Yesira, Dance, Omo Olope Ni E, Joor …

By Gboyega Akosile

Why won’t the lady in this post, dance, corvid be damned! 10/10/2020 is a unique date in her life history.

Olori Alhaja Yesirat Abiola Afolasade, proud daughter of the popular Agbalajobi family of Epe kingdom, has gone through a lot in life that at 70 – straight without bending – and for all I care in this world, she can dance and shake her body in a way to make a Sunny Ade or Michael Jackson’ dance drills pale into insignificance.

There is no man or woman on whose forehead success is inscribed that won’t go through the crucible of life, experiencing the good, the bad and the ugly at some points in one’s life.

My own aburo (she’ll be the first to dispute that fact) from “Iyaa-mi-re”, as Ibadan are used to saying, has gone through it all in a confounding manner that if some men are of the steely stuff of which Sade is made, suicide cases amongst adult males will not be as alarming as they are now!

From her secondary school days with the likes of my cousin Nike Rowaiye and Sola Kukoyi at the Ijebu Igbo Girls Grammar School to the Yaba College of Technology where she graduated in engineering, Sade exhibited flashes of vision, mission, courage and determination to surmount challenges and achieve exploits that it was no wonder she faced life squarely that she became an overcomer.

Here I must confess that “Sisi 70” has a persona that is confounding and perplexing. In one moment she comes off as a soft touch who breaks down easily at the sight of any problem scare; and in another moment, she can be a “tempest” capable of turning the whole world down when her fuse of temper is blown… She doesn’t suffer fools, indolence, dumb-heads and people of discounted integrity, gladly. But what no one can deny in her is that the milk of human kindness flows in her veins endlessly.

I liken Sade to someone who was described by some four ladies in a downtown area of Lagos with nose and eyes for good things, as “tall without bending”. Yesirat is a fashion buff whose dress sense is simply fab and whose imposing personality makes her a cynosure of eyes at any occasion. She combines beauty with brain and as a politician with a second address, she drives her engineering and construction firm with calm and calculating efficiency that shes reputed amongst second-line contractors in Lagos State till today.

As an engineering pivot whose love for education is first-rate, the Sanwoolu administration in the state and the one it succeeded, justifiably found her worthy to be on the governing board of the Michael Otedola College of Special Education in Epe area.

Lets toast to the lady of the moment, Sade Agbalajobi as she turns 70 today and join in dancing to the chorus of fuji creator, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister: ” O ye ko joo … O ye ko yoo, eni araiye pa, papa ti o ti le ku, o ye ko yoo”.