For very man or woman to be seen to have run his or her full course or cycle here on earth, such a person must have a sunrise and then a sunset. The piece we write today is about a Virtuoso who was a great female specie of homo sapiens; one woman who played her role and purpose in life, in the city of Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State of Nigeria.
Sunrise for her came in the little town of Ilare-Ijesa, in today’s Obokun East Local Council Development Area of Osun State. It dawned on the 6th of December 1940.
By the time sunset for her came on the 5th of January 2026 in lbadan, she had spent a total of 85 years and one month here on earth. To the glory of God the Father, her full name was Eunice Moyofore Kayode, MON. The national merit award of Member of the Order of the Niger (MON)was conferred on her in 1981 when Alh. Shehu Aliyu Shagari was President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. She bagged the award as a citizen of old Oyo State alongside the then Ataoja of Osogbo, the late Oba Iyiola Oyewale Matanmi III. But Who was Mrs.Eunice Moyofore Kayode, MON?
Eunice, the focus of this effort in writing was born in the rural environment of Ijesa land called Ilare Ijesa. Without any silver spoon in hand, her parents struggled hardest to give her western education from primary school level to that of a trained and qualified Nurse. She came out to be a very successful Nurse who by late 1970s had retired from the Public Service to lead a Maternity Home that became not only a formidable name , but a brand in Oke-Ado in Ibadan. The Omotayo Maternity Home, Oke-Ado in Ibadan which she established and gave a practical leadership to, was for the first quarter of a century of its existence, a leading Maternity Home in old Oyo State. There, many children were given birth to. Today, many of them have become leading lights in our nation. Right now, almost fifty years of the existence of that Health Care Giving Home, the impact it has created especially in care-giving to women and children is simply tremendous.
Eunice got married to her heartthrob, a renowned agriculturist and farmer late Engr. Kayode (of the larger Kayode Adedeji family of Ilesa) as a young nurse. The pair remained a shining couple and an example for many on how to live a true married life. They remaind so until death separated them about a decade or so ago when the male half got called to glory
For the almost 45 years that I have known her, Mama Eunice Moyofore Kayode was always an energetic woman. She was also a woman of many parts who played parts very effectively.
She was not only a trained medical professional, she was a football enthusiast and much later an administrator.
For many years she served as a Member of the Oyo State Football Association which later transitioned into Oyo State Football Federation.
Mama( Sootin) Kayode was the undisputed patroness of Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) from the days the team was known as IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan.
As a former Sports Editor of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) in the late 1980s, I knew and related with her a great deal. Mama Eunice was a formidable football enthusiast and as Administrator. There was no football match day, one would not find her in the State Box of the Lekan Salami Stadium now Lekan Salami Sports Complex.
The seat before her in the State or VIP Box was always left empty for her as a commandeered annexure. This was because whoever sat in that seat (no matter how highly placed such a person was) was bound to suffer blows and kicks from behind each time the home team missed glaring opportunities at goal scoring. Mama Eunice Kayode was passionate with football and always watched the game with a physical drive and the demonstration of that passion she had for the game.
When the 3SC qualified for a Continental championships in 1991 or so, she invited me to her house(which was my regular and 2nd home in Ibadan) for a discussion.
“Wo Smolette mo fe ma ba Shooting Stars lo fun gbogbo continental matches won. Mo sI ma san owo flight mi fun ra mi ni o! Ki lori so si yi? She was seeking my opinion on her readiness to pay her flight tickets to encourage the 3SC in all the team’s continental matches outside Nigeria. I told her the Football Federation which she was a formidable member of, should be able to do that. But Mama said she was not interested in the FA sending her. ” Wo Smolette, problem mi ni Baba Peju. Ko ni tele mi lo. Mi o si le da lo!”.
As much as she was willing to foot the bills for two, her husband, Baba Peju was not an interested party in going to watch football matches outside Nigeria while his farm and livestock suffered unduly. My advice to her was this simple: “Mama ti daddy oba ti nii tele yin, ajepe e o le lo niyen o! Naija ni wa o!” l had told her. She knew Naija her country people and their sense of imagination in circumstances like that. That was how she abandoned the idea completely. That was a sheer demonstration of the passion she had for the game of football.
In the late 70s and 80s, Mama Kayode as the Chief Nursing Officer and Matron in-charge of Omotayo Maternity Home, developed a liking for Radio O-Y-O especially since the Radio Station moved to its permanent premises at Orita Bashorun in Ibadan. Perhaps this was because because the late Mrs Anike Agbaje-Williams and late Mrs Abeke Lawore were her friends (through their Radio presentations), At that same time, Mrs Kayode transferred her love for the two women to those of us who were on-air presenters on Radio O-Y-O whose shows she loved.
In those days, by mid- December, she would convey different hampers (each of them labelled) to her favourite presenters or producers.
An open van usually brought in the Christmas gifts to the office of Mrs Anike Agbaje-Williams. This our lady boss always ensured that every labelled gift got to the targeted name.
Young Radio presenters then like Ayo Iyanda, Ayo Adeyemo, Ayo Adeosun, Yanju Adegbite and my humble self used to get our hampers before the 20th of every December as Christmas present from her.
You may not believe it, l had regularly collected that annual gift for some 3 or 4 years before I ever set my eyes on this philanthropist and “yearly donor.”of gifts.
How then did I meet the silent philanthropist?
Okay, I had passed out of University of Ibadan after my undergraduate studies in 1983.
The Television Service of Oyo State (TSOS) had come on board in 1982 with its razzmatazz style of news reporting drama and music presentation. As a Radio Disc Jockey and student at UI, l was invited by two of the station’s producers ( late Tunji Fatilewa and Senyor Dorleku to present a musical Show called “The Discotheque” and a Quiz Programme called “What Do You Know?”
After passing out as UI graduates in November 1983, our graduation ceremony couldn’t hold around the usual UI Founder’s Day on 17th November because the 1983 academic session was disrupted for almost four months (February to May 1983) We had started as Mobilised National Youth Corps Member from the Premier University by December 1983. When the University’s graduation ceremony came up finally in February 1984,
two TSOS staffers covering the event, a reporter and a producer swam on me to interview me. I refused to oblige them initially. My reason? When I left for higher studies in 1980, no body knew of it. Why must the whole world know I have passed out! I queried? There was among the TSOS three men crew, Mr Senyor Dorleku who was the Producer of the Quiz Programme. “What do you know?” that l used to present. He was much older than I and must have been in his 40s. Well he succeeded in “bullying” me as it were and so I granted the TSOS interview!
Mrs Kayode, as we used to call her had watched the news report of my graduation in the TSOS evening News bulleting called NEWS AT 7. The next day, she sent a UBA cheque on which N250.00 (two hundred and fifty naira cash) was drawable to my Director of Programmes Mrs Anike Agbaje-Williams for it to be given to me as a gift for going to school and becoming a university graduate.That was huge money then for a “corper” whose monthly allowance was only two hundred naira a month. My friend Ayo Adeosun had to lead me to Omotayo Maternity Home after I had completed my NYSC in 1984 and l had insisted whoever knew the Mama among my friends should take me to her so l could say thank you. That was how Mrs Kayode and I met for the first time late in 1984. I had gone with a letter of appreciation in hand, thanking her for the N250 naira she had sent me earlier in February. That day she did something that I could not understand nor belief. What was it? When I gave her the typewritten letter, she opened it, read out the heading which read “Letter of Appreciation”. She topped reading it, folded the letter back, tore it into pieces and put the shreds into a waste paper basket beside her. Then smiling she turned to Ayo Adeosun and I and said “Smolette The Alamu Man” that letter is not meant for me. You needed not to have written it in the first place.” I could not believe what she did or said. Oh what a woman!
I have told this story to reveal the great bond that existed between the late Mama Kayode her late husband, four children and I over the years. She was a mother figure to me. My wife and children knew her as my Mom in Ibadan. She was mother to many of my broadcast colleagues in O.Y.O and later at OSBC when Osun State was created. This reminds me of this one fact.In the early days of the setting up of Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC) in Ile-Ife, the News and Programmes departments’ functionaries were both housed an “officed” at the now defunct Trans Motel in Ile-Ife. Then, they relayed their programmes to their listeners from the then locally fabricated studios that was some seven kilometers away in the heart of town. Mrs. Kayode’s biological mother Mama Lolade was alive then and lived quietly in Ilare-Ijesa,
their hometown. Every two weeks Mama would travel from her base in Ibadan, to visit her aged mother. Each time she made the trips, she always brought two big food flasks (cooler/warmer as we call them) for the OSBC staffers in Ile-Ife. One wa dropped in the Newsroom for the news staff and the other for the Programmes staff. On her way back from Ilare she would branch to take back the empty flasks! If she was late in returning or had had to pass through Osogbo to get back to lbadan in time the flasks would be kept in the news room till she called up again two weeks later. She was so consistent with her food supply to us all through our one year stay at Trans Motel, in lle-Ife.
That was a silent philantropism, wasn’t it?
All Mama needed to bond with anyone she met was for the person to be diligent at work and truth-talking. Mrs.Eunice Kayode pushed these qualities and many more in her four biological children she had.
Peju the first, Seyi the second, Dipo the third and Tope the fourth and last are all beneficiaries of the great mother they had.
It was a great quartet of two ladies and two gentlemen she had. Three of them are into medical care-giving. The first male child, Seyi has towed the Agric Mechanization, farming and livestock raising of their late father.
Here was a very descent lady, a Dame of the Methodist Church, Nigeria and one who supported soul-winning and the living of a Christ-like life style in the very way the old Church in Antioch gave humanity the hope and the heritage that we know today as Christianity.
The late Mama Eunice Kayode was from Ibokun Local Government in Ijesa land( now Obokun East Local Council Development Area). Being from the same Local Government with late Chief Bola Ige, when he was Governor of the old Oyo State, made her “a younger sister” (an aburo) to the great Cicero of Esa Oke. Mama Eunice
was that one woman who could boldly tell the peoples “uncle” if he did anything wrong and the Cicero would accept her fault-finding process without much a do.
The great Cicero, scholar and political statesman loved to call her “Aburo mi Eunice” and would smile away after hot sessions they used to have
Mama Kayode was born into the Lejua family compound in Ilare-Ijesa in the old Obokun Local Government of old Oyo State. She was the daughter of Pa Akande Fakade and his wife Lolade. As nee Fakade the little town of Ilare-Ijesa knew and respected her family background.
She was the first qualified Nurse from the rural community. She became the first ever female President of Ilare Federation Union, the umbrella body for all sons and daughters of the community. In that position she pioneered the celebration of Ilare Day in the year 1995 and used the funds raised to build a modern palace for the Ilare-Ijesa.
She was known to have assisted many sons and daughters of the rural community through the educational scholarship. she gave many of the indigent students of the town. She is a woman who never forgot her source. Consequently her source has never forgotten her.
Here was a great woman by every stretch of imagination. Ever strong will, industrious, diligent, candid, intelligent, noiseless and ever humble. Mama Kayode was a woman who had the drive to lead people to their purpose in life and always did so very effortlessly.
The Yoruba language has a saying: “A kii da ke kasi wi !”. Simply, it translates that Silence is Golden. The late Mama Eunice was a woman who sought egalitarianism for all irrespective of class. Her drivers and other domestic staff will attest to this. This was why she gave freely to life. Patients of her Omotayo Maternity Home dictated how they would pay their bills and it never bothered her. If they paid up, fine. If they ended up not paying it never bothered her.
She was a great woman who led a life of both impact and impart on people. This writer is a living testimony. He knows of several others Mama Kayode touched positively. At 85, we cannot but thank God we had a mother in Mama Omotayo as we got to call her since she turned three scores and ten, some 15 years ago.
May her gentle soul find solace with and in God, the Maker of all great things and who she served very diligently
while here on earth.
- Smolette Adetoyese Shittu-Alamu,.a veteran journalist, writes from Osogbo
