OVERSEER J.O Ọ̀JẸ̀LẸ́YẸ: OUR PARAGON OF EXCELLENCE

When I was offered admission into St. Patrick's Grammar School, Adenuga, Gbongan in 2004, my aunt who had attended the school earlier used to threaten me that the school principal, Prince Adébáyọ̀ Bínúyọ́, would beat my puerile naughtiness out of me. She would then cite innumerable instances that would definitely make one liable to receiving stinging strokes of cane from him. I would always cower in fear whenever she threatened me with these realities. But my grandmother would graciously dispel my fears in Yorùbá that 'Inú Bínúyọ́ máa yọ́ s'ọmọ mi' (Binuyọ́ will be pleased with my son). 
Weeks into my admission to St. Patrick's (as it was popularly called then), I experienced these realities with him. He was on the one hand a bundle of awesomeness and on the other hand a wise and constructive disciplinarian when it came to such issues as students' truancy. He was a principal whose stance would crumble every form of academic infraction. I can still vividly remember how he, at every morning assembly, would put his left hand in the gap between the two chest buttons of his shirt while giving out instructions to students. Although, it was until I got to the senior classes before his numerous nuggets of information started rubbing off on me. 
Being in the senior classes then made some of us to raise needful questions about our ambitions. The questions then could be aggregated as "after this, what next?" It seemed Prince Bínúyọ́ was deeply aware of the acute vulnerability of our mindset then. He would use the usual morning nuggets to answer our questions. One of his answers then was to cite some industrious sons and daughters of Gbongan who had walked this similar path we were currently treading on. He would tell us in a very appreciative way how they turned similar but grosser odds into their favour and coped with the bumps and falls in their respective paths to excellence. 
Names he would mention then were Chief Adewuyi Adetunji, Justice Bolarinwa Babalakin, High Chief J.A. Adeniji, Engineer Fakunle, Overseer J.O Ojeleye, Ọba S.O Babayemi, Ọba Adetoyese Oyeniyi among others. He would not just their mention names; he would impress their academic achievements and social standings on us. And whenever he noticed that our collective myopia or lack of vital learning materials were having worrying impacts on our devotion to studies, he would instantly revert to citing how these models when in similar situations had unflagging energy to forge ahead with their studies and achieve landslide success.
In essence, he was doing this to save us from self-sabotage which might result from our insular thinking and to also make us come to terms with the fact that Gbongan as our birthplace would not restrain us from making greater exploits. He was doing this to bring us back from undesirable direction we might be heading to because we were yet to draw inspiration from these communal forebears. He knew full well that if we did not have a clue about how these people brought home the bacon, our journey in life might be an unsettling experience where success might be desperately elusive. I would later appreciate his efforts when I read Robert Kiyosaki's quote that "If you want to go somewhere, it is best to find someone who has already been there." 
I cannot reliably state the area of acquaintance between Prince Bínúyọ́ and Overseer Ọ̀jẹ̀lẹ́yẹ, but I can reliably recollect the ethereal goosebumps I used to get anytime he mentioned Overseer Ọ̀jẹ̀lẹ́yẹ's name, most especially in relation to his academic achievements. I always had a strange sense of fulfilment during formal and informal talks about him not only because Prince Bínúyọ́ would always project beatific smile whenever he talked about him but also because Overseer Ọ̀jẹ̀lẹ́yẹ was closely known to me since my childhood. I was always riveted by all Prince Bínúyọ́ would speak of him which often cast him in new light and leave me with rhetorical question: so Bàbá Ọ̀jẹ̀lẹ́yẹ is also this? 
I grew up knowing Bàbá Ọ̀jẹ̀lẹ́yẹ as a clergyman at The Apostolic Church, Oke Àpáta, Gbongan. My father's house is sandwiched between Baba Ọ̀jẹ̀lẹ́yẹ's church and my family church, St Peter's Anglican Church, Oke-Apata. So it was inescapably impossible for me not to see him driving past and honking his car to greet my people on Sundays. I had additional knowledge of him when I finally moved to Òkè-Ola in 2010. My mother's shop was right at the entrance to his street while my residence is still some minutes' walk behind his residence. In fact, I got my first job as a primary school teacher in a school just adjacent to his house. I can still remember how I would bow my head in deep reverence for him anytime he walked by the window of my classroom or drive his Toyota Corolla past my mother's shop. The impressions Prince Bínúyọ́ had made on me about him have remained appreciably indelible in my memory and I can still remember how I used to ask my friends in Gbọ̀ngàn that "do you know that Bàbá Ọ̀jẹ̀lẹ́yẹ has a PhD?" 
To this end, I always appreciate the fact that I attended St Patrick's Grammar School, Gbongan and that I studied under the tutelage of Prince Adébáyọ̀ Bínúyọ́ as the school principal whose numerous impassioned efforts emboldened many of us to interrogate our purposes and keep striving for exhilarating heights in life. Admittedly, it was him who particularly made me to admire the illustriousness of Bàbá Ọ̀jẹ̀lẹ́yẹ and his cohorts who are currently in their 80s. I must neither omit nor gloss over the fact that without Bínúyọ́’s continuous revelation about Bàbá Ọ̀jẹ̀lẹ́yẹ in my years at St. Patrick’s, I would not have either had the faintest idea about his sterling academic life or held unto his image this dearly; I would have rather be regarding him as an old man who is merely basking in the wealth of his children. But as I am just cautiously finding my path through this bramble of life, I hold on to his image (and of numerous others) as a paragon of excellence.
May Bàbá Ọ̀jẹ̀lẹ́yẹ live long! Amen.

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