By Olawale Olaleye
Life, they say, begins at 40. However, at 50 – the golden age – life is expected to have thrown in one’s way, a degree of stability to warrant, not just the stock-taking exercise but a celebration of accumulated success.
Instructively, whilst those given to vain glory celebrate their material acquisition and their “liquid possession”, those awed by the existence of the supreme being give thanks for the gift of life – that which money cannot buy.
Above all things, today, we join Femi Omoniyi Davies to celebrate life at 50.
There is no gainsaying the fact that if asked to testify to God’s goodness, he’d probably do a publishable thesis, recounting one experience to another. But where a man simply beholds the heavens, heaves a sign of relief and says: ‘thank you Lord’, you needn’t ask for further testimonies. It is “End of Discussion”!
In your own little, yet amazing ways, you’ve touched lives – a lot of them. Your maturity is highly desirable. Your willingness to help even at the shortest notice is incomprehensibly disarming. Your sense of humour is indeed staggering. Your capacity to effectively network without raised shoulders is quite enviable. What more, your generosity is enthralling.
I am particularly proud to know and identify with you. As an older friend, you’ve played up the insignificance of number but dealt more with issues and substance. And that has always been a take-home lesson for me in particular.
You would absorb “passive insult” with such equanimity that makes the other person look even more despicable than he or she ordinarily were. Your ability to strike a balance with people of all ages is worthy of a classroom study.
Dedicating the whole of today to you would not have been sufficient if we were to reciprocate all that you have done and still doing for some of us. But in this little way, we’d also show appreciation and thank you for always watching out for us all – your younger friends and brothers.
Lest you forget, although your 50th, it is a joint celebration by all of us who truly and genuinely love as well as wish you well. It is “awa baiday”.
Gbobaniyi, Igba odun, odun kan ni l’ase edumare!
Gbobaniyi: We Are All 50 Today…A Tribute To Femi Davies At 50
