Prince Edwin Shodehinde Akerejola (also known as Big Daddy or Big D) was born in Ogori as the 3rd child by Olori (Queen),
Grace Olayiwola Oladepe to HRH, the Ologori of Ogori, late Oba Gabriel Bawa Akerejola – Eminefo III of the Eminefo Royal Dynasty of Ogoriland, now Kogi State of Nigeria. His other siblings from the same parents included HRH, late Gaius Bade Akerejola, Eminefo IV, late Prince Edward Olaribigbe Akerejola, and the current Osiako of Ogoriland, Julius Oyebanji Akerejola.
Dehinde was the 11th child of his royal father.
Following the untimely death of his mother, his maternal grandmother, Mrs Asemoa Akande, born to a royal family in Lampese, Bekuma in Akoko-Edo Local Government of Edo State, assumed their custody and guardianship, and left for Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria, where she joined her Sister and engaged in petty trading. At the drum of the Nigerian civil war, in 1966, they left to escape before it became full blown. Early Education Dehinde started his primary education while at Onitsha, but his auntie, late
Mrs Florence Bose Mosimabale, then a teacher in Kano, Northern Nigeria, took him to continue his education at the Gwandu Nassarawa Primary School Wudu, Kano from 1968 to 1970. However, he returned to Ogori when his father died in 1969, to complete his primary education at the Roman Catholic Mission Primary School from 1971 to 1973. He was admitted, in 1974, to the Federal Government College, Warri in Delta State (then Bendel State) of Nigeria where he completed the West African School Certificate Examination (WASC) in 1979.
After a brief working experience as a Store Assistant at the Associated Ores Mining Company at Itakpe – Okene, Kogi State, he proceeded to study Purchasing & Supply Management at the Kaduna Polytechnic, Nigeria from 1980 to 1986, graduating with both OND and HND qualifications, and completed the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) same year at Joli Farms Limited Kaduna in 1986-1987. These early life experiences helped to shape and sharpen his dedication, determination, dexterity, diligence and prudence which became second nature in all his prospective working life endeavours.
Employment Career Edwin Dehinde started his work career early in life. He was naturally, determined and diligent, virtues most probably inculcated in him by his industrious grandmother.
He joined Abiola Bottling Limited, Ilorin Kwara State as a Store Officer (IT) in 1982, and then moved to Arewa Bottlers Limited from 1983 through to 1985 as Inventory Analyst & Sales Admin (IT). After his NYSC, he embarked on a Management Trainee career in March 1988 with the Nigerian Tobacco Company Plc – a member of British – American Tobacco Company Limited, in Zaria, Kaduna State. He made rapid progress, occupying various roles in composite capacities cumulating in Purchasing Manager and Logistics Manager in the Procurement Department until November 2000, when the company went into full merger with its parent company.
With great foresight, at that point, he took the risks to opt out, and joined Culture Link same year as the General Manager, contributing to the success of the business. In 2006, he then moved to Nation Wide Unity Transport as Head of Operations until 2007. Later that same year Dehinde was employed in the National Open University of Nigeria, as the Head of Store. Working in that capacity in Kaduna, Lagos, and Abuja, he was finally the Chief Store Officer at Gwagwalada Office until he suddenly bade all farewell to cross to the realm beyond on the morning of Monday 9 March 2021.
Family Life Edwin Dehinde was a committed and highly devoted family man; a true father who cared much for his own, and surrounded himself with other younger ones outside his family, even till death. In line with natural family tradition like many of his seniors, he was an umbrella of a man whose house was always a haven where all and sundry came to find refuge and comfort, and enjoy vacation. He was prudent, and lived within his means, yet very generous and cared selflessly with his earnings for all.
In December 1990, Dehinde married Rachael Taiwo (Nee Godis), the marriage of which was blessed with,
Mekane Enemiri Oladepe. A second baby was on the way, when the family trip to Zaria in 1993, turned to tragedy, in a ghastly accident that tore the family apart. The amazing wife, Taiwo and second baby, unfortunately, did not survive the impact of the accident. Dehinde, himself, remained in coma for over a month with a fractured right arm. It was a traumatic incidence, which shook the entire family and friends, but he survived it. To the glory of God, their little baby, Mekane too was spared, unhurt. She now resides in North Carolina, USA, after graduating from College.
After a while, Dehinde had another baby girl in his years of travail, the excitement of which he expressed in the following words, “in this traumatic period in my life, the LORD consoled me with another baby girl, Ijese Bose, the child I call the transition girl”. Ijese is now a graduate of Economics, presently working in Lagos. This was followed by other children in Zaria & Kano, including Amanda, who now resides at Uyo.
Furthermore, Big Daddy finally settled down with Princess Miriam Tope (Nee Daudu of Ososo), whom he described as his “wonderful lady, for whom my love multiplies every blessed day”. Together, they were blessed with three children, Master Obinpilasha Teforubane, who recently graduated with B.Sc Economics, Miss Omega Miberon, and Master Etimaife Osifianemo, all now living with their mum in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria.
Big Daddy, A Man with a “Coat of Many Colours” Edwin Dehinde was many things to many people, a man with a “coat of many colours”, who wore it and it fitted him perfectly well. Big Daddy, as Edwin was fondly known, was fanatically loyal, frankly royal and yet overwhelmingly loved by all that crossed his path.
He lived as a big tree that shielded many, a free golden eagle, not looking backward for enemies, but making friends out of, perhaps potential enemies. He was an evangel reaching out to all, including those far from his social province. He was blunt to a fault. But he was also very affectionately, an ambassador of peace, reaching out to families and friends.
Dehinde was a rounded character. He was one whose friends and contacts cut across all social cadres. He interacted with people on the highest echelon of the society, yet “Dehinde remained Dehinde”. He kept his own pace, followed his own rhythm and never in competition with anybody. In dressing, he was simple, in luxury, he was very modest. He dined with Heads of States, Governors and kings but managed to keep a low profile; also loving and sharing with people in the lowest level of the social ladder.
Furthermore, his buoyancy, vitality and dynamism earned him many valued friends and favours from his youths. He was a very humorous and jovial character, who valued having quality time with his mates, friends, children and juniors. He had fun, made light of hard things, never felt insulted, no matter what ways he was addressed. He lived freely not afraid to be hurt or harmed. He was objective and apolitical either in his decisions, as well as non-judgemental irrespective of the situation.
Dehinde had many friends, blessed and surrounded with amazing sets of faithful friends, some of who were his alumni’s from his various schools, notably, Federal Government College Warri. He knew not how to loss a friend, but kept tight to both old and new. Once a friend was always a friend. He looked out for old friends and school mates anywhere he went.
As an innovator with sound foresight, he was the architect of many family and community projects, embedding and strengthening relationships, initiating and furthering ideas to cement families and their togetherness, in the community and comity of friends. He was in many senses “the glue” of the royal family. He was the inevitable bridge between the young and the old. He impressed himself wherever he went and with whomever he was with, who were in turn often impressed with him.
Dehinde had the wisdom to reason with different personalities in all sphere of life, including people others would rather shun as unwise or appraise as wise; whether they be small, great, young, old, literate, illiterate, civilised, crude, friends or foes, rich, poor, families, strangers, men or women. These virtues and his rare charisma endeared him to most people. With astute leadership qualities, he had a rallying point for a spectrum of people in the society, attractive to and attracting many. He was never imposing in conduct, nor domineering in character. Rather, he knew how to concede when his decisions needed improvement. He was no holy angel but a practical evangel of common-sense and discretion.
Although tactful and had a glowing sense of humour, he was also a good disciplinarian, who chastened with care and love, not with cane. His face told you all. He carried a face that spoke his mind, such that you needed no interpreter to discern his mood at any time. He respected all but feared no one. In matters of truth, he was both shrewd and straightforward. All of these characters earned him the title, “Big Daddy”.
Dehinde adjusted to life’s changing situations. He was one of the most stable characters, adopting a lifestyle of modesty, honesty and humility, when things were good; and knew how to manage and adapt without begrudging, in hard and challenging times. He was a role model in unstable and contrastive life situations.
Dehinde was a man, among the few you could entrust with your valuable treasures however small or large. He was prudent to a fault; exercising discretion in probing what made things what they were. He saw deep, felt free, ate big and slept deep.
Big daddy was therefore different colours to different people, everyone finds their pieces in his character-coat ‘of many colours’. He was a rainbow in the gloomy skies for many now faded away, broad shoulders and bosoms upon which weak and weeping heads could assuredly rest, a man of many parts that touched many lives. ‘A jolly good fellow’ who enjoyed merriment and endured merrymakers, merging aims and aids with the audacity to please his audiences. He didn't seek praise but praises, people's praises sort him out and found him. He is never moved by insults or ridicule. He epitomised the image and qualities of his father.
His Life’s Last Mile Between the last week of February and first week of March 2021, Big Daddy felt unwell. While his hopes and those of families and friends to recover were still very high, on the morning of 9 March 2021, he suddenly succumbed to man’s last immortal enemy – death!
As a whale swimmer into many waters – shallow, deep, rough, or smooth, though he travailed in them all, yet he often prevailed. He tried his best in life and triumphed with death. Big D will now say to his Maker,
I came to live with men, I played my part, and now I left them to live with you forever. As in many things, he won big.
As the Holy Scripture reminds us: “The grass withers, the flower fades: because the spirit of the LORD blows upon it:
surely the people is grass…:
but the word of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40: 7-8). Big D now lies in fields of nature, awaiting the Final Call.
We can only hear, in our dreams, imaginations, audio and video clips, his familiar greetings, “O boy, how now?”, “How una dey?”, “Mòó
suda (my elders)”, “Mọ̀ọd’óbòrò (my good junior)”, “Moòró (my wife, a term he used to address his wife and individual wives in the royal nuclear family indiscriminately), “Make una take am easy ooo!”, and “Oo! Ehen! Gana!” (his humorous colloquial response in his own Ogori (Oko) dialect when strangers addressed him). What of his colloquial broken/pigeon English. No! Not anymore! Never again! Except Not in the same voice again, because there was only one Edwin Dehinde Big Daddy!
So, today, as we remember and celebrate Prince Edwin Shodehinde Akerejola, like a vapour or smoke that escaped, and eluded our catch, he’s vanished into the thin air.
He was and will continue to be a gift of God to the family, A gift from God to his family and community, A gift of his family to the community and people, But most importantly, Our gift surrendered back to God, Who gave him... to us all. Adieu Big Daddy.
