TheCable

BY OLAWALE LAWAL

Professor Olakunle Abdul-Rasheed Lawal would have been 60 years old but he died on December 24, 2013, at the unripe age of 54; nevertheless he lived his life, re-treaded his rather obscure early life to an exemplar of natural human renaissance. He was a teacher, a politician, a commissioner in Lagos and a professor of history, in that order.

Kunle Lawal came up again in the recent debate about settlements in Lagos, where Prince Tajudeen Olusi holds the opinion that the Binis predate the Aworis in Lagos.

Foremost Awori indigenes however disagree with Prince Olusi’s view citing copiously from the many works of Professor Kunle-Lawal on the history of the Awori people of Lagos. But Prince Olusi gave what the Latin would call a retorquere when he said Professor Olakunle (whom he called Adekunle) Lawal was an Ibadan indigene and even went on to say the only link the late professor had with Lagos was his mother being from Lagos Island. This was contained in the interview he had with the Punch Newspaper of May 5, 2019.

My major concern is the attack and distortions of Professor Kunle-Lawal’s ancestry who is of a type-genius value to me. If anyone says he (Kunle-Lawal) is from Ibadan, my own provenance to Lagos is dead completely. Therefore this is to set the record straight about Professor Kunle-Lawal’s atavistic roots in Lagos.

Kunle-Lawal’s great grandfather was Lawani of the Buraimoh Fadipe family of Ita Faji. Number 1-5 of Palm Church Street, Itafaji belong to the following families, Buriamoh-Igbo, Bishi and Buriamoh Fadipe. Lawani was one of the Kosoko’s loyalists who fled with him to Epe. At Epe, Lawani married many wives among whom was Barikisu who was Kosoko’s granddaughter.

Lawani had no son from his previous wives until Barikisu gave birth to Lawani’s only son named Haruna Ayinde Lawal (Kunle-Lawal’s father) in 1910. The fear that baby Haruna could come to arm made Lawani to instruct Barikisu to take the baby back to Itafaji and never to return with him. Lawani died in Epe shortly after the birth of Haruna and this explained the ancestral link of Kunle –Lawal to Epe.

In fact he (Kunle-Lawal) re-built the family house of Lawani at Epe later in life. (Please this should not be confused with his personal house which he built at Epe as serving commissioner in the cabinet of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu).

Haruna Ayinde Lawal lived at No1. Palm Church Street, Itafaji since 1910 and he gave birth to his first five children there among whom was Alhaji Wasiu Aderibigbe Lawal (Kunle-Lawal’s elder brother and father to the writer). When the family house at Itafaji became too small for his family, Haruna Ayinde Lawal, rented a bigger apartment at No.10, Agbole Ajia Ijesha in Epetedo area of Lagos, Professor Kunle-Lawal was the first, of Haruna Lawal’s children, to be born at Agbole Ajia Ijesha, on 9th May, 1959. Alhaji Haruna Ayinde Lawal returned to his family house at Itafaji at the twilight of his life in 1987 and he died on the 24, December 1988, he was buried at Okesuna cemetery in Lagos.

Kunle-Lawal’s mother was not from Lagos Island at all, as purported by Prince Tajudeen Olusi. Professor Olakunle Lawal’s mother is Alhaja Kehinde Osenatu Tijani, a princess of Ojo and a matriarch of the very popular Idowu-Esho family in Ojo, Lagos state. Kunle-Lawal’s very strong link to Ojo was because of the influence of his grandmother Iya Oni Mosa who did not want her grandchildren to lose their Awori origin. In fact Iya Oni Mosa single-handed trained Alhaji Wasiu Lawal, who is Kunle Lawal’s elder brother.

Professor Olakunle Lawal was who you could call a transversal Lagosian, he was from Lagos Island, Epe and Ojo, thus to say otherwise, is to introduce a linear approach to a discourse.

Olawale Lawal, PhD, sent this from the department of history and international studies, Lagos state University