MEMOIRS OF A FILIAL SON

Exactly twenty eight years ago on Tuesday 29th September, 1981, in a private wing of the University Of Nebraska Teaching Hospital in Omaha, United States of America, my father,Chief Olanrewaju Adesina Okenla, Bsc (Econs), LLB, ARSH, SAN, Member Body of Benchers(Nigerian Bar Association), Barrister-at-Law/Solicitor, Oloja-Bara of Isoku, Otunba Moloda of Odogbolu, Balogun Agbaku-Onida-Orara of Ijebu-Imushin, Founder/Chairman, Okenla Paramount Establishments, hotelier and cinema mogul, breathed his last sigh. He was in his fifties.The report in the subsequent edition of Omaha World Herald newspaper might have been a bit exaggerated. It occupied an entire page and spoke robustly of a Paramount Chief from Africa with substantial influence among his people. The US government felt concerned enough to offer a plane to bring the patriach home. The cause of death was cancer.My father really loved children and liked to be surrounded by children always. He was always giving us sweets, biscuits, fruits and playing games with us. He would even distribute sweets around the town so that other peoples' children too can have some fun. He liked to organise large family meetings so that we could share love and have fun together with our cousins and extended family members. He even adopted an Ibo man whom he gave an apartment in our house. My father was very adventurous.On every school-break he would take us turn by turn on extensive trips to see the rest of the country and familiarise ourselves with their different cultures.By the time I was fourteen we had visited Benin City and the Ogbe Stadium, explored and photographed the hills around Jos, ridden donkeys in Zaria, shot bows and arrows in Minna, swam at the famous Hamdala Hotel swimming pool in Kaduna, visited the site of the Ogbunike pipe-bombs in Ihiala in the Eastern region, bought items at the great Onitsha market, flew over the oil-fields of Port-Harcourt in a chopper, visited numerous zoos and climbed numerous mountains throughout the country. Ilorin, Bida, Lokoja, Enugu, Kano etc were also visited by us at various times with our father taking us on these fun-trips which would typically last for weeks and sometimes involve us camping along the way like some real-life adventurers.My father was able to recognise and acknowledge talents. He encouraged us to be hardworking and to always put our best efforts in whatever we do. He used to give periodical prizes to his children for academic brilliance, politeness, neatness etc. He was also a strict disciplinarian and we had a Ten Rules of dos and donts for Okenla Children.My father was a devoted Christian and we had a church in our house complete with a piano. We used to refer to the church as the Sanctuary. Every morning the bells of the Sanctuary will ring twice. Once to wake us up and secondly to ask us to come up and worship God.We were encouraged to memorise Bible verses and study the book of Proverbs.My father enjoyed his work as a lawyer and he only worked to defend people, never to prosecute them. He would represent even clients who did not have any money for free. In fact, one grateful client was so happy that he offered his eldest daughter to my father as a wife. My father politely declined. Most of my father's academic works were never published. They included a research into the development of Yoruba as a written language and the influence of Latin/English on the Yoruba lexicon.My father was a politician. He was a founding member of the Action Group in London in the fifties.He was also an actor. He started the Yoruba Operatic Drama Club with Chief Hubert Ogunde while together in Sapele. My father trained and qualified as a nurse in England, he studied Economics at the famous London School Of Economics (LSE) before bagging a University Of London law degree and eventually getting called to the Inner Temple Bar in England as a barrister. He left England and ignored all the lure and glamour of the big cities in Nigeria preferring instead to settle down in his beloved native hometown Ijebu Ode.We miss him greatly. May his soul rest in perfect peace (IJN) Amen.