One of such organizations was the Oodua Foundation, the Yoruba Diaspora think-tank organisation which has members in countries across the world. At the direction of the members, the Oodua Foundation International headquarters in the United States of America sent a befitting tribute. At about 11 am on Tuesday, Senator Babafemi Ojudu stood forth before the large assembly and read the tribute by Oodua Foundation.
I have the privilege of being the signatory to the Oodua Foundation tribute, as patron of the foundation. I had also undertaken to feature the tribute in my column of today, which I very proudly do now in honour of our departed mother, and to the prosperity and glory of the Yoruba nation and of the family of nations of our Nigerian federation:
Dear Mother: We, officers and members of Oodua Foundation from abroad humbly bring this tribute as we say goodbye to you our mother, friend and mentor.
As a think-tank organization of Yoruba intellectuals and professionals with members in many countries of the world, and with our headquarters in the United States, we have often been in contact with you in our efforts to research and bring new ideas into the well-being and progress of our Yoruba nation at home. Even in your great old age, even in your very last days, you were keenly attentive to us as we spelled out our concerns about the prevailing conditions of the Yoruba nation in South-western Nigeria, and as we put forth our thoughts and proposals for solution and progress. You listened, interacted, and encouraged us, as mother of our nation. And you always gave your love and warmth as mother of us all.
Yours is a life that has shone brilliant light into the life of our whole nation. The examples and precepts that you are leaving behind for our whole nation are such as we today, and all generations of our nation, will always be grateful for. It is a great lesson to all young Yoruba wives and mothers today that when fate lifted you to a leadership role in the modern history of the Yoruba nation, you were only a very young wife and mother. You were only 30 years old (more or less only a girl) when your illustrious husband and our nation’s father, Obafemi Awolowo, stepped into the gap and founded Egbe Omo Oduduwa in 1945 as an instrument for fostering unity among the modern elite of the Yoruba nation. You were 34 when he founded the Action Group and only 36 when he became the first Premier of our Western Region and you became the first First Lady of our region and nation. Far beyond what should be expected of a person of your age, you rose to the position of First Lady with great dignity and poise, and with unwavering loyalty to your ever-busy husband, to the course of progress, and to the struggle for the well-being and prosperity of our people.
Our nation saw your dignity and poise even more powerfully from 1962, after the Federal Government of Nigeria chose to foment a crisis in the Western Region and plunge our lives into instability and turmoil. You were only 47 years old in that year – though most of us are used to thinking that you were already a very old mother by then. To the shock and disbelief of all of us in the Western Region, our great leader and your husband was whisked from detention to criminal trials and then to prison. Your son, Segun Awolowo, who belonged to the same age as many of us who are now members of Oodua Foundation, died suddenly in the terrible storm. Most of us today in Oodua Foundation who were old enough to understand these devastations at the time thought that our whole life was collapsing. But, through the darkest hours of it all, you stood like a rock behind your great husband, behind our father and leader, behind us suffering youths, and behind the weeping and mourning millions of our people. In the pitch darkness of the time, the light which you held bravely up reflected the great light from our great leader to all corners of our homeland.
Mama, we your children are not mourning your departure. We are happily and gratefully celebrating your beautiful life and the gifts you have bequeathed to us and to our nation. Your great husband and our great father taught us to remember always that it is a cardinal principle of Yoruba culture and traditions that rulers of society respect the ruled, and that Yoruba rulers always hold themselves in great dignity, observe serious discipline in all their doings, devote their own energies and the resources of society to the promotion of the well-being of all members of society, apply themselves to knowledge and understan-
ding, and live a life that elevates the moral and social tones of society. When you see him face to face in the afterlife, tell him that we his children are still holding true to the lessons that he taught us.
Thank you for standing always loyally by his side in this life as he beamed the great lights into our lives. Thank you for never wavering, even in the face of the worst storms and tempests. Thank you for giving yourself unreservedly to us and to our nation as our Great and Loving Mother and Guide.
NATION
END
Be the first to comment