By Dele Adesina SAN
A Gospel song writer says and I quote “What do we do when we don’t know what to do? Where do we run to when we don’t know where to go? And what do we say when we don’t know what to say?” I must confess that I don’t know what to say about the death of Chief Hon. Olubunmi Olugbade. I have been inundated with calls from friends and colleagues wondering whether the news of his death is true and how. Even though I do not know what to say, it has become inevitable for me to say something in his honour.
Let me start by saying that nobody no matter how powerful can add one second to his life. Secondly, I also recognise as a believer that there is no accident in predestination. Hence, the scripture says “that there is a time to be born and there is a time to die.” The timing of these two great events of life is beyond the knowledge and comprehension of any man. With this understanding, no one can query God. “Kabio osi!”
Hon. Olubunmi Olugbade died exactly a week ago from today, February 9th, 2021 after a protracted illness. He was aged 61. Hon. Olugbade’s death is much more painful to me because I know that he carried the sole responsibility of looking after his six (6) children, his wife having died earlier in June 2018. Three (3) of these children are under 20. He was on sick bed for several months. I cannot help but to say that death is cruel and that devil, the author of death is wicked but I have a word for the children. That when the devil is at its worst, God is always at His best.
Hon. Olubunmi Olugbade was a good man. A very sincere and loyal friend, highly passionate and committed to relationship. A very brilliant Legal Practitioner and an outstanding Politician in Ekiti State. He was a former Honourable Member of the House of Assembly of Ekiti State where he made a mark. He was a former Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association, Ikere Branch, Ekiti State and a former member of the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association. He was a great player and indeed an influencer in the affairs of Egbe Amofin – the South-west caucus of Nigerian Lawyers. A transparent and honest man, highly reliable, unreservably selfless and absolutely committed to any cause that he believed in. I also know as a fact that he was a traditional title holder of Apelua of Ilawe, Ekiti and a great confidant of our traditional ruler back home.
The great legend Chief Obafemi Awolowo once said “All that I want in life is to live for history. To live for history is not to die but to be in the hearts of all men and to be in the hearts of men is to serve them selflessly.” You served your community to the utmost best of your ability and capacity as Chief Apelua of Ilawe Ekiti. You served your State very diligently as a honourable member of the House of Assembly and you served your profession creditably to the level that circumstances and situations permitted the opportunity. Above all, you served God dedicatedly through the platform of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. You therefore shall be in the hearts of so many people, too numerous to count and from different levels of humanity. Therefore, Chief Hon. Olubunmi Olugbade, you are not dead. You have barely transited from mortality to immortality. You are alive in our hearts.
I pray that God Almighty, the father of the fatherless shall rise up mightily for the children and other relatives that you left behind. He shall raise men and women for them and for their needs. When they need you, they shall see God.
Rest in perfect peace!
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