Adebayo: Why I have passion for white colour

Aside from politics, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has many other callings. He is a farmer, philanthropist, sports enthusiast, and successful lawyer.

He is therefore not one of those who see politics as their profession and has no second address away from holding political offices. Adebayo has not even held one but from every indication, he joined politics with the intent to serve and contribute to moving Nigeria forward and nothing more.

A visit to his country home in Ondo Town GRA during the last Christmas festivities revealed much about his virtues – his love for people, his interest in community development, his belief in the dignity of labour, his respect for family values, and more.

At home with his people, Adebayo said while some people travel to foreign countries to relax at their leisure, he travels to his home town to relax when he has to.

With all the buildings in his compound painted in white, Adebayo explained that his passion for white colour is a reflection of his passion for cleanliness and transparency.

“I’m attracted to white because it is easy for me to detect if something is not clean. It also depicts transparency. I don’t like something that is unclean or dirty. White enables you to know when something is unclean. As a lawyer, I wear white and black. White symbolises transparency, and that is the way I see it,” he said.

The atmosphere in his compound revealed that he is a philanthropist, whose benevolence to the poor and needy knows no ethnicity or religion. People from other parts of Nigeria, outside the South West, live there and feed on his account. Many of them have children, whom he has given scholarships from primary to university level.

The secondary and primary schools in Ondo Town have also benefitted from Adebayo’s benevolence as he provided buses to them to ease transportation for pupils and students in the area.

Even the town itself tells the story of his benevolence with the entire solar street lights said to have been provided, installed and maintained by him. The residents speak of his generosity and kindness with love.

A sports enthusiast, Adebayo loves football and boxing. But he has extended his love for sports to marathon. In December last year, the maiden edition of the annual Prince Adewole Adebayo Christmas Marathon was held in Ondo Town.

Speaking about the initiative, he said: “It is not going to be just a marathon, I’m interested in sports talents and all of that and I thought that it would be a good thing for Nigerians to engage in sporting activities because sports, music and entertainment are some of the ways by which you can transform poor people within one generation to stardom.

“We are in the talent period of human history now. Education, we do that a lot. Sports, we are trying to do that a lot now. These are ways to reduce poverty. Secondly, sport teaches discipline, because discipline is a problem in Nigeria and anybody who can run a marathon is a disciplined person. We also want Nigeria to feature in the sporting calendar globally.

“By next year, we want to get to where the Olympic international body will recognise our marathon event. This event will take place in the same period every year, December 30. It will take place for the next 1000 years and it will be regular.”

The marathon attracted participants from other African countries. In fact, the person who came second was from Benin Republic. According to Adebayo, some runners from Kenya were also available even though they arrived late due to flight issues.

“We hope that they will come next year. We had a 14-year-old, who had never run a marathon before. We said he was too young when he wanted to register, he started crying and we said okay. Two of them took part in the competition and they were ahead of adults.

“When we took them to the palace, where they were all recognised; a 14-year- old who never thought he could be recognised was recognised in the palace, to the point of being honoured with garlands. Those are the things we are trying to do with the marathon. People came from all over the world, all over Nigeria and within the community. These are the things we can do without waiting for the government.”

Adebayo also spoke about his interest in farming, saying: “I have an interest in farming. I’m a farmer, and if I am to be judged as a farmer, I’m one of the top farmers in Nigeria because I farm a lot. Until recently, we didn’t buy food, because we were doing a lot of farming.

“I have ranches in the North. I do forestry; I plant a lot of trees. Outside politics, my aim is to plant at least 100 million trees in my lifetime.”

A responsible family man, Adebayo cherishes his wife, Lillian. He was all smiles while recounting how they met and ended up as husband and wife with loving children.

His words: “I was a lawyer for a U.S. company, Colgate. They had an investment in Aba, at that time. One of my clients was the MD of Guinness at one time, because he had worked in Colgate. He left Colgate to become the MD of Guinness. The National Assembly was investigating them repeatedly and unjustifiably, in my view. But in my wife’s view the investigation was correct, because she was the lawyer to the Senate Committee. So, they would call us today, we would go there, we would argue. It was a contentious hearing.

“On one of the occasions, it took us to the Senate Committee of Police Affairs and my wife was a lawyer to that committee. When we went to Hilton after the break, I was telling my client, don’t worry, we will win this case, and I will marry their lawyer, and everybody laughed.

“I think towards the conclusion of that hearing, I met her and talked to her. She talked to me more professionally and I asked to know her. She didn’t show any interest, but towards the end of the case, I think she just took pity on me and said, ‘you, bring your number.’ I gave her my number and she said, ‘if I need you, I will call you.’

“Later in the evening, she called me and asked, ‘are you in Abuja?’ I said yes. She was staying in Maitama, so she asked me to come to her street. I went there and she said let’s go and have a drink. We went out and she started asking me questions, interviewing me like a job applicant. After a while she came to see the office where I was working, and then we continued like that and here we are today as husband and wife.”