Mr. Ikotun said he wished that my current series on polygamy would make a Nigerian university bestow me with honorific Ph.D.
Sina Adedipe
United States-based Mr. Ikotun was delighted when in reply to his enquiry he heard that in the 1980s that I was offered political appointment for the articles I wrote in my column, the “Heart of the Matter,” in the defunct Sunday Concord when I was the Editor of the hebdomadal (1984-89). While nine years ago I was honored with a Doctor of Divinity degree by an American institution, Zoe Life Theological College, Philadelphia, United States for my series on polygamy published in this column from November 2008 through January 2009.
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As I once disclosed in this column, I told Ikotun that in 1987 the Ondo State Military Government of Navy Captain Olabode George, now a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), invited me to be a commissioner in his cabinet, but I declined, opting for a part-time appointment in a government parastatal.
As a result, in 1988 he nominated me to be the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, a subsidiary of Odu’a Investment Company, owned with the governments of Oyo and Ogun States. It was then the turn of Ondo State to fill the two-year tenure position. I served from January 1989 – January 1991.
I also informed Ikotun that in 1995, the Ondo State Military Government of Colonel Ahmed Usman, appointed me as the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the old Akure Local Government (split into Akure North and South Local Governments on October 1, 1996).
Towards the end of our discussion which lasted 22 minutes and 28 seconds, Mr. Ikotun said he wished that my current series on polygamy would make a Nigerian university bestow me with honorific Ph.D. degree as the American institution did in 2009. And that the Federal Government will honour me with a national award because the revelation I made on God’s statement in Genesis 2:24 is unprecedented. I told him that depends on someone making recommendation to government to that effect.
Like Ikotun who called from the United States on July 1, Engineer Akinduro who five weeks later phoned from London in the United Kingdom said he had not seen anyone treat polygamy issues in the Holy Bible with the academic expertise I displayed in my column. He commended me as an uncommon painstaking researcher, the type found in very reputable universities across the globe.
READ ALSO: Perspectives on polygamy in Nigeria
He also described me as a wonderful original thinker who came up with a credible interpretation of the Lord’s statement in Genesis 2:24 which nobody ever thought of or knew about
To be continued next Wednesday
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Phenomenal matriarch of the Adedipes, Falaes, Ade-Ojos & others (22) –16 –Lawyer offspring
In the first part of the lawyer-offspring of our mysterious matriarch published two weeks ago, on October 10, I gave the names of three of the 16 barristers in the Adedipe branch of her descendants. Two of them were a father and son, late High Chief Bolanle Adedipe, the immediate past Elemo of Akure and his first male child, Bayo.
Today, the story is that of two lawyers in the Elemo Adedipe Dynasty who each have three children who are also members of the Nigerian Bar, a daughter and two sons. The first is late Barrister Alexander Adeniyi Adedipe alias Aleco (1944-92), his daughter, Mrs Aderonke Jaiyesinmi and his sons Adeleke and Adebiyi Adedipe.
The other one is Chief Ifedayo Adedipe, who in 2005 blazed the trail as the first Akure-born lawyer to be honoured with the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) title. His attorney children are his daughter, Miss Moronke Adedipe and her brothers, Fidelis and Olawale Adedipe.
As of today, there are four Akure-born SANs. The other three are Eyitayo Jegede in 2008, Omotunde Adejuyigbe in 2014 and Adeniyi Adegbonmire in 2015.
Apart from the record of producing the first SAN, I do not know of any other family in Akure that has two lawyers who each have three children who also belong to the profession. Ifedayo’s younger brother, Ayodeji Adedipe is also an attorney. Ditto Ayodele Adedipe, his cousin, the son of his dad’s junior sibling.
Continues next week
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My 74th birthday (5)
Most Nigerians believe that bad blood, envy and cutthroat competition prevail in all multiple-marriage families. Consequently, I need to use the birthday greetings from my siblings to show that goodwill, love and unity are high in our polygamous home and others, better than what obtains in my monogamous families. Our father had eight wives, six of who had children for him.
READ ALSO: Sins anti-polygamy preachers commit (3)
I received birthday greetings by phone calls and text messages from 14 siblings, ten sisters and four brothers. Six of them, five women and a man, are my mother’s children. The other eight are the offspring of my father’s other four wives. The child his last spouse had for him, a son, died about 30 years ago, and that was the only half-sibling line I had no birthday salutation from.