By Saint-Olawale Jimoh
The recent annual thanksgiving service hosted by Otunba Gbenga Daniel (OGD), the Asiwaju Onigbagbo of Remo Christians and former Governor of Ogun State at The Baptist International Worship Centre (Abraham Tabernacle) in Sagamu further reinforced in me that whatever God planted cannot be uprooted. I remember Dr (Mrs) Tomi Soboyejo once wrote that, 'the meanings of OGD's name is the key to understanding the man and his driving force'. She mentioned OGD's name is deeply rooted in God and God’s values and this was again corroborated in a sermon delivered by one of the invited guest speakers, Pastor Femi Emmanuel who equally mentioned he had been OGD's admirer for many years and commended his effort in building such a gigantic edifice as a place of worship.
This prodigiously talented former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel was for more than five times in the news in 2016 for various issues. One of such was when he was mentioned as one of those in the race for PDP national chairmanship seat with the likes of Chief Bode George, Raymond Dokpesi and Jimi Agbaje, the PDP Governorship Candidate for Lagos State in the last elections. Of all these people, OGD was more discussed especially on the social media and throughout the period, I took tιмe to follow the reactions and comments of the antagonists who in their comments indirectly posited OGD was no longer relevant politically, yet they managed to be concerned with all that has to do with him.
Some of these people still made it to the venue of the thanksgiving in order to use the programme as a barometer for assessing whatever was left of OGD's crowd-pulling capacity but they were disappointed. The programmed was billed to start by 11am and I arrived at the venue a little earlier but I could hardly find a seat. By 11:30pm, the entire church auditorium was completely filled up. I saw great and magnificent personalities who arrived at about midday and couldn't find where to seat. I had to vacate my seat for Colonel MKO Awokoya (Rtd), a prominent member of OGD's age group (Egbe Bobakeye) and a former Rector of Gateway Petro-Gas Institute.
In attendance were prominent traditional rulers from Southwest and beyond, Pastors and many church leaders. There were also in attendance Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Senator Lekan Mustapha, Chief Biyi Otegbeye, Senatorial candidate, Ogun West 2015, Hon Kayode Amusan, former House of Rep member, Alhaji Sarafa Tunji Ishola, former Minister of Mines and Steel, Chief Gboyega Isiaka, former Managing Director, Gateway Holdings, Hon Ladi Adebutu, Chairman, House Committee on Rural Development, Dr Remi Bakare, Hon Eddy Olafeso, Chairman, PDP Southwest and many others.
It was a glorious and colourful event which witnessed the gathering of those who stood with him over the years; those who ran away and those who stood on the fringe. All were there to celebrate with this Nigeria's Apostle of grassroots politics. Truly a house built with spittle gets destroyed by the dews ONLY the one planted by GOD stands the test of tιмe!
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