Bashorun Kola Daisi @93: Living For Philanthropy by Gani Adeniran

I had written severally on Bashorun Kola Daisi and paid tributes to him on the occasions of his birthday.  On September 14th, Bashorun turns 93 years in the land of the  living. We must continue to celebrate this gargantuan philanthropist of our time, a pride of Ibadanland, and someone the God Almighty has put on earth simply to do His work and no more.

Just about a month ago, I visited his house to check on him. He had complained earlier in the year when we met at the inaugural lecture named in his honour by the Ibadan Foundation, one of the preeminent clubs that parade the crème de la crème of Ibadan elites, intelligentsia and business tycoons.

He said that he no longer saw  me as often as he would have wished. When I told me that I am now retired, his response was a story for another day. There, I met two of his sons, Kolapo and Oba Abiodun Kola Daisi and a lady medical doctor and Chief Oladiti Oladapo, the former Secretary of the Oyo State Government.

Baba Kola Daisi, decked in his usual white garment, was doing justice to a good meal. He asked for my wife and I told him that she went to Igbo-ora to check her aged mother who is now over a hundred years.

I then prayed he be blessed with much longer life. He didn’t say ameen; he looked at me so intensely and warmly like a sage would look at a toddler. Along with others present, we continued discussions on some matters of the moment which centred on the death of the Awujale and how he was buried, and the controversy between the Alaafin and the Ooni of Ife over the chieftaincy title conferred recently by the latter. Bashorun was attentive and amused all through our discussion.

We must continue to enliven the life of this nanogenarian  who took the social and business firmament by storm in the 1970s and enjoyed it to the fullest. When he received the honorary degree of Law of the University of Ibadan in 1998, the University Orator Professor Johnson Anifalaje, quoting Cicero’s De finibus bonorum et malorum, surmised that “Definitely, the outstanding achievements of Chief Kola Daisi are traceable to his inimitable virtues.

Professor Anifalaje went on to say that the most DOMINANT (emphasis mine) trait of the Chief is his philanthropy. Anifalaje added: “His passion for kindness is so intense and widespread.” To drive home the point, the University Orator quoted from James Stephens’ book, In The Imperative Mood: “Let the man who has and doesn’t give break his neck, and cease to live! Let him who gives without a care gather rubies from the air.”

The details of Basorun Kola Daisi’s philanthropy are well documented in the annals of the University of Ibadan and the College of Medicine. The Kola Daisi Foundation, which he formalised in 1992, continues to blaze the trail in poverty alleviation and the well-being of Ibadan people and beyond. The Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), under the leadership of Barrister Adeniyi Ajewole, is even best placed to her own account of Daisi’s larger-than-life kindness.

Happy birthday once again, sir, and congratulations. Ire o!