It is a great pleasure to write this short tribute on a brother, friend and confidant, Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi as he attains the platinum age of 70 years.
I have known him since January 1970 when I enrolled as a new student of Ilesa Grammar School, Ilesa. He had entered the school a year before me. The memories of him that one still has from those days were those of a tough, unassuming, amiable and highly sociable person.
There was hardly any school mate of ours then who did not know the only bald-headed young Linton (his nick name). He had a peculiar and stylish way of walking those days. He and many of his close circle of friends used to paint Ilesa red with their unending parties almost every weekend at ‘Ka Oto’.
Our paths crossed again when we were both undergraduates at the University of Ibadan in the late 1970s. He was of the Faculty of The Social Sciences while I was in Science class. I cannot now remember his Hall of Residence but he used to come regularly to my Hall (Sultan Bello) to visit two fellow residents, namely ‘Lawyer’ (Foluso Okunmadewa) and Gbenga Olusesi.
That Yinka Fasuyi is a socialite of note is an understatement. When he got married to his sweetheart of many years, Bisi, in the late 1980s, it was like a carnival of sorts in the whole of Ibadan Metropolis. The wedding was the talk of the town. He had no difficulty in painting Ibadan red, as he used to do at our common ancestral home (Ilesa) two decades earlier. This is consistency at its best!
Over the course of the last 35 years or so, Linton has worked exceedingly hard and has attained so much success as a serial entrepreneur and notable Management Consultant in Ibadan, Nigeria and the rest of the world. He is certainly a pride to my generation of upwardly mobile men and women in whom we are well pleased.
He has a midas touch. Anything he lays his hands on turns to gold!
What one has observed from Yinka Fasuyi’s lifestyle is that he has a knack for keeping his friends because of his large-heartedness, honesty of purpose and friendliness. No wonder our good Lord continues to bless him and prosper his ways.
Behind the tough appearance from a distance is a humble, albeit fearless, and deeply religious person, who is very adept at taking calculated risks. He regularly invites us to parties in his expansive palatial home at Iyanganku GRA.
When I was appointed a Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at our alma mater, the University of Ibadan, in December 2010, he was the very first person to give me a handsome cheque in lieu of throwing a party.
As an applicant for the position of Vice-Chancellor of the same University five years later, I was a beneficiary of his professional expertise as the Chief Executive Officer of Supreme Management Consultants and President of Ibadan Business School. He made his facilities available to me free of charge. I still keep and cherish till today some of his hand-written notes in my library as I was made to pass through an iterative process of several mock interviews. Yeye Asiwaju, herself an expert in Communications was one of the resource persons. Thankfully, God blessed our hard work as I emerged the overall best candidate during both the Shortlisting by the 16-member Governing Council and at the subsequent Interview conducted by the five-person conclave in the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board. Council thereafter named me the 12th Vice-Chancellor.
As Vice-Chancellor we decided to hold a Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop to assess our performance half-way into the tenure. Asiwaju and Yeye Asiwaju hosted us at Ibadan Business School and they wrote off all the expenses, adding that that was their humble support to me personally and to the institution where the foundation for their intellectual development was laid. We cannot thank you enough.
Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi is a great mixer who easily makes friends with both the mighty and the low.
We love you exceedingly. As you turn 70, you have now become an ‘Alagba’ (elder).
Wumi and I join your darling wife, Yeye Asiwaju Bisi Fasuyi, PhD, children and their spouses, grandchildren, family members, friends and well wishers in wishing you a happy platinum celebration. Whatever position, fame, wealth and prosperity that you may have attained these past 70 years, through God’s abiding grace, hard work and perseverance will pale into insignificance compared to what you have yet to achieve. We wish you what you always wish us: happiness, good health, joy and God’s blessings.
As an alumnus of Ilesa Grammar School, no one is surprised that you are an Omoluwabi (a complete gentleman). On top of that you are an Afenifere, one who wishes others succeed in life without expecting anything in return. You have always done us proud and we are ever so proud of you. Igba odun, odun kan ni o, senior Linton.
Wumi and Idowu Olayinka
University of Ibadan
Ibadan
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