CHIEF SOLOMON AREMU ISHOLA: A Year Gone Without a Savant Leader

By Ishola Gbenga

As someone who is now in the fatherless league, losing a father is a pain unlike any other. Today makes it a year that my beloved father, Chief Solomon Aremu Ishola, the Ajagungbade IV of Elesinmeta had gone to be with the Lord. It is a memory that no words can fully ease, but we pray that the memories of his love, wisdom, guidance and selfless service to God and humanity bring us comfort in the days ahead. However, we found strength in the remarkable life he lived and the values he instilled in the entire family.

No doubt! Fathers are precious. Fathers are wonderful. Every Father that dies, leaves a message. It is therefore expected that every orphan or fatherless child must seek the meaning of that message and navigate this troubled world more carefully. For me, the resting place on a father’s shoulder is the most personal, intimate, and original heritage that we all share. Life is indeed about memories.

‘’Fading away like the stars of the morning, losing their light in the glorious sun. Thus, would we pass from the earth and its toiling. Only remembered by what we have done.’’ My findings revealed that the words were written by Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) who wrote over 600 hymns and was called “the prince of Scottish hymn writers”, a pastor with distinction. And I agree completely with Bonar. This is because my late father would be remembered as a leader who was never desperate nor contested the throne, but as a man, who despite several open threat to divide the community, delivered a united Elesinmeta. Looking back, today and forever, we shall continue to be proud of him and his modest legacies.

 

Ordinarily, the topic for this piece would have been ‘’Elesinmeta and The Effrontery of Yesterday’s People’’ but I chose the above topic in order not to get ahead of myself but instead, to put issues in their real perspective. Ironically, a history of desperation had been created that some people were so desperate to the point that even before my father died, they have commenced a secret succession consultations on how to take over from him, blindly ignoring the fact that death is a debt that all living things owe, and which they must pay when called to the Celestial Lodge above.

That some pretenders, who claimed to be family could go that far, was a traumatizing situation for we the children, especially when it is a wee too pale to wish anyone death. Not even our father who gave his best in serving the community. But as human beings, we often forget, and live as if it would last forever. Therefore, whether it’s long or short, it is rather better to make our life matter. I am happy my father did, and it ended well on Thursday 3rd July, 2025. It was like that, I suppose because often times, we, mortals, are always guilty of thinking we can live forever and thus forgetting that every day is a bonus from God.

Interestingly, my father became a man of substance, especially by those who would not back off and let him rest in peace even in death. This much became more clearer when on 20th, October 2025, a flurries of video clips appeared on the community platform. Out of them all, a particular clip caught the attention of many, where a rather nincompoop who called himself a "prophet" remarked in Yoruba language that ‘’Baale to koja lo yen, koja aye e ni’’. This literarily means the late Baale crossed his boundaries. Again, he repeated the statement! ‘’Ose kini? And those who consulted him responded in affirmative! Oko ja aye e’’. He crossed his boundaries. They replied.

At the time, and till now, the abusive video clip was automatically a court material that could be used in establishing a legal case again the persons involed to explain how did my late Dad crossed his boundaries. And to further answer if! Was that why they killed him? Was that why he was metaphysically attacked? Was that also why they would not let him rest even after his death? But we declined taking any legal action including the push from some people who advised that we should approach the court to seek justices. We declined because we have handed over everything to God whose judgment far outweighs any judicial proclamation in the world.

But that seems not be enough as the loosely bound group of yesterday people seems to be on the offensive against the Solomon Ishola leadership as the Ajagungbade IV of Elesinmeta. They pick issues with virtually every effort of his days, pretending to do so in the community’s interest. Positing that they alone, know it all. Arrogantly, they claim to have the historical details than everyone else in the community. To the glory of God, my father enjoyed the support and loyalty of the majority, both at the family and community levels as against the wishes of the inconsequential minority who wanted to control, mislead and even wanted him to renounce Jesus, at the end of which they all failed.

Their frustrations were understood. They are ever so censorious, contrarian and supercilious.

They have no original claim to their pretensions other than they were privileged to have been in power once upon a time in their lives. They obviously got so engrossed with their own sense of importance that they began to imagine themselves indispensable to Elesinmeta. It is dangerous to have such a narcissistic group inflict themselves with so much ferocity on an otherwise community of educated people like ours. We are in reality dealing with a bunch of hypocrites.

With exceptions to a few, they really don’t care about Elesinmeta as a community but the spoils that accrue from it such as land, politics, flimsy entitlements and others. And so, they will stop at nothing to discredit those they think are not as deserving as they imagine themselves to be. Unfortunately, late Solomon Ishola unfairly became the target of their pitiable frustrations, but God made them a walkover for him. He defeated them all.

Underneath their superfluous appearance, lies an unspoken class disdain directed at the late community head, a God appointed one and not a desperate leader. It is a human problem, perhaps. In some advanced and decent communities, which these same yesterday people don’t study and learn from, community service is seen and treated as a privilege. Not by imposition. People are always loyal to the constituted authorities. They do so with humility and great commitment. They also have other things to do with their time, resources and energies. They don’t depend on land and politics alone to survive.

Historically, in the Elesinmeta of then, the farmers focus on their farming or some other decent work. The civil servants put more attention on their career growth while the business men and women among them don’t depend on self-entitlements. Decent people are glad to have been found worthy of what they do daily. When and where necessary, as loyal community people, they are entitled to use the benefit of this experience to contribute to the development of their communities. They speak up on matters of community importance and interest not as a full-time job as is the case today. And one had to ask! What then, is the problem with some people who just boast around today?

These are people, who are perpetually hanging around and hustling for undeserved privileges. They exploit unnecessary connections where they can. They even write letters as a means of attack and facts distorting one for that matter. Despiracy and Power blinds them to the reality that we own the community together and we have a unique opportunity to do well for the hardworking people of the community. They threatened people’s lives where, in their usual desperate act to secure power, openly told us that many would die.

Unsatisfied, these characters are in different sizes and shapes. Small, big; Godfathers, agents and proxies. The tactics of the big figures on this rung of opportunism may be slightly different. They parade themselves as Godfather or the better men who should have been our leaders after telling us that many will die. They suffer of course, from messianic delusions. The fact that they boast of some followership outside the community who they believe should treat them as icons and this makes their nuisance factor worse.

They and their protégés and proxies are united by one factor though, their hypocrisy. No shame! No decency! No decorum! It is in the larger interest of our community that the point be made that Elesinmeta must not allow any group of shameless individuals to hold us to ransom and no one alone should appropriate the right to determine what is best for us. They must be told to go get a life and find meaningful work to do.

Those who believe that no one else can run the community without them must be told to stop hallucinating. The yesterday’s guys and all sorts who have been mischievous, spreading cruel propaganda, tarnishing the image of the community everywhere and turning down history must be reminded that the messes they created in the past has been cleaned up through a worthy leadership of Solomon Ishola. They want to own the game when the ball is not in their possession. They want to be the referee when nobody has offered them a whistle.

They seek to play God, forgetting that the case for God is not in the hands of man. One of the virtues of enlightenment is for persons to have a true perspective of their own. Perhaps, it is the greatest hypocrisy from our see-no-good dudes. They were audacious enough to claim location in the order of things. What they do not seem to realize or accept is that the climate has changed. This is indeed a strange gathering of confused, reckless, desperate, frustrated, cantankerous, quarrelsome and in some cases senile actors from the past who have long lost their glamour, gravitas, steam and who have no sense of purpose, unity or direction.

These yesterday’s people certainly don’t seem to care very much about the people of the community who has had to bear the brunt of the many embarrassments they’ve brought to the name of the community in recent time. It is enough to make you shudder at the thought of any of them being part of our system, but then we’ve already seen what some of them are capable of doing when in control of authority and influence.

The people have spoken in unison. They have had enough. People are wiser and are now familiar with the trickery from these persons whose claim to fortune they did not work for was on the back of their days. My point at the risk of overstating what is by now too obvious: We have too many yesterday people behaving too badly. We are dealing with a group of power-point goons who have mastered the rhetoric of grandstanding.

To the glory of God, Solomon Ishola was a down to earth realist who sought to exemplify the essence of Jesus Christ in kind and in deeds. We, his children and family are happy he served Jesus till the very end. This led him never to accept what he considered the rigidity of the traditional elements in the community who fought on the side of a so-called doctrinal purity by abolishing the abolishable. His position: Jesus is the only way. His strong positions against cheating one another, and his charge that leaders should be real stewards, as shone his attitudes and style of leadership will never be forgotten.

However, one fact remains indisputable. No leader is bigger than time. The most powerful emperors fell. Military dictators once feared across continents faded into history. Political giants who imagined permanence eventually surrendered to the inevitability of change. Power is leased, never owned. Also, leadership is often measured by the values added too your community, peoples alliances and the ability to navigate the complex terrain of those you preside over. Yet, history reserves its highest honours for leaders whose impact transcends all these. That is, those who build bridges, inspire confidence, create opportunities and leave enduring legacies that outlive their tenure.

At the end, I am glad my Dad carved a niche for himself as a great moral force, preaching harmony and inclusiveness in a community being increasingly torn apart by the rhetoric of hate and division. In the death of my Dad, therefore, I am convinced the community, church and humanity has lost one of its most illustrious leaders while the family has lost a strategic mediator and ambassador of peace.

All said, I am proud to have being his son. I also feel gratified that I remained faithful to him to his very end. We shall not join issues with anyone on his behalf. Our father was never a perfect human being, but we shall not fold our arms and watch his character assailed by anyone. For me, this humane and wonderful father deserved no less.

May God Almighty continue to grant him eternal rest. And may he grant we, his family the fortitude to bear the loss of his demise. How time flies!

Prince Gbenga Ishola

Son! Wrote on a year remembrance of Late Chief Solomon Aremu Ishola, the Ajagungbade IV of Elesinmeta who passed on Thursday 3rd, July 2025. isholagbenga@yahoo,com