Birthday cheers to Governor Ademola Adeleke

At the risk of parroting the ageless Juju maestro, King Sunny Ade, shall we, all members of the alumni association of Ede Muslim Grammar School, EMGS Ede, rise to rejoice by joining the celebration train of our one-time president and now the incumbent executive governor of Osun state, Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke? E di de k’emujo…

It’s another birthday anniversary of AdeSquare as we fondly hail His Excellency. The reasons to rejoice with our governor are endless. Against all doubts, AdeSquare, as the name seems to decree, is a serial election winner, having defeated yet another EMGS alum, Hussain Mudashir, aka Fantasy. But Gov Adeleke, in his large-heartedness, leaves no old schoolmate in doubt that his alma mater is the winner in all contexts by endorsing the proposal of the alumni body to commemorate the 50th anniversary of that special communal heritage called Ede Muslim Grammar School a few months back.

A few weeks later, the great school, which otherwise had withered with weak walls here and there, broken floors and windows, began to wear a completely new look as desired by the alumni collective. The golden accelerator is no other person than Governor Ademola Adeleke, of course, as the Olori ebi of idile alayo that the Old Students Association of EMGS has turned to be, preparatory to the special anniversary.

Today, all the buildings within the compound of the school now wear a new look, donning shiny, fresh paint of golden yellow on a chocolate brown coating at the base. Yet a stronger statement had been handed out to daring land speculators who had encroached on the school’s land. The renewal wave oozing on our beloved EMGS has further manifested with perimeter fencing. The unanimous wish of the alumni could not have been more timely.

Only last year, 2023, Hajia Shakirat Ibrahim (otherwise, Shaki Amolegbe), on behalf of her fellow alum hubby and retired top investment banker, Dr S.O. Ibraheem, donated some furniture for the use of students in the school. A year earlier, in 2022, the most impactful intervention for our alma mater was engineered by the renowned Yagboyaju Family. It was their special gesture of reinforcing the sadaqah jahriyah cultivated by the patriarch himself, the legendary Alhaji Yisa Akanni Yagboyaju, who passed on in 2012.

In the early years of EMGS, the Ede-born Chief Yagboyaju, as he was otherwise known, though based in Ibadan as the nation’s foremost cotton merchant, solidarised most inimitably with the Ede Muslim Council then led by the community intellectual and witty leader, Alhaji Oyewale.

Two of Alhaji Oyewale’s daughters, timid Fatima and masculine Bushra, were in the same class with this writer and Square Men, as Governor Adeleke was otherwise known. Yagboyaju single-handedly financed the complete construction and full furnishing of a luxuriant block of four classrooms. In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the demise of Baba Yagboyaju, the children, led by Professor Dhikrullah Yagboyaju, drafted a team of construction experts to do a complete refurbishing of the Yagboyaju Block, thus renewing the glory of our dear alma mater. Old bones roared back.

Happily, the alumni caught the fancy of the good deeds of the Ibraheems and Yagboyajus. There was no stopping the renewal campaigns. The reserve army within the alum family sprang up early enough, activating some lovely feeling of togetherness we genuinely had in the first five years of our school.

The only student ever labelled a general by the wittiest of the principals known to the 1974-81 generation, Late Babatunde Olatunji, may Allah be pleased with him, has evolved and is now an academic general, having become a professor and also doubling as the chair of the board of governors. Sturdy and avuncular, the South African-trained Botany scholar, Prof Mahboob Jimoh, was the model scholar for the first generation of EMGS, being no less astute in English Language as he was in Mathematics.

General Mahboob, as he then was, remains my greatest prize benefactor as an enthralling school debater. On me, both Olatunji and General Mahboob were united. Olatunji’s remarks in his pretty longhand in the EMGS Testimonial he personally signed remain most memorable: “Musibau is one of the very best boys I’ve had the privilege to train in my long career. Nothing is too good to say about him”.

It was fun for Gen Mahboob mobilizing for a general meeting to constitute the planning committee eventually made to be headed by a multinational veteran, Haji Kola Alimi, aka Alagba, who has since been made to captain the Osun State Investment Company as the managing director, again, by our star boy, Gov Adeleke. The Alagba committee went ahead to constitute a few sub-committees, including the publicity committee of yours sincerely.

Details of the anniversary programme were formulated to include a special prayer slated for the founder’s day; a special anniversary lecture to be delivered by the gangling fellow former Chevening scholar and UNILAG-based professor of mass communication, Ismail Ibraheem. Prof Ibraheem is one person whose career and mine have twinned substantially. He was already on his doctoral programme in England when I joined him as a Chevening scholar.

Such was our academic and social adventurism that we are probably the only two in this our EMGS community who could tell the story of the transition, of the salmon fish-head from being handed out free of charge to being sold. This was at the historic Hay Market in Leicester, most popularised by the renowned Thomas Hardy in his novel, Mayor of Casterbridge. Still in England years later, the EMGS bond played out from Akanmu Adesokan, popularly called Ponrandu when I went to Goldsmith College, London, for a conference. Against all odds, he sought me out for lofty Ilu Oyinbo gifts.

Much earlier for me at EMGS, Kajogbola Alimi, a.k.a Kajonson, the first VC (University of Offa) and the only one yet from among us, was my academic bestie even as he was a good footballer like the self-motivated AdeSquare, who also freely doubled as a commentator for football matches when he wasn’t on the field as a player. Kajonson bonded well further with Adesquare in the PDP fold before opting for academia, where he’s attained the pinnacle.

Like Kajonson, like Fatai Oyeyemi, the one we applaud as Elejigbo till date. Elejigbo, once declared overall best across the four classrooms of the 1976-81 cohort combined, eventually left Ede triumphantly, not only with academic distinction but with his only fine gal, Fatimoh Adediran, my own birthday mate. The endowed set of Governor Adeleke was equally blessed with the University of Ibadan-trained philanthropic mechanised farmer, Kazeem Mustapha; retired senior federal ministry of works engineer, Ganiyu Oyebanji, as well as the ingenious Reggae, Alhaji Kayode Adetunji, who retired recently as a director in the public service of Osun State Government. Alhaji Adetunji’s administrative acumen is already playing out again with his expert handling of group insurance for our 1981 set. Sure, a perfect model that other sets should emulate.

Physically on ground with full commitment to the renewal agenda, also are the Coordinating Principal of EMGS (our school has grown big!) are Alhaji Kabir Adekomi (also an alumnus who took over from no less loyal alumnus, Moshood Ojo Adesokan), in tandem with Engineer Kolawole Amoo, currently the director of works of Better by Far University of Ilorin.

So, who has that wide war chest to sabotage the forthcoming fun moments of Governor Adeleke and his original, old folks at EMGS? The contractors mandated to work on the school compound seemed to have been doing their best, which may not be enough. The national body of the alumni, therefore, eventually agreed to isolate and hold only the special anniversary prayer on October 10, 2024.

The anniversary steam in our colleagues has since resurged. The prayer session had the school’s leading lights in the first generation in attendance. From all-rounder Mahboob to the accomplished Engineer Kamo’ Ayanloye; the very first alumnus of the school to gain university admission, Haji Kola Bushra to the former Information Commissioner for Osun State, Haji Biola Lawal. Boda Tolib Asifat, the very first senior prefect, also made a grand appearance in flowing white agbada, betraying infectious smiles around as he relished the colourful day, which had the highly respected elderly Imam Dende of Ansar ud Deen Society in attendance.

Such was the enthusiasm of those present and even others who were not there that a cash donation of about N2 million was netted on that day alone.

We can’t wait to congregate for the alumni edition of the birthday ball for the one and only Happy Governor of Nigeria, Senator Ademola Adeleke.

Happy anniversary to us all!

A Professor of Journalism and Development Communication at the Lagos State University, Akanni is a member of the 1976- 1981 cohort of EMGS, Ede. Follow him on X via:@AkintundeAkanni