Prince Tajudeen Oluyole Olusi at 90: At 90, the humble Prince remains towering in truth and honour, in selflessness and philanthropic totality, stretching his hands of kindness in untiring dutifulness. He is always looking far beyond himself, far beyond his immediate homestead, indifferent to the narrow acquisition of riches, ultimately contented with what the good Lord has bestowed upon him. Like the restless Tennysonian Ulysses, Prince Olusi has now reached a height that no one can dispute nor erode. He had traversed through the dark passages and the bright days, resolved like Ulysses, “To strive, to seek, to find and never to yield.” His fame is assured. His work, though fulfilled, yet continues in permanent actualisation.
Prince Tajudeen Oluyole Olusi
By Uthman Ademilade Shodipe-Dosunmu
Author, historian, cultural icon, an arch defender of the Lagosian heritage, Prince Tajudeen Oluyole Olusi brings to bear a certain effortless royal bearing, a strong , instinctive grasp of the ways of our ancestors, a trenchant sturdiness about the defining cultural traditions of the summative verities of that sacred beginning called Isaleko.
Born on October 13, 1936, barely five years after his father left the throne, the unfailing oracle had pronounced his signification and importance right from the womb, heralding his earthly presence as a precocious persona, foretelling his unceasing quest for knowledge, predicting his formidable boldness in pursuit of the righteous, the instinctive protection of the cherished integrity and the truth.
He was a mere toddler when his father Oba Sanusi Olusi who had once ascended the treasured throne of that great pioneer, Oba Ado Keme, was then in peaceful habitation of a new palace built by the colonial government, far removed from the tumult and the rancor of monarchy .
He was a witness even at that tender age to the nocturnal visits of Oba Falolu Dosunmu to the Ereko palace of the former Oba Olusi and the reciprocal visits of Oba Olusi to the substantive King at Iga Idunganran.
From this two elderly princes, he learned the moral of humility, the wisdom in peaceful resolution, the endurance of leadership that is built on reconciliation and mutual amity.
The young Prince often sat at the feet of Oba Olusi as the aged former King regaled his young, impressionable son with the oral history of Lagos.
From the settlement of Ogunfunminire at Isheri Ọlọfin to the waters of Iddo , from the stretches of Idumoyingbo, to the cluttered expanses of Idunganran, the sobering spatiality of Ita-Ado, the clusters of Iduntafa, the resolute royal meaningfulness of Oripasan , and the enduring spirituality of Enu-Ọwa to all the sacred arcana and primeval grooves of our common beginning – the young Prince imbibed the incredible folklores of the ancestral personages who once lived, thrived and struggled upon those hallowed grounds which still bear the etchings of battles won and lost; the unceasing schemes of power, the storms and furies in the high places , the treachery , the conflicts and the eventual healing that still holds our common bond, strengthening our heritage in that formidable power and imperishable memory that no alien force can erase nor vanquish.
Prince Olusi has journeyed from that toddling beginning through variegated twists and turns of fate, maturing at every storm, questing with unyielding determination at every challenging barrier, mounting the odds of life with resolute courage; calm, unperturbed, standing ram-rod , confronting the vicissitudes of life with that rare constancy of trust and faith in the unfailing God.
Though not the first son nor the second nor the third of Oba Olusi, yet his older siblings often push him forward to anchor family issues, to guide and sift through the sometimes difficult and confusing phases of the royal corridors.
Councilor at Lagos Town Council when he was barely 25, he had stormed through the rough and invariably turbulent waters of politics with much elderly men and the prevailing giants of the time like Alhaji Ganiu Olawale Dawodu, Chief Adeyemi Lawson, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Dr Babatunde Williams, Barrister Sikiru Shitta-Bey, Rev. Akin Adesola, Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya, Mr Bolaji Senu Hudeyin, Chief Safi Lawal Edu, Chief Sanni Ishawu Adewale and several other Lagosian leaders whose names now ring with echoic reverence and historical reverberating largeness and awe wherever the original natives of Lagos are still recalled with nostalgic appreciation.
Prince Olusi, Baba Oba of Egbe Kingdom, Baba Adini of Yorubaland , Atobatele of Ekiti where his mother sprung from – had been fortunate to occupy various sterling political heights from a young Councilor to the maturation of leadership of various political formations and parties ranging from AG, UPN, Justice Forum, PFN, UNCP, SDP, AD, AC , ACN and now with a crowning crescent of the Chairman of Governance Advisory Council in his ancestral soil of Lagos State under the aegis of APC.
He was a member of the House Representatives in the Second Republic, Commissioner in the military era and a prominent voice in the dark days of Abacha, maneuvering in dangerous places with Dr Wahab Dosunmu, Prince Ademola Adeniji Adele, Chief Dapo Sarumi and many other democratic stalwarts who insisted on the primacy of Abiola’s mandate.
Despite his variegated contributions to his state of origin , to his nation , to his Olowogbowo and Isaleko beginning – it is as an oral historian of the Lagosian provenance that Prince Olusi , in my view, excelled in undisputed supremacy yet to be matched by anyone living or dead.
I have known him as a toddler, sitting at his feet in Iga Olusi as he narrated different incidents about the history of Lagos with riveting relish, painting the stories in vivid pictorial narratives, lacing the trajectories of long forgotten past even with songs, with gripping anecdotes for endless hours.
His narrative force of power, the majesty of his historical oral tradition is vastly enchanting, genuinely effortless in cadence and elaborate in graduation of events that the listener can bear hours of his mastery of the folkloric excellence, incapable of leaving the narrator who himself exuded and triumphed in that vivid narrative glow as he impacted in the younger generation a thorough immersion in the ancient lores that defined us all.
At 90, the humble Prince remains towering in truth and honour, in selflessness and philanthropic totality, stretching his hands of kindness in untiring dutifulness. He is always looking far beyond himself, far beyond his immediate homestead, indifferent to the narrow acquisition of riches, ultimately contented with what the good Lord has bestowed upon him.
Like the restless Tennysonian Ulysses, Prince Olusi has now reached a height that no one can dispute nor erode. He had traversed through the dark passages and the bright days, resolved like Ulysses, “To strive, to seek, to find and never to yield.”
His fame is assured. His work, though fulfilled, yet continues in permanent actualization.
It is an honour to have benefited from his almost limitless expanses of folkloric riches, expanding one’s horizon with the tales of old, widening one’s purview about a glorious beginning, now almost fading without the illuminating excellence of Olusi’s imperishable eminence of an impressive narrative powers.
Omo Ajibike Omo Ajibise
Mogun Oba
Mogun Awurin
Ara Ibinni
Arokun Tayo
Omo Ado keme
Omo Alapa jagbo
Omo Ologunkutere esa logun mo atose mase, Ato seka se suru
Omo Atọrọ gbogbo
lọwọ Ọlọrun layi kanju
Omo Olusi Ogbolu
Omo Afinju Oba tinle Tiro Ataa.
- Prince Uthman Ademilade Shodipe-Dosunmu, the Oloriekun Of Olowogbowo and Apesinola of Eyọ Ọba Alakẹtẹ Pupa, Laba Ẹkun is a blood Cousin of Prince Olusi through Oba Ologunkutere Asalogun
