by Oyez Olatunde Rex
This is a profound man. I tell you, Marley really is deep. I speak not of Robert Nesta Marley, I only delved back to teen years when we called Babajide Kolade Otitoju, Marley.
Now, here was a chubby, slow talking teenager, who was crazy about two timeless singers, Bob Marley and Don Williams. I often thought with the volume of these songs he imbibed, they must have a role in shaping his life philosophies.
As an undergraduate, Marley’s speeches were heavily laced with Marxism. He would typically enjoy himself giving speeches laced with rhetorical quotes. These are not why am writing about him, this is intended purely as a literary comedy. My thoughts wandered to Marley then, and the hanging Journalist he is today. Noticeably, the quotes that laced his speeches in the days of yore have crawled away. This is one trait of a man getting close to, or feeling he is getting close to self actualization.
I also wondered if he paraphrases those quotes to PMB and Asiwaju. He is enamoured of President Muhammadu Buhari passionately. But I know Babajide Kolade Otitoju is a lifelong activist for good governance. Therefore, i have not been able to decipher how he can live with the conflict of supporting PMB’s government inspite of fundamental constitutional breaches.
One rainy evening last September, I sat to listen to the Journalist hangout. I smiled, as a hilarious conspiracy crossed my mind. I wondered why Marley was convenient with treating issues in a figurative monkey fashion. Jumping and hanging from one tree branch to the other. But I also remembered the densely interwoven flambouyant trees that lined a driveway at Titcombe College Egbe in Kogi State. Marley must have perfected his monkey style there. We all used to move from one tree to the other in those days.
Kogi state is the most unfortunate for Marley’s hanging journalism. Seriously, i still wonder why Marley haven’t unleashed his truthfulness on Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State. Maybe Kogi state is just one branch that was ignored in the monkey style. Or, the love 0f bubuu robbed off on GYB. Whichever way, lucky GYB!
Before I let off, a last one. Marley’s monkey style reminds me always of the Yoruba adage literally translated: the proximity of other trees makes it safer for jumping and hanging monkeys.
Babajide Kolade Otitoju, Femi Adesina, and Garba Shehu are perching on trees in close proximity.
Interestingly, 2019 is the snake in their monkey shadows.
