MRS OYEDIRAN’S KINDNESS & WARMTH, MY EARLIEST MEMORY OF HER – OSINBAJO

IBADAN – Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described the late Mrs. Tola Oyediran, nee Awolowo as a very kind, warm and welcoming person just as she was interred on Friday, December 4, 2020 in Ibadan after a church service at All Saints Church, Jericho.

Prof. Osinbajo made the statement in a video tribute where he recalled his earliest memories about the late Publisher and Chairman of the African Newspapers of Nigeria, publishers of the Tribune Titles.

In his words, “I have known Mummy Ibadan as we call her, from when I was a child. All my earliest memories of her was of a very kind, very warm and always welcoming aunty. Of course, when Dolly and I got married, she became more mum to us than aunty. She never forgot birthdays, she was always first to call to congratulate, to cheer you up in difficult times, and to offer all her support always.”

Thanking God for the exemplary life lived by the deceased, the Vice President said, “we give God all the glory for the life of caring about others, of remarkable kindness and generosity that she lived. I pray that the Lord will comfort Daddy with whom she shared such an exemplary love story, and all of us her children, family and friends, in Jesus name, Amen.”

Recalling her devotion to the gospel as his most enduring memory of the late Oyediran, Prof. Osinbajo said “my most enduring memory of her is when she became a firebrand born again Christian. Her prayers, her counsel, her love for God, and her devotion to the gospel, which is why even as much as her warmth and love will always be missed, we are so confident she is now with the one to whom she gave her life, Jesus, in everlasting peace and joy.”

Mrs. Oyediran, Awolowo’s first daughter, was married to Prof. Bankole Oyediran, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan. She died on October 16, 2020 and was buried on Friday, December 4, 2020 in Ibadan.