-making body of the APC Lagos chapter. Many watchers of Lagos politics believed that though in the Senate, Osinowo was still interested in developments in the Assembly.
In a tribute, a former Chip Whip of the Assembly, Rotimi Abiru, who is among the recalled lawmaker, described Osinowo as an astute grass root politician, thorough progressive, a political pathfinder and liberator, a cheerful giver and a super benefactor to many.
He stated that Osinowo’s death came as rude and offensive shock to me and the good people of Bariga in Somolu constituency of Lagos State.
Abiru stated, “I’m yet to come to the realities of the news of his demise, the man who diligently served the people of Lagos State with all the renewed vigour and determination. I sincerely wish the news of his demised is a day dream and not true.
“Osinowo was a general in the Nigeria political corridor. He fought many battles along with other generals to liberate the nation from the grip of the military dictator who made offensive incursion into the governance of the country. He was harassed, persecuted, bullied and imprisoned in the struggle to liberate the nation especially, during the struggle to revalidate the June 12, 1993 election. The late distinguished senator was a parliamentarian per excellence and remained one of the nation’s heroes of current democracy to which some of us are beneficiaries today. His death at this time, no doubt is a great loss not only to his family members, legions of beneficiaries, Lagos as a state but also to the entire country which currently benefits from his political and administrative endowment.
He added that the deceased’s sense of humour which he often used to inject life and to douse tension inside at the Lagos Assembly when he was a member was another quality and attribute that described and stood him out.
“My cordial relationship of leader to follower, friend to friend, teacher to student, mentor to beneficiary with Pepeerito was substantially perfect till his last breath and I remain bereaved with his demise’’ he stated.
Also, Tinubu, in a statement, said he was ‘deeply hurt’ by Osinowo’s death. He noted that the lawmaker was like a family member to him. “His death hurts all who know him. Bayo was more than an excellent politician. As great a politician he was, Bayo was an even better person. He was a man of a kind heart and ready smile. His loyalty and enthusiasm was legendary, just as his generosity,” Tinubu said.
However, Osinowo’s son, Tunde, has said his father’s death left the family in shock.
He spoke when the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, led members of the State Executive Council to sympathise with the widow and family of the late lawmaker.
Tunde said, “On behalf of my mother and the rest of the family members, I express our gratitude to Governor Sanwo-Olu and all members of his entourage for this visit to share in our grief. Spiritually, my dad had prepared us for this moment but we never prepared physically. This is a pain and burden the family would carry on for the rest of our lives. We have accepted Allah’s wish over the death of our father.”
Sanwo-Olu described the deceased as “a patriotic and passionate nation builder,” adding that Osinowo dedicated his adult life and energy to the service of Lagos and the nation.
He told the widow, Alhaja Mariam Osinowo, that the deceased usually offered abundance of advice on good governance and how party unity could be entrenched.
He said, “I am personally at a loss over the death of Senator Osinowo. I am yet to recover from the shock because of the good relationship I had with him, even before I became the governor. His passing is also a huge loss to our nation and Lagos State in particular, because of his years of service.
“No doubt that Senator Osinowo’s personality was larger than life. His death has left a void, not only in leadership but also in the hearts of all of us, who are his associates. He was a detribalised Nigerian and a true Lagosian.”
Many of his supporters who thronged his residences both in Lagos and Ogun when the news of his death broke wept openly and attested to being beneficiaries of his towering philanthropy.
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