Odumakin Was Very Courageous – Olawepo-Hashim

Former Presidential candidate and global energy executive, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim has paid glowing tributes to the late Yinka Odumakin, who he described as a man of extraordinary courage that stood by his words.

In a statement sent to  GreenWhiteGreen GWG, the businessman expressed his deep shock over the death of the Afenifere spokesman, saying Nigeria has lost one of the greatest.

“I woke up the morning of Saturday,3rd of April to a couple of news  items from some online platforms announcing that Yinka Odumakin had just passed on the early hours  of that same day .

I was so shocked because a few days earlier he was engaged in a very passionate exchange with some opinion writers.I had no incline that he had been sick all the while.I tried getting confirmation from the wife but I did not get a feed back until some few hours later, at a time the media was already  awash with the tragic news.”

“To say Nigeria has lost another great is to put it mildly.He was one of the greatest,” he said.

Mr. Olawepo-Hashim recalled that he met Yinka 33 years ago when the deceased  was PRO of Obafemi Awolowo University Students Union and he, Olawepo-Hashim was the PRO of  the Students Federation , National Association of Nigerian Students.

“It was a testy period as we were engaged in a very intense struggle against the Military Government. Great Ife had invited me to speak on Alternative to SAP, the economic policy of the regime that we were campaigning against.

Yinka remained  on the left of the left platform in the radical movement while I was to the centre of left. But like most of his comrades from Ife such as  Lanre Arogundade, Raskeey Ojikutu (Lagos) Adewale Bashar (Ibadan), we were allies in the struggles of the mid and late 1980s,” Olawepo-Hashim said of his relationship with Odumakin.

“Yinka was always passionate with his point of view. He made his debut into partisan politics  when he emerged a spokesman for General Buhari during the 2011 elections. He was passionate with General Buhari’s cause when the General had very few friends in the South west. He probably displayed the  same passion against the General when he changed his perspective. That was vintage Yinka.

Fortunately Yinka and I had mutual respect for ourselves despite our some time diametrically opposed perspectives.”

“He was very respectful of me  or perhaps over respectful as he never called me by my first name despite the fact that we were colleagues . He called me “Baba”. Yinka cuts the image of a fiery fighter but he was a shy person. There was a Yinka known to those he felt obliged  to love and respect different from the Yinka on the news stand. He was very emotional and humane,” Olawepo-Hashim said of Odumakin.

“Another lover of freedom has departed this clime. I mourn a comrade, friend and brother, a man of extra ordinary courage.

My condolence once more to Joe, Yinka’s wife who  I knew separately as a comrade  and as a friend. I pray God to give her and the family the fortitude  to bear the loss,” he said.

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