“Somewhere in Odogbolu, Ogun State Nigeria, burdened with betraying emotions despite the semi god status that students like me accorded him; despite being a senior lecturer and one highly respected in MAPOLY, with tears-filled eyes Oso looked at the coffin of late Jimmy about to be lowered to mother earth. Summoning all courage he couldn’t get, Oso addressed death as a bad harvester who plucks the unripe fruit and leaves the rotten ones.”
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more…” Shakespeare in his book, Macbeth
But Prof. Lai Oso wasn’t just any player. He was an active player who struts and frets all communication stages, not only impacting positively but also advocating against government insensitivity and negligence in providing basic amenities.
The poor player in the words of Macbeth act his hour on the stage and then is heard no more, but Oso’s hour on stage was not over, neither was his mode of exit!
Somewhere in Odogbolu, Ogun State Nigeria, burdened with betraying emotions despite the semi god status that students like me accorded him; despite being a senior lecturer and one highly respected in MAPOLY, with tears-filled eyes Oso looked at the coffin of late Jimmy about to be lowered to mother earth. Summoning all courage he couldn’t get, Oso addressed death as a bad harvester who plucks the unripe fruit and leaves the rotten ones.
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Jimmy was a young man who struggled to make ends meet through photography and video shooting. Oso could not process why a promising guy with a bright future be wasted in a road accident. Oso grieved the more because Jimmy’s death could have been avoided if the government were sensitive to its responsibilities in providing good and motorable roads.
For me that could have been a mere speech all in the name of ‘make I talk’ till years later when I was involved in a fatal motor accident that left three survivors in an 18 ‘seater’ bus. An accident that got my right hand fractured. With my left hand I was writing my second paper in the examination hall; my pathetic state caught the attention of Dr. Osho (like we used to call him then, who was the invigilator in the hall. He must have been observing my discomfort (having a plaster of Paris on my right hand) as he moved closer to me and asked me quietly what happened to you? I quickly narrated the accident. He looked at me again and said; is that all? I replied that I quickly had to master using my left hand to write as my exam couldn’t wait for the healing process. As I replied him, I saw the kind of empathetic face he had when Jimmy died.
How my state bothered a man who did not know me from Adam so much that he asked me to wait and see him after the exams still beats my imagination till date. Guessing my state troubled him, he interrogated me further after the exams. Have you been writing with your left hand before the accident? That was his first question, and I replied no, telling him that when the preferable is not available, the available becomes the preferable. I explained that I had to learn it in a month because I had to write my exam. He looked at me and said, ”for you, there is no stopping, right?
Exam after exam where this no nonsense lecturer got the time to check on me amidst his tight schedules is a memory of him I will never forget; so much that my friend and course mate Stella Obaseki will re-echo “Dr. Oso, checking on you? You get carry over award?
The most amazing part of him was when he was to table my plights before other lecturers, HE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW MY NAME! Describing my situation, much later he found me through my coursemates and this is where I agree with Dare Odufowokan that Oso “has a large heart, believes nobody and infact nothing is totally bad without remedy’’. Indeed he was an embodiment of strong humane values.
I spent the remaining part of the semester knowing the humane side of him that many may not know. If in that fractured state I still wanted to soar, Oso was the man that helped me flew. He only needed to see the fire in you, or probably the spark and before you know it he gives you all the boost!
Not until the mentioned Obaseki also found herself in crutches and Oso summoned both of us for interrogation did I know he detested anything in the guise of road accident. Keenly looking at our now miserable condition when Obaseki was done with her story, Doctor was all fierce and furious, lamenting on how this could have been prevented and asking why the modus de operandi for a sane government should be insensitivity to the loss of human lives.
Drawing my caption from his legacy and also concurring with Wasiu Tejuosho on Oso’s death, this was one of his consistent complaints while alive that the government should be responsible for citizen’s welfare. Alas! the government failed Lai Oso, Nigeria happened to him, and today he has been submerged by the same road accident he dreaded the most! O ma se o!
Unarguably a communication expert buried in the rubbles of our so-called leaders’ greed and selfishness. Oso now caught up in the worst of his fears! A method of transition he wished no one. A demon he saw the government creating and forewarned! Today, that same ugly, grieving and trending negligence on the part of our heartless leaders has now come to take him off stage!! He hated this mode of transition, he lived fighting this wrong, he canvassed! He talked it! He walked it! And those of us who knew him know how much he dreaded this path of transition!!! My heart still bleeds. I hate to say good night, Professor Lai Oso.
Dorcas Sanni Ojelabi (Alagatosoji MC DSO) currently the Secretary to the Elegboro of Egboro Kingdom, Ijebu- Jesa, Osun
