That early Sunday morning in 2003, two friends of mine and I were dawn guests of Bode Olajumoke at his Imeri countryhome in Ose Local Government Council of Ondo State. We had earlier been informed that the African time was for him an anathema. We thus needed to be in time for our appointment with him before the Sunday service commenced. We had left Akure, the state capital, rather early. We assumed that Mother Luck had smiled on us. He was having a breakfast of cornmeal (Eko) and Moin-moin or Akara – I forget now. After pleasantries, he beckoned us to the dining table and, together with him, we made that early morning propitiation to the god of the gut. Upon discussing what dragged us to the town, a role reversal came. We instantly became captives of the man we thought we had captured. We had to go to church together, he gently announced. Almost immediately, he hopped into my jalopy Nissan car. We were only set free after the church service. This was after the man who awed me with his humility had taken a ride in the rickety car of an ordinary journalist. Dr. Olajumoke again disarmed me in January this year. I had sent out an omnibus message inviting everyone but no one in particular to my mother’s funeral in Akure. The wake held in my father’s house, an erosion-challenged street, whose ecological privation had made intra-street commuting a herculean task. As the wake service progressed, Dr. Olajumoke called me. He had been trying to locate my family compound’s backwater address with scant success. So when the event ended and I didn’t see him, I assumed he didn’t make it to the event. Imagine my pleasant shock when told the second day, at the church service which he again attended, that he had sat on a back seat during the ceremony. The two events, separated by about 21 years interval, were my personal testament to Olajumoke’s humility and unassuming persona. Unbeknown to him, I swore on the two occasions to someday untie the riddles. How does a famous, well-to-do man, friend to who-is-who in Nigeria, deconstruct wealth and achievements that perfunctorily? I didn’t succeed in that vow until a week and half ago when I was handed a copy of the book, A Life Of Grace: Courage, Vicissitudes and Legacies In The Journey of Bode Olajumoke. A 150-page book, the autobiography is lean enough for any serious reader to gobble its rich nutrients in a few hours. Enclosed inside it, however, is a profundity of thoughts of a man being shepherded by Providence towards leaving remarkable imprints in society and in the lives of countless creations of God. The book holds the password to the inner workings of Olajumoke’s life of philanthropy, his humility, as well as his unmatchable bother about the life of the other person. Divided into ten chapters, excluding the appendixes, the autobiography is enveloped by a cover page that is aesthetically appealing. The chapters begin with the narrative of the humble beginning of Olajumoke at birth. In it, the reader meets Chief Nathaniel Omoselu Olajumoke and Mama Elizabeth Oyerolawe Olajumoke, parents of the author. The reader would soon find out that the author’s communal instinct, his self-submission to the leading of God and his life of philanthropy were not happenstances but genetic. He is merely continuing family traits that have become an inheritance. As you read this chapter, you would discover that his philanthropy and near-obsession to develop Imeri is a reincarnation of Omoselu. Pa Olajumoke was named Omoselu due to his self-imposed task of ensuring the welfare and growth of his Imeri people. Thereafter, the reader would also find the reason for Olajumoke’s passion for education, especially the education of the less-privileged. This also reflects a continuation of his father’s self-imposed task of monitoring the education of youngsters of Imeri, as well as the lesson of the power of education which the young Olajumoke drew from his transfer from Lagos back home to Imeri. His return to Imeri helped him have a taste of Obafemi Awolowo’s free education programme. Olajumoke’s search for the golden-fleece thus occupies a chapter in the book. So also does his masterful untying of the knots of a critical moment in his life journey, to wit the founding of the famous Imeri Unity Group. Arguably, the founding of the Imeri Group sold Olajumoke to the world as a dove among the vultures that Nigerian leadership had become. In his
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