It’s a special delight to write this Tribute in honour of an uncle, trail blazer, mentor and hero, Mr. Adejumoke Omoarare Oni, as he turns 80 today, Friday, 5th September 2025. Your late mum who passed on to eternity when you were barely seven years old in 1952 was my mother’s big Auntie from the illustrious Obalodu Quarters at our ancestral home, Odo Ijesa, in present day Osun State of Nigeria. Following from this you have been a much respected elder that we have always looked up to.
I knew you while I was still an infant, bare footed primary school pupil at the Saint Bartholomew’s Anglican Primary School, Ilahun, Odo Ijesa, in the 1960s. You were already a qualified teacher plying your trade in Ibadan during the period. You became famously known to us the pre-teens then simply as Baba Seye, after your first son Oluseye (Seye) who was born during the late 1960s, while your wife, now of blessed memory, Mrs Bolatito Oni, was known and addressed simply as Mama Seye.
You later proceeded to Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone, where you earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics in June 1974. You returned immediately to Nigeria to start what turned out to become a successful career at the Western Nigeria Marketing Board/Nigerian Cocoa Board, housed at Cocoa House Ibadan. Meanwhile, you qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). While at Ibadan, I used to visit you and Mama Seye at your official residence along Rotimi Williams Avenue Bodija. I remember coming there with my Matriculation gown in November 1977 as a new entrant to the Preliminary Science class at the University of Ibadan to take photographs with you.
You were extremely delighted when I showed up in your office on the Fourth Floor of Cocoa House in July 1981 to report that I had successfully completed my BSc in Geology degree. Those were glorious days when our Universities operated a regular academic calendar with resumption for an academic session in September while end of session examinations were concluded in June of the following year.
I came back to stay with you on completion of my National Youth Service Corps Scheme in July 1982 while I was employed as Hydrogeologist by Deptol Consultants Ibadan.
You were at different times Chief Internal Auditor and Chief Accountant with the Nigerian Cocoa Board.
You moved to Lagos about 1983 and your love and affection for me did not diminish. One particular incident that is still fresh in my memory was your kindness and magnanimity in taking some days off from work in Lagos to follow up my request for transfer of funds from my First Bank account Domiciled at their University of Ibadan Branch to the United Kingdom in 1985. I was a postgraduate student at the University of Birmingham at the time and needed to transfer funds for my upkeep and tuition fees. I can never forget this sacrifice on your part. Needless to add that there was no Internet banking nor electronic money transfer those days.
You came back to Ibadan in the late 1990s to take up appointment as Deputy Group Managing Director of Odua Investments Limited at the headquarters in the Ibadan Central Business District from where you retired from active service.
You have been a great mentor and role model for all seasons. Your legendary sense of humour and openness endeared you to not a few of us. There is no dull moment anytime we are with you, the most recent one being at a funeral service at Ilesa in late 2024. You are a quintessential community leader in the truest sense of the word.
As Africans, we believe that it takes a whole village to raise a child, especially for someone like my humble self who came from a humble background. I am happy that I am able to write these few words on the occasion of your attaining age 80. You are now truly an Alagba. Life begins at 80. We remember Mama Seye today as always and pray for the continued repose of her gentle soul.
We join Seye and his brother, Sola, their spouses and the grandchildren to celebrate this landmark. Igba odun, odun kan ni, Sir.
Professor Olayinka, former Vice-Chancellor University of Ibadan, writes from Ibadan.
