Rainbow thoughts on Bayo Ogunmupe in death

If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased – Maya Angelou (1928-2014), American Memoirist and Author

At about 8:49 am on Tuesday, June 28, 2022, I called the phone number of Mr. Bayo Ogunmupe and it was a female voice I heard when picked up. I asked if she was his wife and she replied that she is one of Mr. Ogunmupe’s children. I introduced myself and demanded to speak with him. She then, in a soft tender voice, said: “He died two Sundays ago.” It was as if my hearing facility failed me as I could not quickly internalize the news of his death. It appeared my brain delayed sending the hearing impulse for processing. I asked her again and she repeated her statement.

Bayo Ogunmupe

My first encounter with Mr. Ogunmupe was in 2018 somewhere around Ikotun in Lagos. He came to lobby for a job for me at a newly established newspaper house that was about starting publications. He had recommended me to the Managing Director of the company as a reporter to cover Science and Energy beats. The challenge, however, was that I had no certification in journalism yet. My first degree was in Chemistry but I had written a couple of published articles so that made me stand a chance. Baba Ogunmupe, as I fondly call him, insisted that I’d learn on the job and also get certified in that field as I run a programme on a part-time basis at the Nigeria Institute of Journalism. He convinced the MD and I was offered employment but I declined on grounds of low salary.

Baba Ogunmupe, was a friend to my Dad, Banji Ojewale. Since my dad hinted to him about my job search in 2018, Baba had been up and running to secure one for me at every given opportunity he had. He took me as his son and would always reach out to me to encourage me on remaining visible in the newspapers through my articles. He would call whenever he saw my piece in the dailies. He was committed to seeing me comfortable and successful. A member of staff of The Guardian newspapers also attested to this when he revealed how Baba Ogunmupe secured a job for his in-law long ago.

I remember vividly when Baba Ogunmupe clocked 70 some years back, he said building good legacies was his utmost pursuit and he was on course to achieve it. Today, it can be said that Baba lived for his course. In one of his articles, he quipped: “We are all getting older. It is better you grasp the good moments by accepting that which is going on. Everyone you know will eventually die. So, make the most of your relationships while you have them.”

In another essay he wrote, late Ogunmupe affirmed and stressed the need to be committed to a cause, which will require giving up some things in order to move up. In his words, “I found that to do well at what you love, you have to give up many things. Being willing to give up some things you love …to focus on what has the greatest impact isn’t an easy lesson to learn.”

My tribute to the late Ogunmupe would be incomplete if I do not mention his life-touching qualities and actions. He was fruitfully active in and committed to helping young ones. If within his reach and power, he lifted up those who needed help for career progress. I have only known Baba Ogunmupe for just four years, and now he is permanently cut off from me. I wish I had known him long before now, or at best, he had not passed on, in order to keep relishing more of his words in print.

The death of a loved one brings a permanent physical separation between the deceased and his families, friends and well-wishers, but not a separation from their works and legacies. In reality, an individual does not die if he leaves life-touching legacies behind. One who truly dies is he who never impacted lives one way or the other when alive. It is the lives touched that will speak volumes of the nature of the impact made. Let me drive home my point with a Yoruba maxim that succinctly puts this way: If a calabash carver no longer carves anymore, those he had crafted will never perish. In his own case, Baba Ogunmupe’s many works live on.

Living long does not translate to achieving much as many equate long life to achievement. What matters is a life of impact, short or long. At 74, Ogunmupe didn’t die a young man but his literary inputs and contributions would be missed by many. His collection of opinion pieces on national issues reflected how he sought empowerment of the neglected and underprivileged in the society. The motivational column he wrote in The Guardian on Saturday has offered hope to the young, spurring them to greater heights. His column, most times, challenged the young on how to live and fulfil their potential to the fullest. In his lifetime, he got rewarded for his contribution to society with some chieftaincy titles.

Baba Ogunmupe was a veteran journalist, economist, literary critic, book reviewer, blogger and author. He had worked with quite a number of media houses including Nigerian Tribune, Daily Times and Newswatch Magazine among others. In 1993, he won the Nigerian Media Merit Award and was chosen as the Ladi Lawal Journalist of the year in 2010. He had to his credit, a seminal book titled, Nigerian Politics in the Age of Yar’Adua.

Until his death, Baba Ogunmupe was a Columnist and Member of The Guardian Editorial Board. He was the Baale of Opetosa via Ara in Egbedore Local Council of Osun State. In addition to his chieftaincy titles, he was the Sanmori Adini of Idi-Araba and the Akede Adini of Ilasamaja, Lagos State, among others.

A life lived with no impact is one with no value. So, one who leaves no impact after death hasn’t really lived a worthy life because no footprint would be left behind with the passage of time. Baba Ogunmupe, he lived his life touching many lives in various capacities. Memories of his works live on.

Mr. Bayode Olagunju Robiu Ogunmupe bid the world farewell on Sunday, June 19, 2022.
It’s goodnight from here! Continue to rest on, Baba Ogunmupe!
Ojewale writes in via kayodeojewale@gmail.com