Just when the six daughters of Adefunpe Ojeyemi had looked up to October 22, 2022 as a date to celebrate their father's 80th birthday in a grand style, the ace award-winning retired ( but not tired) Punch photo journalist bade the world goodbye on October,15,2022, exactly a week to his birthday.
By every standard in which saintliness could be measured by one's character , Adefunpe who was a walking Bible, both in words and deeds , can aptly be described as a Saint here on earth as he went about his duty without pomp or pageantry while he was an embodiment of diligence , humility and chastity.
It was not therefore surprising that his former editors , great men and mobilizers of diligent workers, Bola Bolawole and Dipo Onabanjo as well as the Chairman of the veterans in Oyo state, Elder Ogundele( among others) paid glowing tributes to the departed saint whose soul has just marched beyond.
As the Punch state editor in Oyo State and later Bureau Chief of the South Western states, Adefunpe Ojeyemi worked under my supervision, but I must confess here that whatever professional awards of Excellence I have bagged in Oyo state in the 90s , it was not without the professional backing of this ace photo journalist fondly called Baba Oje.
There was no state in the South West where I had served the Punch ; Kwara, Oyo, Lagos and Osun states where I had not effectively made use of the Punch camera men while this had contributed tremendously to my bagging professional awards for excellent journalism practice in all of the states .
I saw Baba Oje last early this year when the council of Prophets in Ibadan District of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement church invited me to come to Ibadan where I was presented an award and as it was in his house my wife, Prophetess I.D. Fagbola and I passed the night , the last discussion we had together was my promise to him to write his biography ( to be masqueraded in fiction ) as it was a night he revealed to me a lot he had passed through in life .
I had repeatedly been calling his line for the past three months and the answering machine from his end had been telling me that he was busy on another line.
And when finally on Saturday, October 16, 2022 his line put through to me a call l least expected , it was the voice of one of his daughters, Temitope that broke the news about his death to me .
" Ha, Baba Oje ! "
OLALERE FAGBOLA
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