Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada On behalf of my family, the Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, Olokun Festival Foundation and the Oodua Progressive Union, OPU, I commiserate with the family of our father, a great icon and elder statesman, Late Gen. Robert Adeyinka Adebayo. The rude news of his passage in the early hours of yesterday sent jitters into our spines, not because he did not live to the ripe age, not because he did not die a accomplished leader, but because we missed him at a point when his elderly contribution to the Yoruba race is much needed.
General Adebayo died at a time Yoruba leaders were coming together to advance their civilisation. Baba died when the race is yearning to return to her pride of place as trail blazers among the tribes in the country. We will indeed miss him.
“The brave,” they say, “die never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men.”
The above quote best defined Gen. Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, who took over from Lt Col Francis Adekunle Adebayo as the military Governor of the old West. Both were from the present Ekiti State. Both were gallant soldiers that continually prayed for peace. Not out of cowardice but because they had suffered and bear deep wounds and scars of war. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all.
We have lost a true”titan” and a living ”immortal” all rolled into one. Baba was a great son of Nigeria and a glorious shining star. We must do all that we can to honour him even in death.
May the Lord have mercy upon General Robert Adeyinka Adebayo and forgive him of all his sins. May his good deeds speak for him before God. May the Lord welcome him into the hosts of Heaven. May his beautiful and compassionate soul rest in perfect peace.
Sun un re ooo, akikanju tooto!
