Roland Olalekan Olajide.....really? Did he die? Is this a joke, a dream or an April fools’ joke on February 1? Or could this have been a combination of jokes all rolled into a scary nightmare? If indeed he died, is this not confirming life, being a walking shadow that life really has no substance but is it spiritual? It has to be spiritual and still strange to believe that I, Jumoke Ogunkeyede have finished earthly interactions with Alaska, Alaskoko and if we ever cross paths again, it is in my subconscious or unconscious state? It is strange that this Prince, whose path crossed mine in Class Two, at an Ionian school, Ikeja Grammar School, will no longer be my earthly friend? Alaska came to Ikeja Grammar School and the school knew a child was enrolled today. That today was January, 1965. It was Form Two or Class 2B that registered him in its roster. Within a span of about six weeks, he became a class celebrity. Within six months, he became a school celebrity. He got in trouble a couple of times with Papa Oriowo, our Yoruba teacher who had been teaching at Ilesa Grammar School since 1937! He also crossed paths with Papa Lucas who was the first interim Principal in February, 1934 when our school first opened to admit students. But Alaska, who consciously took that acronym because in those days and beginning from 1966, the American Mission (Embassy) we’re busy brain washing little kids as to how great America was during the Cold War by recruiting our young minds to prefer America to Russia of old and come to preselected secondary school campuses and would take about 90 minutes of our time on campus on Wednesdays, consistently and show a film with same title every week. The title of those films as we knew it was “FOCUS ON Progress”. These serialized firm will send messages to us young students to believe America was better than Russia. That a poor American could ride a ‘long’ car, (a Chevrolet), could live in a high rise building and his apartment can be reached through an elevator even if that apartment was on the 14th floor!! We were eager to watch these films that were designed to make us like America instead of Russia. One Wednesday, FOCUS ON PROGRESS showed one episode on life in Alaska. It was so enticing and that was how my friend decided that he would not study in any other country but in the USA and his preferred State to live in would be ALASKA!!! And because Lekan Olajide was a member of the school bank, it did not take long for the name to stick.
Family and close friends would remember that he told his father that if he was not sent to America after the secondary school education, he would never go to school again! After secondary school education, he took a teaching job in a remote part of Oyo State now to hide from his father who proposed either of the Universities of Ibadan or Lagos. Immediately Pa OLAJIDE saw that he could lose a child by not acceding to what Lekan wanted, he sent him abroad, landing in Paris first before crossing to Chicago in America. Aside from the fact that Pa Olajide was a blue Royal blood, Lekan’s father was a renowned educationist he was a famous Principal, popular across the length and breath of the old Western Region. His mother, a kind and beautiful woman from the popular Olayomi family was a trained nurse from England whose specialty was ophthalmic nursing. As children, we played some pranks that our parents must not know. For example, I was the ‘boyfriend’ of Alaska’s mother. She would come to visit Alaska in school, and we would prostrate with our chins touching the ground but after we would have accompanied Alaska to seeing his Mom to her car and she would have given all of us biscuits and shared the Krola (Coke) that she brought, this beautiful mother would zoom off in her car. Then, she would become my girlfriend again. When she died, I wept bitterly. I took I’ll. I don’t remember which of us was my mother’s boyfriend. Those were the days! Alaska was affable. He was a lady’s man. He would always use four handkerchiefs with one protecting his white shirt from getting dirty around the neck, another one in his left short or trouser pocket, a third tucked into the left back pocket of his trouser hanging out for all to see and the forth held delicately in the palm of his right hand. Lekan Olajide loved family. Alaska was a lone bird whiled successful siblings. To Alaska, there were no cousins. You are either a brother or a sister, a son or a daughter. He was a beautiful Olori-Ebi. Cindy, Laura and Lekan Jnr, who I will henceforth call Alaska should be proud to have been fathered by Roland Emmy Olalekan Olajide. Yes, I know how he felt about you; and the fact that all was well between him and you my children gives me assurance that Alaska will Rest In Peace. Omo Olajide, this is how Alaska would beat his chest and say with pride, “EMI OMO OLAJIDE”. The three of you should take that from him and wear that badge of being an Olajide with your head raised high with pride. You came from a family that you should be proud of. He would not have died in vain if you continuously raise that name to another level. With your Aunty Iyabo, Aunty Folasade, your Uncle Dr. Kunle, your Aunty Aylin England, and your roots in the Olayomi family, Gbenga that I remember, you cannot fail. Alaska, I am part of your family. I will miss you till I die. I am Otunba Jumoke Ogunkeyede (JMK).
