Elder Oyinlola @ 84: Happy Birthday to a Community Leader

By Ishola Gbenga ANIPR

In today’s Elesinmeta! One name stands among the most respected figures in that community. Pa Elder Solomon Bamidele Oyinlola. A man whose name has become synonymous with worthy leadership, fearless engagements, and stable dedication to both the church and the community at large. At 84 years, his story is not merely one of personal achievement, but of quiet shaping discourse, and redefining what it means to lead as a respected elderly person.

When on Monday, 3rd August, I got a glimpse from a reliable source, that Baba Oyinlola (as we fondly call him, though behind his back), would turn 84 today, I thought a commentary of this type would be in order to celebrate the respected community leader. Yes! My words. He is a community leader in all respect and I dare say it is a title he earned on merit and never self-acclaimed, unlike what we see these days where people arrogantly and disrespectfully attribute to themselves such a title in a community of numerous intellectuals. What an effrontery!

Staying away from how the celebrant was born, his struggles, sojourns in life and some other background information about him, which I have no liberty to address as a small boy myself, I was more delighted when my source told me that the octogenarian would like to dedicate his 84th birthday to admonishing sons and daughters of Elesinmeta both at home and abroad. ‘’A good one’’. I thought in my heart.  

For Baba Oyinlola, building our community involves three interconnected commitments: keeping home alive within us, building structures of home around us, and investing in the future of home beyond us. These are not competing obligations. They are complementary expressions of the same idea, that distance should never become disconnection.

Of interest, also to the celebrant is the fact that, our home, Elesinmeta is not merely any place. It is a responsibility, a memory and a moral claim on our attention. It is the place whose future should still matter to us even when we have some challenges on our hands. It is the compound where our name has history and the village where our fathers are known, and where our children may one day be asked, “Whose son are you?” Or who is your father?

It is a community we must build together as it has, in one way or the other, given us much more than we are giving back today. Hence, we must carry Elesinmeta within us. In values, culture, conduct, and the raising of the next generation.

No matter the plan, aims and agenda of some inconsequential minorities against the community, I personally agree with Baba Oyinlola’s position in calling for peace and stability in the community. His observations, I believe, are not argument against change alone. They are reminder that societies are often transformed gradually. The changes that eventually shape communities rarely arrive with announcements. They emerge through thousands of small decisions, honest interactions and never an environment where people mischievously tell others about how their grandparents migrated into the community. We are all one.

The message is: in today’s Elesinmeta, no one should be seen as superior over another. Every one of us started somewhere. We began in families, communities, villages and towns that gave us identity before the world gave us opportunity. Whether we admit it or not, we are products of places and people who invested in us long before we could repay them. 

Our journeys were made possible by resources from parents, from families, from extended families or from communities.

Meanwhile, when I gathered that the celebrant, in marking his birthday today, showed more interest about building Elesinmeta, I concluded the man is not advocating only for the transfer of money from all our branches alone. He must have been arguing for the transfer of exposure, discipline, values, networks, excellence and experience. And that is because communities are not built only by budgets. They are built by people who refuse to become strangers to the places that formed them.

For this reason, it is important to note that, Elesinmeta must be taken out of the cycle of communities where memory is lost. Where history is lost and identity is lost, too. We must all come home to build together. This is because what is not preserved is eventually replaced. What is not transmitted is eventually forgotten. No community plans for such outcome. It happens slowly. The erosion of identity does not begin with loss. It begins with neglect. Households (Agbo Ile) or compounds if you like, are disappearing. Not in dramatic collapse, but in quiet transition and collective memory of the then. This is a fact, not theoretical. Respectably. Gradually. Until one day, what was once identity might become a memory.

People must stand their grounds and resist been intimidated of coming home to build, known and do well. We must also rethink how to engage our sons and daughters across board. Too often, the conversation begins and ends with politics and land matters. That is both short-sighted and unfair. No group of people should be allowed to drag us through those paths again. 

The question is no longer whether our actions matters to one another or to the community itself. Its importance is already established. The more meaningful question is whether we are prepared to embrace the full implications of that reality.

I also appreciate the fact that, the celebrant wants everyone to carry that cherished identity, Elesinmeta, confidently, not defensively. Elesinmeta must travel with us, not as baggage, but as a symbol of love and hard work. Not as nostalgia, but as grounding. The values that shaped us, respect for elders, commitment and loyalty to our community, hard work, communal responsibility, dignity in conduct, reverence for education and faith are not outdated ideas. They are our modest assets.

In conclusion, Baba Oyinlola is a true community leader in his own right. He believed in Elesinmeta as a project. He is also Elesinmeta personified. He is a man who promotes the values of justice, fairness and equity. And he is consistent in that regard till today. The lessons of his life at 84 should be imbibed by the younger generation. A down to earth realist who is never shy from showcasing the essence of Jesus Christ in kind and in deeds. Baba never stopped preaching harmony and inclusiveness in a community being increasingly torn apart by the rhetoric of hate and division. I am therefore, convinced that the community, church and humanity is lucky to have the ilk of Baba Oyinlola who always stand up to be counted, specifically, on the part of justice. 

At 84, I make bold to say you have done us proud and by God’s grace you shall continue to go from strength to strength. I also have no doubt that there is still so much more that lies ahead for you. May God grant you many more years of peace, joy, good health, prosperity and service to our fatherland and may he continue to lead, guide and protect you and yours.

Ishola Gbenga ANIPR, is from Elesinmeta

isholagbenga@yahoo.com

6th August 2026