Adieu, Sir Alexander Opeyemi Akinyele
The news sneaked in, like a thief in the night. A strident call from my wife jolted me out of sleep, while at Oxford two nights ago. I had slept late two nights in a row upon my return to my base at Oxford, in England, sitting for many hours, studying and doing my work. “What’s it o my dear, at this ungodly hour...?” My wife wasted no time in breaking the sad news. “Someone just called that Chief Alex Akinyele has died...” “Wow!” I exclaimed.
My mind instantly raced back to our good and bad times together. I was friends with his children, especially Kayode, now addressed as Constantine Akinfolarin Akinyele and his lovely wife Funmi, from his days at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Eerily, it was about this time last year that unfounded rumours about his demise surfaced but were quickly quelled.
Only last week, I posted the Ovation International cover we published some 20 years ago after I travelled to Mumbai, India, to cover the wedding of Sir Alex to his second wife, Lady Maria.
Chief Akinyele loved life and lived well. It was always fun sharing bowls of pounded yam and bush meat in vegetable stew with the High Chief of Ondo town. The death of his South African wife, Lady Yvonne Akinyele, a South African, had left him devastated. They were like Siamese twins. Every other wife became a competition to the attributes of Lady Yvonne, a near impossibility.
We had traveled all the way to India to bring home his next wife, but Lady Maria eventually left Nigeria with their son. He subsequently married a third wife, Lady Ella, a Nigerian, but not much was known of her or their relationship.
Alex Akinyele was flamboyant in all ramifications. He was a thoroughbred administrator and politician who once served as a Minister. A keen sports enthusiast, he played numerous roles in the development of sports in Nigeria.
Chief Akinyele was passionate about whatever he believed in. He once told me in an interview that the President of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida, whom he served as Minister of Information, was so powerful and capable of turning a man into a woman. He was a prominent devotee of the former President.
He was a man of letters and he loved to quote copiously from William Shakespeare, offhandedly.
As he advanced in age, he withdrew from public life and the klieg lights. Age was obviously no respecter of status, an enduring lesson to all of us to live life to the fullest while it lasts.
Chief Akinyele once said in an article: “I won’t be a slave of my conscience. Lady Ella knows I love her, but I love Yvonne more...” Such was the candour of this effervescent soul, this great and noble Nigerian who has ended his sojourn here on earth and begun a permanent one in the great beyond. A worthy testament of the life he led.
May his soul rest in perfect peace...