Ariyo Dare-Atoye: A painful eternal flight, By Sufuyan Ojeifo

How do I start to pen a tribute in memory of my younger brother, Mr Ariyo Dare-Atoye, aka Aristotle? In our culture, the younger ones are expected to do so for the elderly. Ariyo demonstrated a bit of that consideration in 2017, when I turned 51. He wrote a brilliant birthday tribute on that occasion to celebrate me. That was a significant mark of the generosity of spirit that he personified. It is, indeed, difficult to come to terms with the reality that Ariyo has embarked on the obligatory eternal flight to the great beyond, a flight that we all must someday embark on, albeit, too early, as we are wont to contemplate; and, this is natural with us in this part of the world. We crave longevity in our life and times. I wished that for Ariyo even while he was down with cancer and was hoping to beat the scourge.

Having lost the physical battle, not because he wanted to lose it, but because his time had come, how do I write the beautiful story of Ariyo’s impactful contributions to the Nigerian society without feeling very sad and diminished? John Donne, English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England, once said: “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” Ariyo was not just any man; he was a quintessential significant other. He worked for the status and he earned it as a badge of honour.

The beautiful story that Ariyo’s death attempted to uglify should, in fact, be written with some deliberateness, some great enthusiasm and some liberality. The task of painting his portrait the way it is even in death and presenting the true picture of his great accomplishments for posterity should be ennobling, not exasperating. This is a posthumous appreciation that Ariyo deserves, particularly when one is tempted to surmise that he exited in the midstream of his earthly assignments? The “midstream” assumption is moot in the context of divinity, creation and destiny. Ariyo was a born-again Christian. He was a handiwork of God’s creation and he had a fulfilled destiny.

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In retrospect, Ariyo would seem to have perceived that time might not be on his side as he resolved and committed to take on many tasks almost simultaneously. The level of his multi-tasking was simply incredible. He was there at the level of inter-personal relationships for his friends and those to whom he was close; at the level of official public assignments, he did not lag behind in keeping fidelity to terms of engagements. In all that he did, to the best of my knowledge, he was God-fearing and man-caring.

I encountered Ariyo in 2014. He was one of the persons invited to a strategy meeting convened in my office (set up by Chief Tony Anenih, where we were driving, incognito, media and publicity activities for President Goodluck Jonathan in the build-up to the 2015 presidential election) in the Asokoro District of Abuja. Chief Olisa Metuh and Dr Doyin Okupe jointly presided over the session. The meeting was to come up with strategies to change the negative narratives that the Boko Haram insurgency had then woven around the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Ariyo’s contributions were brilliant. His thoughts were very clear and his presentation was penetrating. At the end of the session, I asked him to follow me to my office and we became very close from then till his transition.

In between then and October 27, 2022 when he passed, I got him involved in a number of things: he edited THE CONGRESSWATCH (which I cofounded with a friend) having worked as a reporter with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) drawing from his academic training as a journalist with first and second degrees in Mass Communication from Ahmadu Bello University and University of Lagos respectively; I brought him on board the committee set up by the late Chief Tony Anenih for the public presentation of his autobiography and he became somewhat close to the elder statesman; I also found him always ready to run through my articles and he would always come up with suggestions to further enrich them; there were so many other issues on which we engaged and met minds.

As he was attending to other sundry issues, he profoundly immersed himself in rights activism. In all of the engagements, he demonstrated an unusual humility and level-headedness. The last time I saw him on his hospital bed, a few days to his passing, he was undergoing a procedure and was not supposed to see anybody. He asked that I should be allowed to see him. I saw him and another friend took that opportunity to see him very briefly. He was happy that his friend came but was worried how she would return to the city centre and asked if she would like to ride with his uncle (referring to me) in my car to town. I never knew that was the last time I would see him alive.
Ariyo was an Omoluabi-a thoroughbred Yoruba man. He was a blessing not only to his family but also to the society in which he was born and bred. He rose from the nadir in the rustic Igbara Odo in Ekiti State to the pinnacle of “Unity Fountain” in Abuja around which he conducted his advocacy marches for transparent electoral processes as exemplified by the time and energy he invested in pushing for electoral reforms and the signing of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2022 into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Ariyo, without a doubt, has left indelible marks in the sands of time. He has defined his eon with the magnitude of his great accomplishments packed into his “short” sojourn on earth. These are the details that distinguish him from other mortals as validated by Ernest Hemingway’s postulate that “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”

I am in deed very happy that Ariyo’s colleagues in the civil society organization rallied round him on his hospital bed and did their utmost best to support his medical care. They have further rallied round the wife, Abiola, and the family members to give him a befitting burial that a champion deserves. They have indicated a sure-footed plan to immortalize him and set up an Endowment Fund, to boot, for the education of his three little children. 41-year old Ariyo was a champion. He was heroic in his earthly exertions. To be sure, his death was very painful; it tepresents our collective loss, but Heaven’s gain. In all things, the Holy Bible says, we should give thanks to God…. Godiya to the Almighty God! Rest in Peace, Ariyo, my younger brother that I fondly called Aristotle.