A Special Tribute From The Heart For The Late Olatubosun Adedipe By Wumi Akintide

The late Olatubosun Adedipe that I know and would cherish for the rest of my life.

By Dr. Wumi Akintide.

I call this eulogy a special tribute to my “Korikosun” affectionate and favorite gist partner and friend in the last 25 years of my life.

We communicate more than 5 times a day on a wide variety of subjects including American Politics, Nigerian and World Politics, Akure and Ondo State Politics and the welfare of our children and marital life and any other matters which might crop up along the way.

Olatubosun is my sounding board for everything. I can tell you that my life in America and my daily routine would never be the same again. They are for ever changed or significantly impacted by his changing mortality for immortality in a New Jersey Hospital without a chance to say a final goodbye we both deserve and would have wanted.

I resist the temptation to call him my best friend because he and I both know that his best friend is no other person but his wife of 47 years, beautiful, mature and wise Yetunde, the woman in the first picture with him below that Tubosun himself has told me, a million times, is next in line to God in his order of priorities and in his Book of Appreciation and Gratitude for putting up with him and always there for him when it mattered the most, in health and in sickness, for better or for worse and for richer or for poorer in total adherence to their marital vow and conjugal Bliss.

Olatubosun Adedipe the son of Elemo Akomolafe Oporua Iketa Iare and his wife“Adumosa luku Ayegbe” had made his self predicted transition on January 12, 2023 surrounded by his wife and his first daughter Teniola just a fewdays shy of his 80th Birthday despite being on Dialysis for 15 years

We all knew that day would come, because he had been on Dialysis for years but he had survived for that long by the special grace of God and the hands-on monitoring of his self-appointed personal physician in Yetunde who has quadrupled down as his wife, his mother and his best friend and mother of his three wonderful children namely Ayokunle his first son, Teniola, a brilliant product of Duke University his first daughter and Oluwadamilola, his youngest daughter.

Yetunde has always taken charge, watching over her husband’s health like a mother Hen watches over her newly hatched chicks for upwards of 50 years with enough scars to prove it.

Yetunde is an introvert and her husband is an extrovert but surprisingly both of them have decided early in their marriage to not let their marriage degenerate to the proverbial Union between “Olokose” and “Omude as told by Erinlakatabu Kabiyesi Deji Afunbiowo Adesida (1897-1957) the greatest Deji of all times in the opinion of Tubosun Adedipe who confessed to me he had taken to heart the statement by the Kabiyesi that “Olokose” the husband only copulates at night but his wife “Omude” only copulates in the day time.

How, for God’s sake, are the husband and wife ever going to have children but the two of them did because they have learned to give and take just like Olatubosun and Yetunde.

When Tubosun was angry and upset, Yetunde was as cool as cucumber. The symbiosis between them was palpable and truly uncanny. Both of them made Marriage look like a cakewalk.

I guarantee you in this funeral eulogy that Tubosun would long have been dead or forgotten but for the unmerited grace of God and the passionate devotion and resourcefulness of Yetunde his Morohunmubo precious jewel of inestimable value from Ilupeju Ekiti. She is truly a wife in a million.

Many of us men and women have come to this world to hook up with the wrong husband or wife. Why? Because Marriage as desirable as it has become in every human society is the proverbial “Oja Okuku” the unpredictable Night Market.

Most of us enter into it totally blindfolded not knowing what the future holds in stock for us.

Some are lucky to have the right combination while others are unlucky to be yoked or hooked up to the wrong husband or wife “ab initio” (from the beginning)

Olatubosun and Yetunde were cut out for each other hence their marriage has been so fruitful and successful. But they have both worked so hard to make it work is the lesson we all must take away from them because there is no perfect marriage anywhere in the World.

I am not just running my mouth. I am making the confession based on my closeness to the couple and what her husband had told me when he commandeered me to get ready to write this eulogy if he is the first to come off the Bus of Life at his chosen destination and that he too would be ready to play the same role for me if I become the first to drop off the bus at my own destination

I used to tell him that it is not he or she that is bedridden with sickness in Hospital that is going to be the next in line to die and that I might come off the Bus sooner than him even though he is the one going for Dialysis every other day and thinking that his days are numbered. He and I often joke about that.

I am therefore doing this tribute because of a gentleman’s agreement between us. I am just keeping my own side of the bargain.

Tubosun was a year or two younger than me. He was was in form one at Oyemekun Grammar School while I was in my final year because his father , High Chief Elemo Akomolafe Anirare Adedipe, one of the richest Elemo in Akure History did not send him to Primary School sooner.

He and I had taken different routes to get to where we are today in America. He ended up in Montclair, New Jersey while I ended up in New York City.

But we both became “Korikosun” gist partners in America.

He calls me and I call him so many times everyday to compare notes and to talk about America and talk about Nigeria and Akure, our home away from home as two passionate lovers of History who complement each other, as we both learn from each other because iron sharpens iron and it takes excellence to recognize excellence.

Olatubosun was a late developer in brain power and he was as smart as Hell but he thought a whole world of me thinking I was a genius compared to him. He sure got that wrong, I used to tell him. I quite often picked his brains to keep up with him.

I can tell you that another chapter in my life in America has closed with the passing of Olatubosun Adedipe at 12:55 AM on January 12. A vacuum has been created that only God is able to fill.

I jokingly called Olatubosun “the best Elemo Oporua” Akure has never had” because he would have been a shoo-in to succeed Elemo Bolanle Adedipe but he did not join the race to be selected because he was a realist who thought his poor health was going to be a handicap.

But he was nonetheless one of the foundation pillars of the Adedipe Chieftaincy Dynasty of Akure in Diaspora and arguably the most active and the most progressive and benevolent in my opinion.

The decision to commission a Historian based in Akure in person of one Mr. Akeju-Ige “Omo Ijare Elewe Obi ko mara j’Ufin” to produce the first draft of the Elemo Adedipe Family History which has been in the works for donkey years, was Olatubosun’s brainchild.

The others who had joined him in the effort were Dr. Sina and Dr. Leke Adedipe, the two sons of Elemo Orisabinu Adedipe, and late Professor Sunday Agbi whose mother had come from the Okira Unit of the Adedipe Dynasty in Akure.

The initiative to write the book was a first in Akure History. Only one of the four family members who have pioneered the move is still alive today, thank God.

It is their youngest brother erudite Revd Pastor Leke Adedipe who I am sure is more than ready to handle the final publication and Launching of the Book at a day to be announced.

I know all of these information because I was assigned the duty to help edit the manuscript and to write the Foreword because of my special relationship with Olatubosun and his 3 cousins listed above.

Olatubosun Adedipe, despite his calendar age, has become one of the foundation pillars of the Elemo Akomolafe Unit of the Adedipe Dynasty of Akure in which the Okira Unit of that family is currently the leading Unit which has produced the great Elemo Orisabinu Adedipe, the current Elemo Segun Adedipe and by extension the current Deji of Akure Oba Aladetoyinbo Odundun the Second whose own mother is the daughter of Pa Okira Adedipe.

The current Erelu and Iyaloja of Akure (Mrs. Olufunlayo Adekanye) is also
the daughter of Elemo Orisabinu Adedipe.

You could argue that the Elemo Adedipe Dynasty is currently the most illustrious family in Akure next to the Royal Family in general and the Adesida Royal Dynasty of Akure in particular.

I can tell you that as an insider in the the Adesida Dynasty and a former secretary general of the only Asodeboyede Ruling Lineage before it was broken into two by Decree in 1991 by Navy Captain Sunday Olukoya as Military Governor of Ondo State.

Olatubosun Adedipe was cognizant of that development like no other Akure Historian I know.

With Chief Oluyemi Falae, another descendant of Elemo Adedipe now crowned as Kabiyesi the Oluabo of Iluabo in Akure, the power, the prestige and influence of the Adedipe Dynasty in Akure has never been more contagious and sacrosanct and impactful.

Even though Tubosun Adedipe has never taken a title himself but he had remained a leader of consequence in the family till his death thus leaving his first son, Ayokunle to now step into the giant shoes of his father in the Family and now as the Head of the Olatubosun Unit of that Family by acclamation and consensus.

I am persuaded that Ayokunle would have realized by now that the time has come for him to fulfil that role of a putative leader in the absence of his father, even from his base In Colorado, USA.

The Barton has been passed on to Ayokunle and he must not let down his father or mother or his two younger sisters.

Part of my role is to help Ayokunle any way I can to help him fulfil the dreams of his wonderful father, if he is open to it. I cherish his father and mother that much for me to want to play that role in deference to my friend.

I would not end this Eulogy without showering some encomium on Ayokunle, as the Daodu of the Olatubosun Family and Teniola as the first daughter and their youngest sister,Oluwadamilola also in the family pictures.

Teniola,like most first daughters, has occupied a special place in the heart of her father for reasons I cannot fully explain in words but which I fully understand and appreciate as a father with 4 sons and 4 daughters who are all dear and special to me but the first son has to lead the way for his other siblings to follow.

There is not a single day that passes that Olatubosun does not have something nice to say about his 3 children and most especially about Teniola, a product of Duke University and a daughter in a million.

I say it because it is the truth and I say it to justify my deep appreciation of his 3 amazing Children and their mother, the one and only Yetunde.

I say it because it is one of the last wishes of their father in my last but one telephone conversation with him from Toronto when he jokingly confided in me that he was just about ready to come off the Bus as he has already reached his final Destination.

I didn’t pay much attention because the guy was always talking about death and his readiness to go home when his time is up.

It was probably his chance to say a final goodbye to me but I did not connect the dots at the time but now I do with clarity.

I shed tears of joy and triumph for Tubosun for he has died the way he has lived, a down- to-earth open and practical man who speaks his mind, come rain or shine. He is a brutally-frank individual who has made a few enemies by telling the bitter truth with no apologies to any foe or friend, myself included but I still love him.

There is no pretense about Tubosun.
What you see is what you get.

He would be going down to his grave, in my opinion, as one of the most authentic human beings that God ever created.

On a car ride with me to Boston to visit my youngest daughter during her final and last Semester in Harvard, last June, he had told me, he had decided to come with me because it might be his last because he wanted to say Goodbye to Tolu before Tolu leaves Harvard for Louisiana.

I now know he was talking about himself going on a journey of no return.

I can now tell in retrospect that he went with me to say his final goodbye to Tolu but I could not comprehend it at the time.

We both stayed for 3 nights at the Boston Sheraton rented and fully paid for by Tolu.

Olatubosun Adedipe shown with his family in the pictures captured below would be sorely missed.

I am yet to know any Nigerians more grateful to God for what America has done for them, be it male or female.

He has confessed to me a million times that coming to America was his greatest blessing and that he would die here and be buried here with fulfillment and gratitude to God.

Olatubosun. a lover of History and tradition would not expect me to end this tribute without reciting his Oriki.

I am therefore going to draw the curtain on this eulogy by doing just that to the best of my ability and in deference to our mutual agreement as I bid him a well deserved farewell until we meet to part no more and in the full acknowledgment of the wisdom in our Yoruba or Akure proverb that “Eni f’okuku de Ile l’Oko l’Aya e r’ale Ule fin.

Everything I uttered in this eulogy is from my heart and based on what Olatubosun has shared with me and the little I have observed in our time together.

“Olatubosun, Afinju Omo Elemo Oporua Iketa Iare, Oko Yetunde,Baba Ayokunle. Baba Teniola Baba Omolara, O darinnako O d’oju Ala. Ma j’Okun, Ma j’Ekolo Ohun toba nje l’Ajuleorun ni ko ba won je. Omo Akure Oloyemekun, Omo amuda sile, m’Ogun erun yin ni, Omo Olusopo Mari ja l’lodi. Omo Olusopo moyinyin sore, Usopo m’obe sise. Iyan no gun ro l’Usopo. Omo amabere gunyan ki Ado Igberigbe mo mo. Omo a siju Ohun mu Agbon Adiye tore. O du mosa luku Ayegbe. O fotito ja bi Orisa, o mogbon inu ja bi Ase. Loogun Ofe o!!!!!!

Dr. Wumi Akintide
Oyemekun Terrace
New York.