Elegy to Johnson, congrats to Abolarin -By Festus Adedayo

The coincidence of the announcement of the passing on of General Mobolaji Johnson during the week, with a time I was having a good listen to a track in an album,ricks sang by my musical idol, Ayinla Omowura, occurred to me as striking. Johnson was the first military governor of Lagos State whose incorruptibility was tested when the next government that took over from the Yakubu Gowon administration he served – Murtala Muhammed’s – subjected his administration to an integral sieve and Johnson passed. Many others didn’t.

I also remembered that I missed an interview session with him in the late 1990s. I had booked the interview and we agreed to meet at his younger brother’s Broken House office in Dugbe, Ibadan but he had to call to postpone the interview. We never met thereafter.

Johnson’s administration was known for a lot of policy decisions that made up the foundation of present Lagos. One of such policies was his tenement rate policy, at a point when Nigerians and Lagosians especially, were emerging from the backward experiences of traditional society. The tenement rate policy, though seemingly harsh, was formulated as one of the first steps towards making Lagos a truly metropolitan city, in readiness for the implosion of modernity that came later.

Though it came with the rigidity of the military, governments like Johnson’s were lucky to have public-minded media that publicized their activities. One of such was Omowura. In fast-tempoed, danceable tune, Omowura carefully explained the process of the payment, asking the public to “e f’ara m’Omobolaji” – support Mobolaji’s policy.

May the soul of that huge-statured, huge-minded patriot, rest in perfect peace.

Again, a man after my heart, the monarch of Oke-Ila, Oba Adedokun Abolarin, would be conferred with an award of Doctor of Public Administration (Honoris Causa) by the Lead City University, Ibadan on Wednesday. Oba Abolarin is undoubtedly one of the most cerebral, forward-looking monarchs in Yorubaland. Clear-minded, positive and deep in his analysis and thoughts about the development of his people, when you listen to the monarch, you would wonder what a profound mind like him was doing in a monarchy which is fast becoming an emblem of the wrong corps of Yoruba who are climbing traditional stools whose lives contravene.

While on the editorial board of the Tribune newspapers, he once took me to Professor Akinjogbin, the renowned history scholar. Leading by example, Abolarin founded a school in his domain at Oke-Ila where he personally teaches the pupils. In company with his friend, Dele Momodu, Abolarin taught at the defunct OSCAS in Ile-Ife and his ex-students still remark, till today, about his teaching prowess and the profundity of his mind. I promise to, one of these days, visit this school and report his example to the world. Congratulations to a foremost Yoruba monarch, the Orangun, on this well-deserved award.