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The graveyard silence that enveloped the entire Ikpakodo area of Ogolonto in Ikorodu, Lagos State, told the story.
Death had done its worst again, this time through an auto crash, snatching a young and vibrant ‘resident’ of the area, Adefemi Olubayo, in faraway Greece penultimate Monday.
As at Friday afternoon when our correspondent visited the home of the Adefemis, hordes of sympathisers were still around to console the mother of the fallen footballer and other members of the family.
Twenty-five-year-old Olubayo died on his way to the airport to catch a flight to Nigeria to finalise the plans for wedding to Folashade Adeshina, a Part Two Mass Communications undergraduate. The wedding ceremony was fixed for May 26.
Despite the mournful mood in the compound, it was quite fascinating to note that Olubayo’s death – as harsh as it may be on the family – had further strengthened the family’s faith in the Lord.
“I know the holy angels have accepted him in heaven. There is no way Satan can be more powerful than God. In all these, The Holy Bible is my weapon,” Olubayo’s mother, Titilayo Adefemi, said, clutching her Bible.
The story goes that Titilayo encouraged her son to play football against his late father’s disapproval.
His disciplinarian father, Ezekiel, was a soldier. He always had a punishment for the young lad whenever he caught him playing football to the detriment of his studies.
During his elementary school days in Morocco Military Primary School, he arranged with his mother and siblings to beat his father’s ‘trap’. He would have played enough of the day’s football after closing hours in school before returning home just before his father’s arrival. On days he was not lucky enough to return before his father, Titilayo was always available to inform him of his father’s presence, and Olubayo would sneak in through the back door without his father’s knowledge.
The story didn’t change even when he gained admission into Command Day Secondary School, Ikeja, Lagos, where he played for the school football team without his father’s knowledge.
But after school, Olubayo could not hide his desire of making a career out of football any more from his father as a career and enrolled at Pepsi Football Academy, Yaba, before moving on to play for Rainbow United, Racine, Delta United and Insurance.
Afterwards, Olubayo joined the multitude of Nigerian players in Europe and then onto to the national U-20 team, the Flying Eagles.
His father had no option but to celebrate his son, especially after his achievement at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, where he helped Nigeria reach the final of the men’s football event, to the fulfillment of Titilayo. However, due to the death of Olubayo, football, which once brought her joy, has now turned to sorrow for her.
“I am feeling very bad because I didn’t expect his death. No mother prays for the death of her child, but I still give thanks to God.
“But I can no longer watch Eagles matches because it will bring back memories of my son’s time in the team. Whenever he played for the team, it made me happy but it is impossible to do that now,” she said mournfully.
Olubayo’s elder brother, Abiodun Adefemi, said he was contented with his brother’s success in football, but he lamented his short life.
He said, “We take his death like any family that loses their child, their beloved one; somebody in his prime; somebody you have taken care of and watched him grow up. It’s devastating, but we still give thanks to God because if you cry from now till thy kingdom come, it won’t bring him back.
“In as much as you cannot deny that there is the physical and spiritual, one thing stands. If God says something will not happen, it won’t. It’s just like the story of Job in the Bible. God gave Satan the go-ahead to punish Job just for His name to be glorified.
“I wouldn’t want to subscribe to his death being attributed to spiritualism rather I would look at the positive aspect of his life. I can’t say someone was responsible for Bayo’s death because I believe that someone who cannot create life cannot take it.
“It’s painful but we take solace in a life well-spent. Jesus Christ spent about 33 years but his legacies are still there over 2, 000 years after his death. Some spent up to 100 years and nothing has been heard about them again since they died.
“Immediately my brother died, my e-mails, facebook and phone were filled with messages from all over the world. It tells you about the kind of impact he had on people. Those are the things I want to concentrate on and not on whether somebody killed him or not. Life belongs to God; He is the one that can give or take it. What can we do? If the Lord does not build, the builder builds in vain.
“We take solace in the fact that in his short lifespan, he left a positive impact on the sand of time. Olubayo is my brother and he’s someone that took the family name Adefemi beyond imagination.”
Abiodun’s mother toes the same line with her eldest son.
“We thank God that he (Olubayo) did not run mad or got lost. Only God knows the truth about his death,” she said.
However, despite taking solace in the Lord, Abiodun admits that the death of his brother has left a big gap in the family.
“I feel it most because we were like pals. We are five children in the family; two boys and three girls. So he was the only one I could confide in. Who do I discuss with now?
He was the big brother of the house even though he was younger than me. Without him knowing, I used to draw inspiration and strength from him.
“Like they say, if a window closes, God will open doors. I just pray that God answers our prayers. There are some of his dreams and aspirations I shared in. I pray that God helps me to actualise these dreams so that his name will be immortalised. But honestly, it’s like a bigger part of me has been taken off,” he said.
Abiodun lamented reports claiming his brother died because he did not use his seat belt on the day of the accident insisting that he was a very cautious driver.
“We read all those reports in the papers but what we want to ask is that ‘where did they get their information from?’ Do they have a police report? No. So you begin to wonder. “Were they present at the scene of the accident? We heard about bad weather in Greece on the day of the accident but mention was not made about seatbelt.
“I have driven him severally and he has driven me too. If he is driving, the first thing he would do is use his seat belt. He would then look at the person on the passenger seat and say ‘hey, won’t you use your seat belt?’
“When you live abroad, you must obey the law to the letter; he’s been abroad for over seven years and has inculcated that attitude. He doesn’t even drive without his driver’s license not to talk of not using seatbelt. He was a very careful person.”
He also frowned at reports that Olubayo’s fiancée, Folashade, was pregnant and that the family abandoned her to her fate.
“A colleague first told me about the story that he read in the papers that my late brother’s fiancée was pregnant and we abandoned her.
“I was angry because I had spoken with her after Bayo’s death. Even her father called me to sympathise with me and there was no mention of pregnancy. We would be happier if she was pregnant because it means my brother left a life behind.
“So I called her and said ‘is there anything you think I should know?’ She said she read in the papers that she was pregnant but said that there was no truth in the stories. I don’t know why people would prefer to sensationalise stories to sell their papers.
There is no iota of truth in the stories going around that Shade is pregnant. She was here on Thursday. For us, she is already a member of the family whether she is legally married to Bayo or not.
“Despite the fact that Bayo had the fame and popularity for women to flock around him, he never brought a woman to the family. Shade was the first and only lady he brought to the family.
That makes her special. If she was pregnant, we would celebrate her and not reject her. I wish she was pregnant,” Adefemi added.
Will anything concerning the late Olubayo ever bring smile to the mother’s face again?
“He (Olubayo) is a government child because he gave his all to Nigeria.
“So they should do something to immortalise him; something that will make his name still remain relevant. That will make me happy,” Mrs. Adefemi said.
Source : www.punchng.com
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