I HAVE tried to write the story of Chief Rasheed Abiodun Gbadamosi a number of times in the last 14 years. But it had been a gargantuan task I have postponed a number of times, and circumstances had postponed a few times. Although we did not agree ideologically, but he was a humanist whose point of connection with people were their humanity, intellect and capability.

A man of ideas, when you made a good point, he conceded. Even when you are on different sides on an issue, he still reached out. He was Chairman of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency,PPPRA, which many Nigerians see as the government’s instrument for increasing petroleum product prices, and thereby adding to the suffering of the people. In 2004, while on my way from Abuja to coordinate a publicised mass street protests against fuel price increase in Lagos, I met him in the aircraft. Naturally we discussed the planned protest. When we landed, he asked if I had a car, I shook my head and he said let me give you a ride. I hesitated and explained that I knew he was headed for Lagos Island or Victoria Island while I was going to Yaba, which was off his way. He smiled and said “You are going to the NLC Office?”, I nodded. Don’t worry, I am not complaining, I will drop you off”.”

He was politically committed without being partisan. In 1990, there was a split in the Social Democratic Party,SDP, over the choice of the party’s gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State between Femi Agbalajobi and Dapo Sarumi. Rather than lose the election, there was a clamour to pick a neutral person in Gbadamosi. But he made it clear he would be unavailable to be the SDP’s flag bearer in an election the party was greatly favoured to win.

Gbadamosi was considered an establishment man and a highly successful industrialist to whom partisan politics was an anathema. So when the military regime declared Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola wanted for declaring himself President of Nigeria despite the annulment of his Presidential victory, they could not have suspected Gbadamosi to be sheltering him.

Gbadamosi was one of Nigeria’s best sons who began an unbroken service to the country 43 years ago when at the age of 29, he was appointed Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Development. He was one of the 49 ‘Wise-men’ who drafted the country’s 1979 Constitution and Minister of National Planning.

Very few Nigerians have traversed as much area and made as significant an impact on various facets of the Nigerian national life as Gbadamosi. His life, taken along with that of his father, read like the industrial history of Nigeria. That story began with the father establishing his own business in 1934 and taking on the transnational United African Company, UAC, in a trade war over garment manufacturing in the country. To gain the upper hand, the Senior Gbadamosi imported Japanese machines to produce cheaper under-wears than the UAC. He subsequently went into tobacco distribution, ceramics production, brewing and was instrumental to the establishment of one of the first indigenous banks, the National Bank to rival the British colonial banks; Barclays Bank and the Bank of British West Africa.

Gbadamosi who returned to the country after his graduate and post-graduate studies in Britain and United States, started work in his father’s company. He built on his heritage by becoming a major player in virtually all sectors of the economy, from construction and engineering to metal works, textile, insurance, pension and computers. He was a pioneer manufacturer of bottled water with his Ragolis brand; the name derived from his initials, R.A.G.

So the Gbadamosi story is in a way, the critical narration of the Nigerian story from the perspective of one of its most active, articulate, brilliant and conscientious sons. It is the story of Nigeria from the prism of a man who served it with demonstrable distinction in the public and private sectors, was entrusted with ministering to the country’s planning needs and who was conferred with the national honour, Officer of the Federal Republic, OFR, in recognition of his distinguished contributions.

His story and that of the country is neatly woven in five major areas. First, it covers part of the country’s industrial development in the last 70 years.

Secondly, his story in the past four decades, is a history of public service at top policy positions across areas like Economic and Industrial Development, National Planning, Constitution Drafting, Electricity, Railways, Tertiary Education and External Debt Rescheduling.

This also has international dimensions including his leading the Nigerian delegation to the Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) 1998/99 meeting and assisting in the relocation of sixteen United Nations agencies from Lagos to Abuja.

Thirdly, it encompasses the oil sector; the country’s monoculture in which he was for over a dozen years involved in its monitoring, policy formulation and sustainable development. The 323-page book, The Story of the Deregulation of the Nigerian Downstream Oil Sector which he co-authored with two others; Funsho Kupolokun and Oluwole Oluleye, is a veritable resource material on the sector.

Fourthly, the Gbadamosi and Nigeria stories are linked in the genre of literature, visual arts and music; areas which defined various stages of social life. Gbadamosi, a master story teller himself with six plays and thirty short stories to his credit, interacted or worked with masters in these fields from Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, through Femi Osofisan and Bruce Onabrakpeya to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and Ola Rotimi who was his senior in secondary school. He worked closely with Fela whom he met in a London underground train in 1961. In 1970, they co-founded the Nigerian Association of Patriotic Writers and Artists, NAPWA, Gifted musician, Wole Bucnor was NAPWA President, Fela, Vice President and Gbadamosi, Secretary. Until he passed away, Gbadamosi helped to keep Fela’s legacy alive. He also contributed to the construction of the new Afrika Shrine.

Gbadamosi is also one of the three major art collectors in Nigeria, and financier of various art genres including film, and emergent talent.

Fifthly, he worked with, interacted or was familiar with many builders of modern Nigeria from Chiefs Obafemi Awolowo, Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Fatai Rotimi Williams and Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, to Generals Mobolaji Johnson, Olusegun Obasanjo and Abdulsalami Abubakar. At the level of industry, he interacted with men like Dr. Christopher Kolade and Chris Ogunbanjo while in the media, he was home with the giants like Alhaji Babatunde Jose, Sam Amuka, Alade Odunewu and Segun Osoba, who was his classmate. Despite his demise, I have not given up trying to write the Gbadamosi story; he earned his place in the history of our country.

Source: Vanguard Newspaper, 21 Nov 2016

From left to right: RAG, Chief Sonekan and Mrs Lola Dada at herdaughter's wedding in 2006.

RAG dressed in exactly the same attire as the father of the bride, Chief Sola Dada, at his daughter's wedding in 2010.

RAG with his "twin brother", Sola Dada, during Chief Sola Dada's son's wedding in 2010.

From left to right:  Sola and Lola Dada, RAG and Tinuade Gbadamosi at Chief Sola Dada's daughter's wedding.

From left to right:  RAG, Chief Sola Dada, late Ataoja of Oshogbo, Oba Iyiola Matanmi and his wife, Olori Bola, and late Chief Oladele Okoya-Thomas at Chief Sola Dada's daughter's wedding.

This surely cannot be the season of deaths. But the death of Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi is another on the national scene that causes extreme pain. In the last few weeks, we have cried out in anguish over Chief Olaniwun Ajayi, Ibrahim Dasuki (the former Sultan of Sokoto), and now Chief Gbadamosi. All these are leaders who, in their own unique ways, propped the scaffolds of the national project in Nigeria. Sometimes effectively vociferous, sometimes strategically silent, all these national figures and public servants exerted sufficient heroic influence which become glaring when death snatches them out of reckoning. We can only be the poorer with the demise of these people.

I mourn Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi as a consummate public servant and a determined nationalist. Albert Schweitzer, the German theologian and philosopher, remarks that “The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.” Even though Rasheed Gbadamosi is, in our reckoning, gone too soon, I think he fulfilled the purpose of living. Chief Gbadamosi lived a talented and full life. The trajectory of his life points at a man who got the hang of life with a joie de vivre. His passing instigates some significant thought in my mind regarding the notion of national service.

Here was a man whose life straddled the private sector, public service and the culture industry. Economist, businessman, industrialist, minister and art connoisseur, Rasheed Gbadamosi embodies the persistent possibility of the beneficial interactions between the private and the public for the sake of national development. At both the national and state levels, he was as dedicated to public service as he was to building his reputation as a leading industrialist. In fact, let us say, together so many others, he constitutes a manual in public service.

One of the significant practices that energise the act of governance in countries like the United States, for instance, is the seamless interaction between core career public service and the private and non-governmental sector. In other words, it seems taken for granted that the government can count on the services of individuals who have made significant marks in business or the private sector. Major ministerial positions and senior executive service in the U.S. government framework are given to experienced individuals with the knowledge that can take the business of government forward.

It really does not matter if that expertise is derived from the public service or from private experience. But in Nigeria, it is not always very easy to attract a successful industrialist into the “poverty” of government job. “Poverty” in this sense refers to so many variables about the public service that constrained innovation, creativity and performance. And all these are further aggravated by political intrigues and the dynamics of office that put a permanent clog in the wheel of progress and development. To , therefore, find someone in the mould of Chef Gbadamosi who could make this dangerous transition is commendable beyond measure. In some clear cases, one cannot but detect a patriotic heart yearning to give back to the nation the experience that had been earned in the trench of serious private business. And where else is most suitable to put the person of Rasheed Gbadamosi’s calibre if not the Ministry of National Planning?

Whenever I think of him, I remember illustrious Nigerians like Michael Omolayole, Christopher Kolade, and Gamaliel Onosode. Rasheed Gbadamosi lived a long life of service and dedication to Nigeria and humanity. These individuals constitute a significant section of eminent Nigerians whose names would usually not feature with reference to ground-shaking political events. Apart from featuring in some capacities as members of some committees and chairmen of governmental business meetings, their cogent national service consists in their numerous contributions behind the scenes where thorny government issues require deep wisdom and experience that had been acquired within the complex environment of private business. Call them the silent patriots who daily and regularly invest in making Nigeria a suitable place to live and be proud.

On another level, Chief Gbadamosi had more of a soul mate in the equally late Ambassador Olusegun Olusola than with the other three Nigerians. Together, Gbadamosi and Olusola signal another level of relating with the Nigerian state. Both of them were art aficionados whose public service also permitted an exuberant dedication to writing and the arts. Only a very few in Nigeria have this sensibility; a modern sensibility that views life through the beauty of arts and the sublime serenity of good music. Only very few Nigerians could see the import of the relationship between arts and governance. I suspect that a dedication to the arts cleanses the soul and enlarges one’s humanity. NgugiwaThiong’o, the Kenyan writer, attests to the unique perspective that the arts provide: “The arts then act like a reflecting mirror. The artist is like the hand that holds and moves the mirror, this way and that way, to explore all corners of the universe. But what is reflected in the mirror depends on where the holder stands in relation to the object.”

Most grown up Nigerians enjoyed The Village Headmaster, Nigeria’s longest running soap opera, from 1968 to 1988. The series was a television dramatisation of Nigeria’s nation building challenges deriving from its cultural diversity. With several plays, including Children of Two Wars, Behold My Redeemer, Trees Grow in the Desert and Echoes from the Lagoon, Rasheed Gbadamosi also contributed to our understanding of the dynamics and pathologies of power and the requirements for the transformation of the Nigerian society. I guess it is safe to say that Chief Gbadamosi’s multi-tiered life enables him, on one hand, to speak truth to power through his capacity to gaze upon the sublime and receive the Muse’s empowerment. And on the other hand, he was not just an armchair literary critic who hides within the atmosphere of the fictional. On the contrary, if society is to be transformed, it requires willing individuals who are courageous enough to risk operationalising their beliefs for the betterment of the nation they believe in.

Chief Gbadamosi found public office as his own means of assisting in the nation building effort through participating in the building of a governance blueprint that is worthy of democratic governance.

Unfortunately, Rasheed Gbadamosi was just only one man, and our imperfect humanity allows us only some small feats which may not be sufficiently cumulated to the benefit of a nation. After all, we are only just human. Civilisation, according to Cheikh Hamidou Kane, the Senegalese writer, “is architecture of responses.” And so also is the act of nation-building. “Nigeria” is a project that requires the collective responses of every Nigerian, both high and low. And I am too much of a realistic to know that patriotism can take different shapes from the critical to the apologetic. In our patriotic commitment, we all recognise that Nigeria is not all too good but yet it is not all too bad. The differential between the good and the bad in our national affairs then constitutes the locus for our collective responses. Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi is now gone, but he left us a unique dynamics of the cultural and the administrative as a framework within which Nigeria could be reworked.

I see in this man a representation of a public servant par excellence. A summary of his public life is simple and profound: He served! And his service was not just limited to the prosaic of bureaucratic responsibility. He served with an enthusiasm that countered the axiom that civil servants do not crack jokes. From Muson Centre to the art galleries and then to the corridors of bureaucracy, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi epitomises the spirit of service – the joy, the commitment, the obliged sense of responsibility. Chief Gbadamosi witnessed the decline of the civil service in Nigeria right from the 1975 almighty purge that accelerated the decimation of the bureaucracy. And yet, he eventually found himself drawn by the need to serve his Fatherland. And he continued serving even till the end of his life. I salute this example; I salute Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi – playwright and public servant!
Tunji Olaopa is Executive Vice Chairman Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) Ibadan, can be reached via tolaopa2003@gmail.com;tolaopa2003@yahoo.com; tolaopa@isgpp.com.ng

Rasheed Abiodun Gbadamosi (R.A.G) the industrialist, administrator, former Minister, writer, dramatist and humanist who left on Wednesday November 16, 2016, was a patriot and universalist.

He departed twenty one days short of his 73rd birthday. Gbadamosi had traversed the world since he was a teenager. He was a citizen of the universe but had long ago, prepared his final rest place in his beloved Ikorodu. The town, which began as an outpost of the Remo and Ijebu people was founded by Epe Odu primarily as a vegetable farm. People going to the farm settlement often said they were going to Oko Odu (Odu’s farm) The British colonialists Anglicized Oko Odu to Ikorodu.

Gbadamosi’s great grandfather was Ajenise from the Agemo lineage. His grandfather, Gbadamosi Odesanya, alias Adaramadoti, traded in hand-woven clothes and was a tailor. His grandmother, Raliat Morounkubi was from Ode Remo. They had ten children but only three survived. His father, Sule Oyesola, adopted the father’s first name, Gbadamosi, he became known as Sule Oyesola Gbadamosi (SOG) while his uncle, Michael, retained Odesanya, the family name. He was to be later known as Justice Michael Adeyinka Odesanya.

The senior Gbadamosi had sixteen children. To try to treat them all equally, SOG, who was a man of considerable means, created a children section in his home, withdrew the children from the direct care of their mothers and placed them under a governess, Mrs. Odomosu, alias Mama Nurse. Given his very busy schedules as an industrialist and leading politician, he placed the governess under the supervision of his younger brother, Michael Odesanya, who also exercised discipline amongst the children. His mother, Alhaja Rafatu Asabi Gbadamosi was from the royal family in Lagos.

The greatest influences in young Gbadamosi’s life were his father who also mentored him in business and his mother with whom he had a sort of telepathic relationship. He told me a story about this. He said when he was quite young, his mother took a commercial boat from Lagos Island where they lived, to Ikorodu. In those days, that was the only means of transportation to Ikorodu. The alternative was a four-day journey by foot through Lagasa and Victoria Island.

He said shortly after she left, in a trance-like state, he saw his mother in distress in the boat as it was about to capsize. He began to weep. Gbadamosi said when his mother returned, she narrated how her and other passengers in the boat almost lost their lives as it nearly capsized.

Gbadamosi was born at about 2.am at the Mercy Hospital, Mercy Street, Lagos. By four, he started school at the Patience Kindergarten Modern School and was admitted to the prestigious Methodist Boys’ High School (MBHS) Lagos in 1956.

Although his father was one of the leading Muslims in the country, he not only sent his son to a Christian mission school, but also took him to live with the then Principal, Reverend Samuel Adeoye Osinulu. Reverend Osinulu who marked his centenary this year had told me in an interview in 2003 that Gbadamosi lived with him for “quite a while and he was a good member of the family, apart from being a good student. His father gave him a good Muslim training at home and when he came to live with us, he also imbibed Christian values…He absorbed the best of the two religions and that can be seen reflected in his character”

Gbadamosi was seventeen when he left secondary school in 1960 the year Nigeria gained independence. His graduating class in MBHS became known as the Liberation Set. The following year, the young Gbadamosi was off to England for further studies. His father had seen off Gbadamosi and his elder brother at the old Ikeja Airport, Lagos.

The Italian flight, a propeller plane was scheduled to make the journey in twelve hours with stops in Kano, Tripoli and Barcelona. It was Gbadamosi’s first travel outside the country and his first experience in air travel. Forty five minutes into the Barcelona-London flight, the Gbadamosi brothers and other passengers were moved from the economy class to the rear of the aircraft. They were given pillows to rest their heads. He held on to his elder brother who was sleeping. Then he saw the air hostess wincing and acting nervous.

What young Gbadamosi did not realize was that the movement of the passengers and their given pillows to lay their heads was to prepare them for a possible crash-land. One of the aircraft tyres had stuck and would not release, but as it made to crash-land, the tyre released and the plane taxied to a stop. Gbadamosi did not realize that he and other passengers had cheated death by the whiskers until after the airport formality, he got a congratulatory telegram from his father.

What happened was that after seeing his two sons off, the senior Gbadamosi was travelling to Ibadan when the British Broadcasting Corporation announced that a Lagos-London Italian flight had some problems and wasn’t able to land initially but that it eventually landed safely. The senior Gbadamosi immediately sent a congratulatory telegram to his sons. From the jaws of death, Gbadamosi and his brother stepped into British soil in pursuit knowledge.

He spent six years in Britain attending the City of Westminster College and University of Manchester where he majored in Economics and a Masters in the University of New Hampshire, United States. The fall of Umuahia to Federal Troops in 1969 during the Civil War, was to him, a signal that he had to return to the country. Here he was with a degree and advanced diploma from Britain and a Masters in Economics from America.

He had a good pedigree; his father was a big industrialist and one of the country’s best known political figures. He declined an appointment in the Cabinet Office, to work in his father’s company. Life’s canvas stretched invitingly before him. Then suddenly he had to make a run for it. The military authorities were hot on his tail hunting him for charges of subversion or treasonable felony. For Gbadamosi’s supposed actions, the Federal Military Government of General Yakubu Gowon had put the First Division of the Army on alert to march on Lagos.

His accomplices had been rounded up and were already in prison. These included Christopher Kolade, the Director General of the Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (Now, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria) – he was years later, Nigeria High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. There was Edward Fiberesima, a star and a Producer of the NBC, Francesca Emmanuel who was to retire as a Federal Permanent Secretary and Kofo Bucknor-Akerele who later became Deputy Governor of Lagos State. After some time in hiding, Gbadamosi emerged hoping that the heat was off. He was promptly arrested and thrown into the high security Kirikiri Prison.

The cause of the whole problem was a play! Titled, Trees Grow In The Desert, it was Gbadamosi’s first play which he had written three years before the Civil War. The play had been staged successfully and there had been glowing tributes about it. Then Edward Fiberesima thought it should be adapted to a radio play. There as a scene in the play about an army mutiny in which the Head of the Armed Forces and the Chief of Staff were kidnapped. On stage, it was an innocuous scene. But that hot afternoon in Lagos when the play was on the NBC, it sounded real; that a coup was on. The authorities did not wait to hear the rest of the production which would have made them realize that it was just a play. When the military authorities were informed it was just a play even if badly timed and badly edited, it did not matter to them. The sulking authorities rounded up all those connected with the play, but the playwright, Gbadamosi was at large hence the hunt for him.

After two weeks in prison, the anger of the authorities was assuaged and he was set free. The authorities reaction and the arrest made the headlines and Gbadamosi was thrust into prominence; his literary image soared and he was propelled into more literary activity.

In 1971, he reached out to Offa, Kwara State, to marry his heart-throb, the then Miss Tinu Adedoyin. At 29 he was appointed the Lagos state Commissioner for Economic Planning by the then Military Governor, Brigadier General Mobolaji Johnson. However, the government of General Yakubu Gowon was overthrown on July 29, 1975 and all state governors and their political appointees, sacked.

The new government at the Federal level led by General Murtala Ramat Muhammed accused the Gowon regime of incompetence, indecision and corruption. At the Lagos State level, the new Military Governor, Adekunle Lawal declared war on the sacked Johnson government.

As a former Commissioner under Johnson, Gbadamosi, had to fight off such accusations. He reiterated his innocence and went on the pages of the newspapers to take on the new government, however, the harassment against the former leadership did not cease.

One evening, Gbadamosi went to see a friend in the Surulere area of Lagos. There he met a man who was introduced to him as Lt. Colonel Ibrahim Babangida a member of the newly constituted Supreme Military Council. The Colonel asked Gbadamosi to repeat his name after which he said off-guard “Oh, We have an appointment for you, you’ll hear about it.” Then he melted away. The next day, Gbadamosi was named as one of the “Fifty Wise-men” to draft the country’s new constitution preparatory to the handover of power to civilians.

Here was somebody who was rejected and vilified being appointed by the same military government. The Government went on in addition to appoint him into the Board of Directors of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) the then sole electricity company in the country. With that, his rehabilitation and the redemption of his name was complete. He was at this time, a 32-year old youth. The best was yet to come.

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/11/trees-grow-desert-rasheed-gbadamosi-young-man/

There goes a very fine, urbane and cultured gentleman who took the final bow yesterday evening. He was intellectually endowed, dutifully patriotic and a devoted nationalist. As a foundation member of the first Lagos State Executive Council after the creation of the state in 1967, he contributed immensely towards laying a very solid foundation for what what is today the foremost state in the country and the nation's undisputed Centre of Excellence. He was looking forward to joining the government and people of Lagos state in celebrating fifty years of the creation of the state next year but alas, fate has marched him through the imminent mortal path before the D day.Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi's sudden exit yesterday evening was a great loss to the nation and Lagos state at a time when the country is fighting to wrest itself from recession. Born to the late Chief S.O. Gbadamosi, a very strong and dependable ally of the late Sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the mother from the historic Eletu-Odibo family of Lagos, he distinguished himself in the service of this nation in different spheres. His sudden transition is therefore a very sad loss to the guild of Art collectors as an accomplished and devoted collector and appreciation of artistic works and promotion of the arts. To the Society of the members of the music Icons to which I also belong, a society that seeks to promote and preserve Nigerian highlife and other almost forgotten indigenous genres, his transition is a great blow. As a core member of MUSON, the musical society of Nigeria, his death has left a deep void. As an Economist of no mean repute, he made his mark and left his footprints,he was very thorough and exceptional. As a promoter of Nigerian musical genres, he was very exceptional. Indeed, he could best be described as the foremost promoter of the music of the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti a cause he was devoted to till he breathed his last. In the promotion and preservation of our Culture and tradition he was more than dedicated. I had the rare opportunity of working closely with him in the organization of the Eyo festival in Lagos and his commitment towards its preservation and promotion knew no bounds no wonder he was the life Chairman of the Eyo Agere group having succeeded Chief Agbabiaka a retired police chief who died years ago. One can only commiserate with his very bosom friend and classmate Aremo Olusegun Osoba the former Governor of Ogun State and his other classmates at the MBHS Lagos. They were all closely knitted but alas death has separated Rasheed GBADAMOSI from them.May the Almighty comfort them all. Personally, I will miss his humility and simplicity. He would always call me aburo whenever he saw me. But there goes the great Egbon. Who are we to question God. To his immediate and extended family, he was like the proverbial Iroko tree while his love and affection for all of them was immeasurable. May Almighty God grant them the courage and fortitude to bear his exit because he was a great rallying force.. The best that could be done to his memory is to sustain the great and very enviable ideals for which he lived and died. As the earth opens up to receive his mortal remains in Ikorodu this afternoon, we pray Almighty God to grant his soul a sweet repose and may light perpetual shine upon him . Adieu ye great and patriotic son of Nigeria and very eminent Lagosian. To the government and people of Lagos state, Eku Ara f'era ku. Odun a jinna so 'ra won. Sunre o Uncle Rasheed Gbadamosi, Omo Eluku meden, meden, Omo Eluku meden meden.Omo akenigbo keru ba Ara ona. Omo mole afeleja. Omo Eletu-Odibo. Omo Odiyan, Omo Ogun l'odibo. Omo aro bobabegun, Omo afelele wole Oba. Omo Erin obeji, Omo Erin beji o yasho. Rest in perfect peace.

Kunle Odufuwa

Chief Rasheed Abiodun Oladosu Gbadamosi and his older brother late Pa Fatayi Morolayo Gbadamosi having Christmas lunch in 2001

In this picture (L - R Late Pa Fatayi Morolayo Gbadamosi (a.k.a FMA), his wife Alhaja Jemilah Gbadamosi I'm the little girl on her lap, My late Uncle Chief Rasheed Abiodun Oladosu Gbadamosi (a.k.a RAG) and his wife Chief Tinuade Gbadamosi .  On uncle Rasheed's lap is Mr Babatunde Olalere Gbadamosi (a.k.a B.O.G) and I believe at the time , Kunbi was still kicking in my aunty's tummy.

We have all been taught to stick together and together we shall remain. 

This was Rasheed Gbadamosi's last award before he passed away. 

He still owes me a visit. After he spied a rug from his factory years ago, on which a lion had been emblazoned, it became even more pressing. He revealed that he had seen that design and decided that it belonged to me, nowhere else, so he commandeered it and packaged it off to me. I sent word back some time later that I had found the perfect place for the rug, this being the studio room downstairs in my Ijegba home, which I named IGBALE AGBA. I declared that I would not formally declare that room open without him. We fixed a date, then another, and now, there are no new dates to negotiate.

In the Lagos@50 monthly series in which we celebrate the five Lagos divisions known as I-B-I-L-E, this December was to have been the turn of Ikorodu, third in line, and Rasheed's early play, ECHOES FROM THE LAGOON, was already scheduled. In the process of reacquainting myself with his works, I was reminded of Gbadamosi's early creative promise. I wrote him, lamenting that the artistic world had lost him to business. It is impossible to quantify the personal consolation I derived from having sent him that note just a forthnight or so before he took his leave of us.

In strict terms of course, the artistic world never lost Rasheed. That was were his soul was, and he manifested it in the commitment that made him turn his estate into a vast exhibition gallery of Nigerian painters, to which many flock till today. Rasheed - let this be stressed as a public challenge - Rasheed put his money where his heart beat! Both young and old generation artists will testify to this in abundance.

But finally, he left us. Fate is often cruel, very cruel when hope has been raised. I had been optimistic, not only optimistic but proactively so. At the start of our collaboration, I confess I had been skeptical over his stamina. He looked frail, so I protested to him and his minders - Tell him to take it easy. He needn't come to this or that meeting or whatever event. Rasheed had his own ideas however, and insisted on nearly full, productive participation. So I changed gears. I had recognized a fighter, and I found it challenging. I now became querulous when I failed to see him at an event - let him do more and more, I insisted. It was doing him good, so I demanded more of the same for him. And he still owed me that visit...!

Only a few weeks ago, we had lunch together - a working lunch, drawing up new options for an open frustrating exercise. On that unsuspecting day, I watched him undergoing his physiotherapy session before we proceeded to lunch, prepared by his deceptively light framed but courageous wife. How was one expected to have remotely conjectured that this was to be our 'Last Supper' together!

Adieu, dear aburo, adieu." - Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka