By Adebayo Fajinmi
The great playwright, William Shakespeare was right when he said in his pastoral comedy,’ As You Like’, that “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts.”
As the spokesperson of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin exited the stage last weekend, and it has dawned on every Nigerian, his wife, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin has penned a tribute for the departed activist.
In her piece titled: “Yinka: Basking in the shadow that you cast,” she casted the deceased as a sworn enemy of junta and narrated how they both met in detention and started relationship.
“My husband was not a criminal, neither was I. Our crime was standing strong for others as we always have been. We will return to the dingy detention cell in our reminiscences later!
“Who meets and marries from detention at Alagbon? Only Yinka would ask! And only I would say YES! We were introduced to each other by the most qualified, the most preeminent, and the most decorated of inmate – Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAM, SAN).
“The medics said they could not fathom how to immediately relay the message of your passage to me directly.
“If breath was the currency of life and its legal tender…then, Yinka spent his breath on causes. The medics said his oxygen level was running low but my husband was reaching out for his tab to type out his column.
“He was never frugal in spending that oxygen on his Yoruba earth – his beloved and his Nigeria – his truly beloved. My memories are rousing through chains of pains. A sea surge of a romance which sprouted in Gen. Sani Abacha’s detention.
“I will bask with reckless abandon in the shadow of your cast. Since no one is permitted in the Critical Care Unit, we had committed you to the care of the best qualified medics at LASUTH and the hand of God hoping to see you next morning.
“The medics said they could not fathom how to immediately relay the message of your passage to me directly.
“Now that I am in possession of your death certificate, I can see you passed at exactly 10.40 p.m. on Good Friday (April 2nd, 2021) and not in the morning of Saturday, April 3rd, 2021) as initially communicated.
She did not only say her husband came, saw and conquered, but also affirmed her dogged determination never to drop the baton in fighting for justice and egalitarian society they have always been fighting for.
“Due to the principles of the truth and saying it as it is, which Yinka and I hold dear – and which Yinka lived all his adult life for – it is important to immediately put this very important record straight.
“You came! you saw!! and you conquered!!! We will carry forward the baton in the eternal word of our leader, Nigeria will be saved, Nigeria will be changed and Nigeria will become a great nation. Nigeria will work in my lifetime and even in yours as you live on in me, our children and generation yet unborn,” she wrote.
