By Banji Ayoola
Senator Ayo Fasanmi, the factional leader of the Yoruba socio cultural group and arrow head of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, Nigeria’s pro democracy movement, Afenifere, has died.
He died in Osogbo, Osun state capital, on Wednesday, aged 94.
His son, Afolabi confirmed his death in a statement saying:“With great gratitude to the Almighty God for a life well spent, we wish to announce the demise of our father.”
He wrote in a statement, “With gratitude to the Almighty God for a life well spent, we wish to announce the demise of our father, Senator Ayo Fasanmi, at the ripe age of 94 years.”
Afolabi said his father, who was a Second Republic senator, died peacefully in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
Reacting, the mainstream Afenifere, through its spokesman, Mr Yinka Odumakin, said the elder statesman lived a fulfilled life.
Also, an Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, said that Fasanmi was among notable associates who fought for Nigeria’s independence as a foot soldier of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in the 1950s.
He said Fasanmi played an active role during the struggle for the actualisation of the June 12, 1993 mandate of the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, and the following protracted pro democracy struggle.
Adebanjo noted that in the mid-2,000s, during the crisis of the Alliance for Democracy and Afenifere, Fasanmi chose to take sides with the then Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, and broke away from the group.
Nevertheless, he said that Fasanmi remains a great Nigerian and prayed for the repose of his soul.
His words: “I didn’t know Fasanmi was dead until you told me. He was a good friend. May heaven be his reward. He was a great nationalist and we fought together for independence. He was one of the early foot soldiers of Chief Awolowo.
“He was also part of the struggle of June 12. He was among those who encouraged Tinubu to leave our group and he followed Tinubu but this doesn’t diminish his person.”
Fasanmi was a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress.
He was a candidate in the old Ondo State governorship primary election but lost to the late Chief Adekunle Ajasin, the Second Republic governor of Ondo State. Fasanmi subsequently won a senatorial seat in Ondo State.
He served as a member of the Board of Directors of the old Western Nigeria Housing Corporation in the old western region.
He was National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria in 1977, and Senator between 1979 and 1983. He was earlier elected to the House of Representatives in 1954.
He also served with the National Constitutional Conference Commission in 1994, as a member.
During the Fourth Republic, Fasanmi served as the National Vice Chairman (South-West) of the Alliance for Democracy.
With his passage, the number of senators who served Nigeria between October 1979 and October 1983 who are still alive has been further depleted.
Among those believed to still be around are Cornelius Adebayo (Kwara), George Hookwap (Plateau), David Oke (Ondo), Banji Akintoye (Ondo), Kunle Oyero (Ogun) and Joseph Wayas (Cross River), who was Senate President of that era.
The Osun State government in a condolence message signed by its commissioner for information, Funke Egbemode, said his passage was confirmed by his first son, Obafemi Fasanmi, on behalf of the family.
“He made enviable and remarkable contributions to his profession, to the socio-political development of Yorubaland, and to the nation at large.
“Baba Fasanmi was a leader who demonstrated his love for our great country in many laudable ways; but more heart-warming was how he showed optimal concern for the welfare of the poor and underprivileged, and how he held leaders accountable on their promises of good governance.
‘We also recognise how much Osogbo, and Osun State as a whole meant to Pa. Fasanmi, who was transferred to Osogbo as a Pharmacist in 1951, and he chose to live here till he took his last breath.
“His Alekuwodo residence became a make-shift Secretariat for a number of causes and movements of national relevance. The State Government of Osun appreciates all he accomplished in his lifetime, especially as a pivotal force in the socio-cultural and political bolstering of the Yoruba,” Mrs Egbemode said.
Fasanmi was born in 1925 at Iye Ekiti ,a local government area of Ekiti State, southwestern Nigeria. He attended St Paul’s primary school, Ebute Meta and Government School, Ibadan before he proceeded to the Pharmacy School of Yaba where he received a diploma certificate in pharmacy. He practiced as a pharmacist at Osogbo briefly before he joined the Nigerian politics.
He joined the Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria in 1978 and was a candidate in the Ondo State gubernatorial primary election but lost to Chief Mchael Adekunle Ajasin, the former governor of Ondo State. In 1983, he was elected member of the House of Representatives representing Ondo North.
He was married to the late Madam Adejoke who died at the age of 82 years in October 2014.
