•10 Months After Husband’s Death
The entire Ayoola family of Oyo, as well as the governor of Oyo State Engr. ‘Seyi Makinde was again thrown into deep mourning two weeks ago. As the wife of the late former Honourable Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Kehinde Ayoola’s wife also died.
Mrs. Ayoola, a professor at the Obafemi Awolowo University’s Institute of Agriculture, Research and Training (IAR&T), Apata, Ibadan, died on Wednesday 10th March 2021. She was aged 54.
To say that Professor Olukemi Titilola Ayoola’s death was shocking to many will be an understatement. It is rather unfortunate and devastating news to hear. She died less than ten months after the passage of her husband. They both left behind two young boys. It was gathered that Professor Olukemi died of cancer. She was said to have been battling the deadly illness long before her husband’s death.
She has since been buried last week Thursday 18th March, 2021. There was a burial service in her honour at the New Covenant Church, Apata, Ibadan, before she was finally laid to rest.
The husband, Kehinde Ayoola, it would be recalled, died in May, 2020. Ayoola, two weeks before his death, was said to have driven himself to Frontida Critical Care Hospital, Iyaganku, Ibadan for medical checks. It was there and then he was advised to proceed on bed rest. But unfortunately, he died Thursday 14th May, 2020.
Late Rt. Honourable Kehinde Ayoola had, at the start of the Fourth Republic, served as the Speaker of the 4th Session of the Oyo State House of Assembly, under the administration of Late former Governor Lam Adesina. Kehinde Ayoola (JP) was born at the Methodist Maternity Centre, Ayarabiasa, Ajagba, Oyo on 14th January, 1965. He attended St. Michael’s Primary School, Oke-Ebo and Olivet Baptist High School respectively for his primary and secondary school education, both in Oyo.
After his secondary school education, he wanted to join the Nigeria Army though NDA in 1983 but passed his UME exams that same year. Hence he opted for a degree program at the university instead of Army Academy.
He, however, gained admission into the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka but only spent a year there before he switched to the then University of Ife by transfer admission in 1984. Where he got his first degree.
Kehinde Ayoola’s interest in politics started right from when he was 9.
His father was a local leader of Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group in the ’50s. The father was also a leader of UPN in the 2nd Republic, under the governorship of late Chief Bola Ige in the old Oyo State and was also a Ward Chairman of the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
Kehinde Ayoola’s first shot at an elective position was when he contested the Oyo East chairmanship seat in 1997, under the defunct Congress for National Consensus, CNC. Unfortunately, he lost the election. He contested again in 1999 and won as a honorable to the Oyo State House of Assembly and later became the Speaker. He was awarded Oyo State Best Legislator by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Chapter in 1999. Hon. Kehinde Ayoola was once the National Financial Secretary of the Social Democratic Party, SDP and the Director-General of Seyi Makinde’s campaign in 2015.
Ayoola was an expert in Animal Science and Environmental Management and Control.
He was a Member of, Association of Environmental Impact Assessment of Nigeria (AEIAN).
He was an orator, a prolific writer, and a political strategist.
He was a politician and a pastor at the New Covenant Church until his death.
Meanwhile, the wife was a Professor of Agronomy in the Faculty of Agriculture at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
When Olukemi Ayoola was promoted to the rank of professor of agronomy at OAU in 2017 (though the elevation was said to have been backdated to 2011), Late Kehinde Ayoola shared the interesting story of their love life on his Facebook page.
“I give thanks and all glory to God for He has done it in a manner that nobody else but Him can take the credit.
“I remember when I proposed to my wife about 23 years ago, she told me that she wished to be an ‘Acada’ and would I support her aspirations? I said YES!
“And so that support manifested in different ways; from helping her carry (in my old VW Beetle) cassava sticks for planting on her experimental plots around IITA, Ibadan to watering her plants inside the Greenhouse to lonely nights and cold pillows when she went to conferences to having to endure with her the pains and frustrations of backstabbing, of plagiarism of her works, of stolen data and the ‘undue attention’ of lecherous men.
“Having not a godfather, we trusted in God The Father–and He did it. I hope this inspires someone: a husband, a wife, or an intending couple,” Ayoola wrote.
-Dare Adeniran
