MOB: Garlands For Visionary At 60

By Wole Olujobi

His early life in school flourished much like the evergreen petals of the reeds by the meadow watered by the unceasing July falls. Just like the month of July, the month he was born, and the month great men are born, in his youth, he exuded freshness of ideas, brightness of the mind and energy of the spirit.

He complemented it with the strength of character; boldness of enterprise; moral discipline; beauty of compassion; clarity of vision and mission; courage and commitment to principles; trust; loyalty; and confidence among his colleagues.

That is Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB), a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and politician with a pan-Nigerian spirit whose motivation in public service is driven by the mission to provide leadership for the general good of the people.

Born a Lion in the best tradition of Western zodiac sign of Leo that has origins in Greek and Babylonian astrology, while growing up, Senator Bamidele showed flashes of untiring energy of a buffalo and unyielding strength and courage of a lion, roaring to victories at home, school, personal relationships and students politics.

Indeed, over the years, MOB’s lion raced through the jungle of life and conquered the fields, coasting home in evergreen laurels.

In spite of these iconic graces at very young age, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, always simple and coy, preferred to flaunt nobility of character, refusing to unnecessarily exaggerate his other inate virtues of a quality leader in embryo.

At the University of Ife where we met as students in 1982 and became bosom friends, inside the coat of civility and quiet mien in Senator Bamidele was the effervescent activism of a young revolutionary on campus. Very tough on principle and constant in his dream for a prosperous country that holds much promise for the future of young Nigerians, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele was the Public Relations Officer of the University of Ife Students’ Union Government (SUG), the position he held to fight for quality education and social welfare for students and their teachers.

Sanguine and charming in informed debates and eloquent in his ideas, not for him the banality of dull engagements in matters of value for the welfare of young Nigerians and health of the nation in general.

Alongside the squadron of civil rights fighters on the Nigerian universities campuses, the young Michael Opeyemi Bamidele battled the principalities that held forte in the Nigerian dictatorial regimes at a close range and at a great cost, refusing all the luxuries and patronage often dangled by the oppressive regimes to silence progressive students leaders and force them into working against their own interest. He remained on the side of the popular agitations for good governance with unwavering commitment. For him in the struggle for good life for Nigerians, it was no retreat, no surrender!

I once observed the massive soles of his shoes and wondered whether he climbs mountains. But Ope, as he was popularly called, was never an alpinist: he never climbed mountains as a vocation; those shoes were for the hard floors and podiums at students’ solidarity rallies, including long treks in popular street actions in his commitment to the mobilisation of Nigerian students for good governance for all Nigerians, sound education and social welfare for students and their teachers.

During his days in the university, being a student leader was like preparing for a war on the mountains infested with hyenas and wolves, for it was the time that the Nigerian students were the targets and preys of “kill and go” soldiers and policemen whose pastime was violent clampdown on unarmed young, innocent Nigerian students, and so Ope prepared very well for the battles set before him.

Through sheer grit, he worked with fellow students leaders with grace, verity and devotion; the virtues that later shaped his life for higher calling in the service to his nation and humanity in general.

The misrule by the Nigerian dictators that operated as taskmasters between 1983 and 1999 and the sufferings brought about by their anti-people policies toughened and at the same time sharpened Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele’s focus and provided a fertile ground for him to thrive in activism in his political journey. It also helped to shape his vision for the ideal society that Nigerians of that era needed for a prosperous nation.

I recall that Senator Opeyemi Bamidele was already very influential in campus politics when Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe as the Chief of General Staff and deputy to General Ibrahim Babangida was chased out of the UNIFE campus by students to show their distate for the military jackboots that held Nigeria back from the rest of the civilised, democratic world.

When I later learnt that the Iyin-Ekiti born Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB) had gone back to school to do another degree in Law at the University of Benin where he was President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), I concluded that my friend had a date with both history and destiny, particularly in the civil society advocacy and law, to moderate democratic governance, including achieving a potential to have a voice in aid of social justice in national politics later in his life. Few years later, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele proved me right.

During the June 12, 1993 presidential election fiasco orchestrated by the military, the young lawyer was one of the defence counsels led by Chief Godwin Olusegun Kolawole (GOK) Ajayi to the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the election, during his trumped-up treason trial.

Another virtue in the celebrant is that he never forgets his true friends. After losing contact on Ife campus in 1986, I never met Ope again until 14 years later in 2000 at the Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja, Lagos.

In a scorching sun while racing to catch a bus to The Anchor Newspaper on Oregun Road, Ikeja, where I worked, a fellow grabbed me at the back as if I was being hunted by the ubiquitous and lurking Lagos traffic officers for disobeying traffic rules. Looking back to see who my assailant was, behold, Ope in broad smiles hugged me tightly as if I was lost but found. He abandoned going to his office Off Allen Avenue and chose to drive me in his car to my office at Oregun.

Since then, it has been a flourishing relationship and amity knit in constellation scheme of procreation: Senator Opeyemi Bamidele was born on July 29, and I came to this world on July 27: a two-day rest in lunar conspiracy or concatenation solidarity, you would say! Ever since, the two lions have been having their days in the sun, sharing their moments in the yellow and golden essence of Leo’s grace.

Even as of today, he still holds tightly to old relationships, which has helped him greatly in his politics nurtured under the tutelage of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the brand new President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

As it is said, the morning shows the day. The spirit in the young revolutionary on campus shined in him in the relationships he built later in life in politics. Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele is today not only one of the most faithful and adroit disciples of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but also a prized Prince of the Iga Iduganran Palace loved by Oba Rilwan Babatunde Akiolu of Lagos and his eminent chiefs. All of them call Senator Bamidele by his first name to draw home the strength of filial affinity and social amity with this Ekiti man building a life in Lagos. Up till this moment, this Ekiti man is a household name in Lagos where his virtues speak for him.

Back home in his native Ekiti State during the tortuous years of struggle between 2007 and 2010 by Ekiti people to retrieve the electoral mandate violently snatched by poll bandits from his party, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its governorship candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele was a leading light in the struggle to enable Ekiti people enjoy their mandate through representative democracy. He devoted his time, energy and resources to the struggle until victory was achieved on October 15, 2010 to restore the stolen mandate of his friend Fayemi, a singular event that triggered a consciousness about MOB’s politics in Ekiti State and registered this visionary politician as a worthy Ekiti man in the struggle for the emancipation of his people from the shackles and clutches of oppresive and clueless leadership in the state.

For Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, there is no calling that is higher than making the society a place worth living for fellow human beings, to live a fulfilled life in good health and prosperity. Essentially, this has shaped his life in politics, world view and personal relationships with the people.

Ekiti people do not invest their hopes and sweats in anti-people leaders, hence MOB had a singular honour of contesting the National Assembly elections three times and thrice he won.

Talk about a man who follows his heart on all issues, Senator Bamidele fits the bill. For him, politics is all about vision and mission, loyalty to party’s supremacy and commitment to principle.

As politics is all about interests and multiplicity of ideas, anywhere or anytime Senator Bamidele needs to make adjustments in public interest, he, as a realist in politics, is adept in always employing diplomacy without compromising principle and commitment to the higher goals of his vision and mission in politics, the constancy that is a primary value and virtue in the Tinubu political family where Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele is a veteran.

Following constancy are hard work and competence as engagement terms in Tinubu’s political family. Here, MOB also takes the cake. No wonder, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Governor of Lagos State appointed him Commissioner for Sports, Youths and Social Development during which Lagos State excelled in sporting activities in Nigeria while the menace of youth violence across the state was reduced to the barest minimum.

And as Information Commissioner under Governor Babatunde Fashola in Lagos State, the vibrancy in MOB played out loudly in his ceaseless presence in the media in the publicity of government’s policies and programmes, including the government’s records of achievements.

With that bright scorecards, the leadership had no difficulty in supporting him to aspire to national politics in the House of Representatives, where, as usual, the member representing Ekiti Central Constituency 1 triumphed and proved his mettle.

Apart from functioning as the spokesman of the Nigerian House of Representatives while he was in the Lower Chamber of the parliament, in the Senate, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District and who formerly chaired
the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, is the incumbent Senate Majority Leader and has so far sponsored no fewer than 23 bills between 2019 and 2023, including a bill seeking the establishment of the Federal College of Agriculture and Tropical Studies, Efon Alaye.

Senator Bamidele, besides being a powerful voice in both the House and Senate, also stands out in his rich constituency engagements by giving back to the people in his empowerment programmes and assisting in other areas to enhance his people’s standards of living. For him, service is a sacred duty that a leader must discharge to his people. And in recognition of this virtue in Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, he was re-elected in the last general elections to the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Three scores of brilliant and purposeful sojourn in this terrestrial plain represents a milestone and sterling landmark that must be celebrated. I join eminent Nigerians and friends all over the world to celebrate my friend, a faithful representative of his people, a devoted nation-builder, a scion of progressive politics of the Jagaban school, a symbol of young spirit for the enduring health of the nation and a worthy son of Ekitiland: the Fountain of Knowledge founded on the Land of Honour!

You will live long in good health, peace in your family and progress in all you do to fulfil your destiny on earth in service to humanity.

Nigeria is your coast. The world is your space. Your vision is your craft. You will fare well in your journey of life.
Congratulations!

*Olujobi, a journalist, writes from Ado-Ekiti