Death of former Governor of the old Oyo State, Dr Omololu Olunloyo on April 6 has expectedly sparked an hail of reactions, almost all of which are touching tributes to the egg head, who is said to have solved a mathematical riddle called Pythagoras theorem, Calculus and Trigonometry.
TheTabloid.net gathered that Olunloyo passed away peacefully in the early hours of Sunday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, his hometown, where he lived the better part of his life at his modest Molete residence, nine days to his 90th birthday. He was born on April 14, 1935.
While his family members, friends, associates and disciples were mourning his inability to race to his 90th birthday, Olunloyo, however, had prophesied that he won’t live to join the exclusive league of the nongenarians, among of whom was his dear mother, Alhaja Tejumola Abebi, who clocked 102 years before she exited in October 2013.
This was revealed by Saturday Tribune Editor and columnist, Dr Lasisi Olagunju in the tribute he published a day after Olunloyo’s final bow. In the widely syndicated article, Olagunju offered an insight into his tete-a-tete with Olunloyo two years ago, during which he astonished him with an odd declaration that he would exit the world at 89 years. His father didn’t make it to the golden age. He passed on at 42 years.
But many years before Olunloyo breathed his last almost four years after the transition of his bosom friend, the immediate past Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, he had travelled to the UK in the company of Oba Adeyemi.
It was learnt that aside the fate of history which knitted them after the process that led to the then Prince Adeyemi named the 45th Alaafin of Oyo in December 1970 by Olunloyo, then Western State Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, they were both brilliant and indeed soul mates in search of knowledge because, to them, knowledge is a faith they worshipped with all they had. They didn’t spare any amount to buy books and read subjects like literature, music, sociology, biographies, autobiographies.
Isn’t it a paradox that Olunloyo, who had lost count of number of memoirs in his library and who bagged a doctorare degree at age 25 from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, left the world without a book chronicling his eventful life and time?
On the said London trip with Olunloyo, Oba Adeyemi, while appraising his love and almost greed for books, told this reporter during his lifetime that both of them nearly got stuck in a London bookshop after they had exhausted the money on them on their choice books.
The Alaafin recalled, “We didn’t know we had bought more than we could afford with what we had in our pockets. We were looking at each other and thinking on what to do to avoid an embarrassment waiting for us. A thought just came to me and I told Dr (He was consistently referring to Olunloyo by his academic title, not even by the Balogun of Oyo he was).”
“What was the thought that came to your mind and what did you tell him”? I cut in. He responded, “I asked Dr to wait for me inside the bookshop. Till this evening, I have not told him what I did. I asked him to wait and I went out. I came back later and showed him some pounds I brought. He asked: “Kabiyesi, where did you find the pounds”. I answered that that was what an Alaafin was made of. He understood and didn’t ask me further questions. We paid for our books and left the bookshop.”
On the strength of his prodigy and youthful energy, Olunloyo taught Mathematics first at the University of Ibadan and later at the then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He was chairman, the Western Nigeria Development Corporation (WNDC), now Odua Group. He also served as Commissioner for Economic Planning, Community Development; Special Duties, Education (two occasions), Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
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