Today, Her Excellency, Erelu (Dr.) Olusola Obada, CON, turns 70. She is a woman of many outstanding parts difficult to consign into a small prose. She embodies the classical essence of humanity, elevating womanhood beyond the pantheon of her generation. Her breed is rare and far-flung, but her feats are ubiquitous. In her heyday in the political firmament, she attracted a cult followership, not just in her native Osun State, but the Nigerian space.
What made her tick, and keeps her in our collective consciousness? Her persona appropriates the progeny of the legendary Queen Amina or the folk Heroine Moremi, both goddesses that liberated their captive generations.
Erelu’s incursion into politics in the Fourth Republic couldn’t have been a happenstance. Her apolitical milieu had all the telltale: grassroots mobilization for common causes and humanitarian works provided the groundswell for her political upswing. She became the first Ijesa woman of repute in contemporary times to ride the political terrain not just in Osun State but Nigeria as a whole.
In the characteristics of an Ijesa, she displays courage, confidence and industry. But her educational acquisition and global exposure also imbued her with shrewd business acumen and political sagacity which cleared her paths in times of upheavals and political tensions during her sojourn as Deputy Governor of Osun State. That she was the first woman Deputy Governor in Osun is not the point, but more poignant was her unflinching loyalty to state and party; and the stabilizing factor she brought upon the Government of Mr. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, whom she devotedly called “My Boss.” This devotion, unabashedly displayed round the clock, was particularly instructive in an era buffeted by Governor- Deputy feuds that pulled down many states. Erelu Olusola Obada will be remembered for steadying that government, with the attendant progress in infrastructural renewal and investments.
Her political trajectory which started from her sitting room as God’s Own Project (GOP) saw her dominate the Osun politics, and berthed on the national stage with appointment as Minister of Defence. She was appointed Director of Protocol for the Goodluck and Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation because of her organisational acumen. She was to later serve as delegate to the 2014 National Conference, and thereafter appointed pioneer Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of the Federal University, Dutsin-Ma in Katsina State.
Erelu will also be remembered for raising the awareness on the economic value of cocoa. Her pedigree as grassroots mobiliser and an advocate of economic emancipation and women empowerment made her the natural choice of the Olusegun Obasanjo government as Chairperson, National Planning Committee on Cocoa Rebirth. “We have to diversify the economy of this country with the production of large quantities of cocoa,” she would campaign along the length and breadth of Nigeria, because “no country can increase its revenue on only one product.”
Her penchant for dispute resolution is legendary. Not many people knew that she played active roles during her days in government in dispute resolutions among governors, between governors and deputies and between President Olusegun Obasanjo and a couple of his estranged associates.
Though she played on the state and national stage, her local constituents and support base were never neglected. In public places, sometimes you would see people greet her and remind her of favours or assistance she did years past which she had even forgotten. Anytime I needed help, and there were numerous times, meeting her was always a soothing relief. When she stared into space and flipped her foot, be sure she was downloading the solution; and I always left her presence a happy man.
Erelu, despite the panoply of office and security apparatus, never displayed any air of self-importance. For some of us, her ever-present coterie, there were never no-go areas; to the extent that we often invaded her private rooms and kitchen.
With her political forays that took her out of her family home most often, Erelu remained a dutiful wife, an existential mother and a woman of virtue. But huge credit will go to her adorable husband, Uncle Tunde, who stood in the gap, and has consistently been the Prayer Warrior of the family. Otunba Dr. Babatunde Obada is one of the most genial and urbane men to have walked the surface of the Earth. While Erelu is hyper restless and spontaneously explosive, Otunba is calm, studious with the disposition of a sage. Little wonder the binding chemistry between a business husband and a political wife.
She listens with rapt attention to issues of importance, and proffers solutions as the issues are brought forth, but she can be impulsively impatient to inanities or unintelligent rigmarole.
Erelu has panache, poise and dignity; brain and beauty are her forte. A thoroughbred and an unrepentant perfectionist, sometimes when I wrote her speech, she would elucidate on the relevance of a comma or the logical sequence of a sentence. In like manner, her dresses must be adorned with a painstakingly pristine ritual. Coupled with her sense of elegance and power dressing is her love of photographs which makes a collector’s delight.
Here is raising seventy garlands to a woman of exceptional virtue and quintessential disposition who impacted the frontiers of her generation.
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