During the burial rites, one of the numerous posters on the streets of Ibadan clearly stood out. “WHO MOVED THIS SAD MOTION?” it wondered, before adding: “The ‘ayes’ did not have it.”
No amount of flowery prose or elegant poetry can erase the grief of someone who has lost a loved one or revive the life of the dead, but even Adesina Michael Adeyemo, the late former Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, would smile in his grave if he saw one of the posters in circulation as part of his death rites.
Adeyemo slumped on Friday April 27 after suffering a heart attack at his official residence, Ibadan, not long after he spoke over the phone with his wife and three boys abroad.
The 47-year-old died while being rushed to the Jericho Specialist hospital, Ibadan, his body subsequently deposited at the morgue of the Department of Anatomy, University of Ibadan.
A service of songs was held for him on Wednesday at Oke Ado Baptist Church, Ibadan, followed by a special black-on-black sitting by members of the state assembly on Thursday, attended by the likes of Abiola Ajimobi, Governor of Oyo State; Florence, his wife; Adebayo Alao-Akala, former Governor of the state; and the speakers of the Enugu, Lagos, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Osun, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Niger, Delta, Kwara, Enugu, Ondo and Ogun state houses of assembly.
His remains left Ibadan for Lanlate after the special session and lying-in-state ceremony at the House of Assembly complex, where an open-air funeral service was jointly organised by Oke Ado Baptist Church, Ibadan and First Baptist Church, Lanlate.
During the burial rites, one of the numerous posters on the streets of Ibadan clearly stood out. “WHO MOVED THIS SAD MOTION?” it wondered, before adding: “The ‘ayes’ did not have it.”
Nothing would bring Adeyemo back at this stage, but he would perhaps be consoled in his grave to know that had a motion for his death be moved in his absence at the state legislature, the ‘ayes’ would never have had it.
