OMOSEYE BOLAJI PAYS TRIBUTE TO AYO FASANMI
DOWN MEMORY LANE I have a medley of poignant memories in respect of Pa Ayo Fasanmi, the quintessentially celebrated Nigerian statesman, and Patriarch who has just left us. Where do I start? Perhaps some 35 years ago when I used to be a fairly regular visitor to their house in Osogbo, thanks to my early friendship with one of the great man's sons. (We went to the University together). We were of course quite young then and I was always overawed in the presence of Papa Fasanmi. He respected my own father (SL Bolaji) who at the time was a well known editor of Nigerian newspapers, cum author. Though of course even in those days, Pa Fasanmi ( below) always went out of his way to be very friendly with us anytime he came across us. I remember when the Nigerian journalist and magazine aficionado, Dele Giwa was brutally killed in 1986. By a coincidence, I was in the Fasanmi residence that night in Osogbo when the drama unfolded. It was Senator Fasanmi...

It is clear from sampled tributes that the late Pa Fasanmi was Greatness Personified.
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