Late J.S Olawoyin’s Life And Legacy Remembered At Event Held To Mark His Posthumous 100th Birthday In Offa
Top politicians, Islamic clerics, monarchs ,media practitioners and others paid tributes to late Chief Josiah Sunday Olawoyin at an event held to mark his 100th posthumous birthday in Offa, Kwara State on Wednesday.
Chief J.S Olawoyin, who was the Opposition Leader in the Northern House of Assembly during the First Republic, was born on February 5, 1925, and he died on October 10, 2000.
He was the first Offa indigene to get honoured with the title of Asiwaju of Offa.
The event held to mark his 100th posthumous birthday featured a book launch. The book was titled, ‘J. S. Olawoyin: A Century Of Legacy And Leadership’; and its Foreword was written by a veteran journalist and former editor of Nigerian Tribune Newspaper, Mr Banji Ogundele.
Reviewing the book, Editor of Saturday Tribune, Dr. Lasisi Olagunju, an award winning columnist, in his book review speech titled ‘Man Who Built House For Battles’, called to mind the network of relationships between Offa, Ilorin, Ibadan and old Oyo people, as well as other tribes in the country.
Olagunju noted that the book explored themes of patriotism, courage, resistance, activism, justice and loyalty, adding that the authors projected Chief Olawoyin as ‘ a dogged, and focused person’.
They also established that he was a man of ‘unassailable’ character.
‘In all, we have a compendium that has fulfilled its mission of using J.S. Olawoyin’s life and times to rekindle the torch of freedom and the fires of demand for a structural recreation of Nigeria.
If history teaches lessons and influences the course of human causes, what we have in this book is enough to force an opening of calls for social justice, and a demand by Offa and its adjoining communities for restitution and reparation from the Nigerian state’ he added.
The book reviewer also said the compendium is well referenced and comprehensively indexed, adding that, ‘It is a worthy testimonial to the worthy memory of Chief J. S. Olawoyin’.
‘The book has done a great deal of justice to the life and memory of the first Asiwaju of Offa. It is a celebration of the glorious place of Offa and its valiant people in Yoruba history. I recommend this book to all leaders and aspiring leaders, to students of the complexity called Nigeria, and to all who currently suffer subjugation and ‘slavery’ within the Nigerian space. The book tells them (and us) that the masquerade that currently pursues them will soon be tired if they do not surrender to the marauding spirit’ he added.
The book reviewer also eulogized the late elder statesman for bequeathing a worthy legacy, while congratulating the children for allowing their father to live on through them.
Also speaking, Deputy Senate Minority Leader, Senator Lola Ashiru, who represents Kwara South, described the late politician as ‘an inspiration and a lesson for us all’.
‘He was a leading light in the political trajectory of Offa and the defunct Northern Region. It’s now a thing of pride to be a Yoruba man. A Yoruba man can now walk freely in Abuja’ he added.
Chairman of the occasion, Mallam Yusuf Olaolu Ali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, lamented that principled political stance no longer exist in the nation’s politics, noting that this had become noticeable since the Second Republic.
He added that the matter is made worse today because, ‘unlike in the First Republic, when the political parties were mass movement and owned by all party members. Today, the political parties are virtually owned by the mighty, powerful and the rich’.
Ali also said late Chief Olawoyin showed that one can be a politician with high moral values through his principled political stance adding that the late elder statesman refused all the juicy political offers to stay true to his political convictions.
‘Chief Olawoyin used his politics to benefit his immediate constituency, Offa, and the larger North. He was a formidable man in the opposition camp. This was at a time when the opposition was playing the role it ought to play by putting the government of the day on its toes’ he submitted.
Former Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki was represented at the event by his former Chief of Staff, Alhaji Ladi Hassan, who described the late politician as a great Nigerian, who inspired many others.
Alhaji Ladi Hassan also told Team@orientactualmags.com that late Dr Olusola Saraki and the late Chief J.S Olawoyin engaged in ‘brotherhood politics’.
‘He was a great man, and he and late Dr Olusola Saraki had things in common, he loved his community , Offa just like Saraki also loved his community, Ilorin. They both loved their respective communities and Kwara as a whole.
The fact that they belonged to different political parties notwithstanding, they still related very well ,they were never enemies , I remember there were instances that I accompanied Baba Oloye to visit him in Offa, so, it was politics of brotherhood they were more concerned about their communities , Kwara and Nigeria as a whole’ he said- Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
