Sir (Chief)Bode Akindele, KJW, Parakoyi of Ibadanland, Oyo State of Nigeria, Baba Ijo, Methodist Church Nigeria, Agbeni, Ibadan and Chairman, Mondandola Group, died on Monday, 29th June, this year, in his Apapa, Lagos State home. He was aged 87. May his noble and kind soul rest in peace. Amen.
I am gathering my thoughts for a befitting tribute to the ideal family pillar, nuclear and extended, patriot, successful industrialist, home and overseas, quiet philanthropist, tradition and culture enthusiast and exponent of etiquette, and I mean ETIQUETTE. Am I on the tribute? Not yet.
It will take me days to compose one that will be “regi”(befitting)to Sir Bode, an enigma, connoisseur, as they come, of wine and foods, please note foods, though his autobiography, “I DID IT GOD’s WAY”, correctly sums him up.
I first came in contact with Sir,36 years ago, in 1984, while the Press Secretary to the then Military Governor of old Oyo State, Lieutenant-Colonel Oladayo Popoola (now a retired Major-General), who had been invited to the Alomoja Ibadan home of Sir.
The regular invitations to Gen. Popoola’s immediate successors, retired Brigadier-General Adetunji Olurin and the late Brigadier-General Sasaenia Oresanya, both whose Press Secretary I also was, paved the way for me not only to get on the permanent protocol list of Sir but become an insider/confidant. The rest, as they say, is now history. And I am not writing a tribute yet o.
