The squash in Adetayo Koleoso -By Festus Adedayo

If we are careful and mindful enough to listen to what people do not say or what is not communicated, we probably will grasp human character better. Harmless acts sometimes forewarn us about the person next door very clearly but we are either too unmindful to notice these acts or too careless to properly situate them. When you are behind the wheels, for instance, your manner of driving speaks volume of who you actually are. Of a truth, there are those who put up a façade to shawl their real selves but even in the midst of this, character, so they say, is like a hail of smoke covered with a bowl which will ultimately bail out.

One sporting activity that reveals almost your totality immediately you get into it is a game of squash. On the squash court, you literally unbowel yourself for your opponent to have a glimpse of. The fraudulent, the liar, the one who cuts corners and one who cannot be trusted in real life is nakedly positioned within that ample space of a squash court.

At the Meadow Mill Athletic Club, Baltimore, Maryland some years ago, a Nigerian resident had waited for a while to play a game of squash without any opponent in sight. He was almost leaving dejected when, all of a sudden, this middle-aged American appeared. And a game of squash between the duo ensued. After some bouts, they came out of the court and a chat began. What line of business was the Nigerian into? The American asked. He had been trying to break into the business league in the United States but the Nigerian blemish of corruption and wonky character had always been his nemesis, he replied. “You’re straight-forward and worthy of doing business with,” the American had shot back. And that began a long, yet productive business relationship.

That Nigerian man was Adetayo Alao Koleoso, Loyola College, Ibadan and University of Ibadan alumnus, former Commissioner of Integration to Late ex-Governor Abiola Ajimobi. Unlike that American in Baltimore, what strikes me about Koleoso is his fidelity to the other person and strength of character.

For me, Koleoso is one of my most bountiful harvests in my few years of sojourning in that queer environment of Nigerian government and politics. Selfless, patriotic and forthright, he is my quintessence of the concept of the rare species of mankind called the good man, adumbrated by Yoruba as Omoluabi. On Monday, July 27, 2020, Adetayo Alao Koleoso would be 50 years old. This is celebrating my model of the Nigerian.