ON LATE COMRADE YINKA ODUMAKIN ; FACTS, LIFE AND RELEVANCE.

ON LATE COMRADE YINKA ODUMAKIN; FACTS, LIFE AND RELEVANCE

Covid-19 has been responsible for the plucking into the basket of death a lot of shiny stars in the country’s political space. From the President’s Chief of Staff, to the former governor of Oyo state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi; to one of the top aspirants for the governorship post, in the Ogun state 2019 gubernatorial election, Senator Buruji Kashamu. The list is definitely longer but these are the most popular ones, whose cause of death were not disguised.

On the early hours of Saturday, the 3rd of April, the news spread that another prominent tree of the nation’s political tree had been untimely cut off. Some initially unverified media reports claimed Yinka Odumakin had died of Covid-19. Later after verification, it was found that he truly contracted the virus of death, fought and overcame it, but left with badly damaged lungs with which he could not survive.

There was a difference with Yinka’s death. His unlike the others’ mentioned above had a sober reflection among progressives and the general current of the masses. Instead of the shade of indifference cast on the death of one, the drum of shameless rejoicing beaten by wide sections of the masses when another passed on, Mr Odumakin’s shocking departure found the mournful eyes of the Public opinion, by and large because his politics had a different quality, no matter how little from the rest.

He was the National Spokesman for the pan-Yoruba sociocultural group Afenifere during his lifetime, born on the 10th of December 1966 in ile-ife, a small ancient and rural town in Osun state Nigeria. 

Yinka Odumankin graduated from the Obafemi Awolowo University of Ile-ife, Osun state in 1989 with a Bachelor of  Arts degree in English studies. Here he got his initiation into politics, and he rose rapidly in influence in the fiery radical and Left-led Students Union of the OAU, until he ran and won in the election to become the Public Relations Officer of the Union. 

As a student he was affiliated with the myriads of organisations of the Political Left which domiciled the Political currents of the University on those days. And from this footing he was able to play a key role in  the National Democratic Coalition(NADEC0) that fought the government of Gen Sani Abacha after the annulment of the 1993 Presidential election. He became suspended thrice as an activist on campus during his days in the Students Union. He was imprisoned at a detention facility during the tenure and upon the order of Gen Sani Abacha. It was during his time at detention that he met his wife Comrade(Mrs) Joe Okei-Odumakin.

Early from the country’s political translation into liberal democracy, Comrade Yinka Odumakin seemed to have parted ways with his former campus-bred radical Marxist ideological views. In speeches and in writings he became a severe critique of one government after the other on the liberal lines, not the working class rhetorics. He was political spokesman for Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign as the contestant for the Presidency in 2011, under the banners of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)

As from 2015 till his death he had become a fiery critique of the Buhari administration, charging it of nepotism, corruption and a surreptitious fulanisation of the country. 

The most important fruit of his political life work had to do with his role as the Spokesman of the Afenifere group, a mouthpiece which he used to canvass support for the manifestation of the hopeful Yoruba nation. 

This short survey of his life shows that he was closer in interests to the genuine feeling of the masses, and that explains the attendant pouring of grief at his departure. Comr Yinka Odumakin was a columnist at Vanguard newspaper until his death, and remained unrepentant in his vision for the creation of the Yoruba nation. He died at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital after one week of recovering from Covid-19.

He is survived by his wife and children.