The call from Eric was with a difference this time. I was just muttering, “Eeen heen… big ear Eric, what’s up” when I realized his voice was unusually low. He was crisp when he passed the message with a tone of sadness, saying, “Our friend, brother, Ambassador Isaac Aluko-Olokun passed on 15 minutes ago.

I was dazed and did not know how I suddenly applied break while the car was right at the middle of the road. The luck I had was that the road was not as busy as usual; otherwise, I could have rammed my car on any near by car or vehicle. Somehow, I managed to drag the car off the main road to attend to Eric while I was visibly shaken.

When I slightly regained composure, I started raining questions upon questions on Eric to know whether or not he was correct or was rather pulling my legs as he usually does. My friend repeated what he said and recounted the telephone conversation he earlier had with Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi which produced the information. Gbadamosi had been with the late Isaac Agboola Aluko-Olokun by the bed side when he gave up the ghost. Shock and disbelieve afflicted me as I ran through the life time of Aluko-Olokun. It was when I got home that I broke down completely as I wept profusely. I just could not bear the thought of losing a man who served me as the dearest friend.

I thought if somebody must die so suddenly, it should not have been that kind hearted gentleman who was totally devoted to God, family, friendship and his fatherland.   I shed more tears because my friend of many years never gave me the slightest sign that he was soon to pass away. He was full of life and bubbling with activities the last time I saw him. As ever, he was radiating love and strength just as he showed eagerness to get the latest gist on politics and economy from me, having been familiar with my background as a journalist. Isaac loved discussions with passion and could draw you easily into long and meaningful arguments just to pick information and fresh facts. It was a reason he usually welcomed every informed and learned friend with open arms.

To me, the late Ambassador was too kind a friend. How could I forget the manner he poured the milk of his kindness endlessly on me at a time I desired help and assistance most in my life sojourn. He drew me closer like no one ever did and acted as a guardian angel sent to give me succour directly from God. The story of my deeper friendship with Isaac began from my exit from Nigerian Tribune in 2002, after 32 years of service.

Isaac was the first person to call on learning about my retirement. He congratulated me and expressed willingness to assist and lead me through the unexplored rough road that every retiree must trod. His tone was full of deep pity when he said, “Folu, let me be frank with you. Retirement from active journalism comes with attendant challenges. Friends and colleagues will withdraw from you, but don’t worry, I will be there for you”.

Indeed, Ambassador Aluko Olokun, was there for me. Then he was a Commissioner in the National Revenue Mobilization Allocation Commission which entitled him to an accommodation; a house and chalet. Each time I went to Abuja for one business or the other, he must throw his house open for me. I could stay for weeks and always felt at home. No sooner, he completed his term as a commissioner than he was appointed Special Assistant to Mr. President on NEPAD. This duty demanded from him frequent travels abroad. But that did not change his usual hospitality as his wife (Yemisi) who I fondly called mummy, was always there to shower the family love and affection on me and my retinue of friends. All through my struggling years in retirement, Ambassador Aluko Olokun’s residence virtually became my second home which I found difficult to desert even after I was allocated an official residence in Abuja.

Not too long ago, specifically on December 3, 2010, my kindest friend called and said, “Folu, are you in Abuja”. I said yes, and then he said “please let us have our usual dinner because I had asked mummy to prepare your favourite dish semo with vegetable soup.” I told him I would be coming with my brother-in-law Laitan Agbeja.  The four of us sat together and ate cheerfully. I did not notice that he was ill. He was his usual self. We joked and as usual, talked about the state of the nation which bordered more on economic downturn in Nigeria. Alas: that was the last I saw of him. If I had known he was bidding me goodbye, I would have stayed in Abuja to spend the Christmas and New Year with him.

I always took for granted that he would be there for me-come sunshine or rain and that I could call him when I felt so to cheer myself up, because in his presence, I always felt so good. He was a jolly good fellow. I am pained and shocked by his sudden death because, I never noticed that he was ill. The news of his death hit me like a thunderbolt.

I will always remember that my friend, since the day I knew him, was a brain box of sorts. He had worked closely with former president, Olusegun Obasanjo as a Senior Special Assistant on New Partnership For Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and had displayed unwavering acumen in putting the concept together from the Nigerian end for acceptance by the world powers. My friend later became the Nigerian representative in NEPAD and served in the most technical department. He had always been voted to hold the most technical aspect of a task in any group or organisation he worked.

My good friend took off on a high steam when Nigeria nominated him into the Steering Committee of NEPAD with office in Pretoria, South Africa. Thereafter, he became a member National Council on African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and had served in the technical department before he was appointed the National Co-ordinator APRM, National Focal Point and he did his best to represent Nigeria well between 2005 and 2009.

He was also a brain box to the Vision 2010 Committee set up in 1997 by the government of late General Sani Abacha to craft a national vision for Nigeria. Before then, he had served as ambassador to Belgium and the European Union and then to Spain and The Vatican between 1990 and 1999.

I was going through some of the comments about Ambassador Isaac on the website when I stumbled on one written by Yusuff Oladimeji David. He wrote, “Ambassador Aluko Olokun’s death is a shocker, the most unexpected! He was one of the best brains in President Obasanjo’s regime. He was a kind and excellent man. I was a street child sleeping around Agege stadium when my friend, Adedamola Oyedokun, Mrs Yemisi Aluko Olokun’s nephew, invited me to stay with the Ambassador’s family at the low cost housing estate, Pen Cinema in Agege. (This was in 1999). The Ambassador just arrived from Belgium where he was posted to as an envoy by late General Abacha”.

What else can I write for a true friend and brother than to compose this tribute:

“To some you may Be forgotten,

to others part of the past,

But to those who loved and lost you

Your memory will always last.

Each time I see your photograph in my living room, you seem to smile and say, Folu don’t cry I am only sleeping, we will meet again someday. They say it is a beautiful journey from the old world to the new.

Someday, we’ll make that journey which will lead me straight to you and when I reach that garden in which there is no pain, I will put my arms around you and never part again. To me you were so special

Adieu my beloved Isaac.

Olamiti is of the ICPC, Abujaa