In this brief reminiscence, author Rotimi Ogunjobi honors Professor Ade Adefuye, Nigeria's former Ambassador to USA
We all called him "Broda" Ade. In those times you were brought up to respect your seniors. But even then I doubt if I should have been qualified to call him "broda" , because he was much older; but he was a nice guy through and through, never uptight about the niggling age issue, and so we all called him Broda Ade.
This morning , I am again looking at the house in which he grew up as a child. I cannot avoid seeing this house really because it is just across the road from where I live , indeed just about 30 ft away. It is an old building now, the occupants who once lived inside there , I mean those one that I ever knew, are long gone.It now looks so dark, cold and uninviting - a sepulcher to memories.
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I especially remember one chilly morning during the civil war. There I was, 8 year old kid, out in the backyard of our own house, doing my morning floor sweeping chore. There was a night curfew in those doleful times and nobody was expected to be outside their homes until I think 6.30 am . But there was Broda Ade , quietly sitting in the front porch of his father's house , doing whatever. Suddenly a truck load of soldiers came hurtling down the road ,it screeched to a halt in front of this house, whereupon the soldiers pounced on him and beat him up so badly. I was much perplexed. What had he done wrong other than sit in front of his father's house. He wasn't even standing near the road.I remember that morning quite vividly even like it was this very morning, because I felt so badly for him. that was also the morning I started to distrust anyone in uniform.
I was enormously pleased when he became Nigeria's ambassador to the United States of America - which I think was a worthy crown to his several previous public appointments. I never once met him in this role ; and indeed I don't think I have been in physical contact with him in the last thirty years. Nevertheless I believe this episode with the gormless men in uniform , and I am sure some other misgivings , must have demanded of his life, the need for fairness and to uphold the rights and self respect of those that he holds dear. As Nigeria's Ambassador to the United States , Professor Ade Adefuye proudly defended his country to the fulness of his ability, even when he could have done otherwise to the applause of his not quite friendly host country.
This morning as I look across the street to his parents' home where he grew up , a fleeting sadness is replaced by pride . Many of us will think that he died too young; but sooner or later the same fate will eventually befall the luckiest of us all. And the world will remember none of us for how long we lived , but for what worth we were to the world when we lived.
RIP Professor Adebowale Ibidapo Adefuye
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