Olayemi Oyebanji: A first lady properly so-called

Sir: Social psychologists would tell us that no two people – not even a set of identical twins from the same homozygote egg – would behave alike. We are equally made to understand that history sometimes repeats itself while some persona (features) in one person in one clime at one point in time may repeat themselves in yet another person in another setting at a different time.

And that brings us to some of the qualities inherent in the Chief Executive Officer of 27-year-old Ekiti State, Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, aka BAO and his delectable wife, the Academic First Lady of the state, Dr. Olayemi Olajumoke Oyebanji.

Dr. Oyebanji paid a courtesy call on the Founder & Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola, for the better part of Tuesday, September 12, 2023.

The copious reference to BAO emanates from the inextricable and unbreakable Omoluabi cord that binds the Ekiti State Family together which manifested the moment the First Lady sited Babalola during her maiden visit to ABUAD. The typical “Yorubanness” (pardon that phraseology) and Omoluabi in her glowed like the bright Northern star as she went on her knees before the Aare Baamofin of Yorubaland and one of the founding fathers of Ekiti State, her exalted office notwithstanding.

For those who may not know, Omoluabi in Yoruba ethos means a through-bred person who is imbued with proper education (eko ile). In Yorubaland, if you behave and comport yourself in ways pleasing to the society, you are called Omoluabi. According to General Adeyinka Adebayo, the Military Governor of the defunct Western Nigeria between 1966 and 1971, “The name Omoluabi immediately conjures the image of a person who has inculcated the home, informal training (eko ile) given and is to be admired and respected.”

After the exchange of pleasantries and the clicking of cameras, the visitor, Dr. Oyebanji, who was visiting ABUAD ranked by Times Higher Education Impact Rankings Number 1 University in Nigeria for two consecutive years (2022 and 2023) and Number 221 in the world in 2023, for the first time, wasted no time in intimating her host, Babalola, about the essence of her visit which was encapsulated in philanthropy, community service and giving back to the society with the ultimate aim of leaving it better than she has met it.

Dr. Oyebanji, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education Management at the University of Ibadan, with over 85 publications in reputable journals to her credit, offered to partner with the university by lecturing on part-time basis to impart knowledge and mentor the students and by providing community service to the 13-year-old university as a way of giving back to the university.

The renown Academic, who had produced six Ph. D graduates and several others at Master’s and Undergraduate levels, maintained that she is ever ready to impart knowledge and mentor the students, thereby contributing her own quota to the best university in Nigeria, according to Times Higher Education Impact Rankings.

The First Lady also used the opportunity to canvass support for her pet project, Widows, Aged, Orphans and the Homeless (WAOH), which according to her, will be officially unveiled in October during the first anniversary of her husband, Governor Biodun Oyebanji, as the Chief Executive of the State.

Speaking specifically of Dr. Oyebanji’s offer to teach ABUAD students and give them academic mentorship, Babalola described the gesture as a welcome development that will be of immense benefit to the students in particular and the larger society in general.
Tunde Olofintila, director, Corporate Affairs, ABUAD, wrote from Ado-Ekiti.