Molete Bridge is down

By Lanre Ogundipe

Dr. Victor Omololu Sowemimo Olunloyo dies…

Eerin wó, Àjànàkú sùn bí òkè…

We are saddened by the passing of Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo at the age of 89.

He was a revered Nigerian elder statesman and former Governor of Oyo State. A patriotic and astute leader.
A renowned Mathematician.

The Balogun of Oyo and Otun Bobasewa of Ife, Dr. Olunloyo was the first Rector, Ibadan Polytechnic and first Rector, Kwara State Polytechnic among other notable appointments.

His long record of service to the nation and humanity is a source of pride to his associates even as we come to grip with his passage.

Though his demise is painful, he is not someone to be mourned, the enigma called VOSO should be celebrated for a life well spent. He transited at a ripe age of nearly 90 just few days to short of 90, VOSO in his word transited from the terrestrial to the Celestial order.

He once told me in an encounter before his eventual passage Lanre, Molete Bridge would be finally down, when the piano keys no longer runs. I took note of his coded literal words as a man of letters. He said, it is going to be on a day when all of you will have the time to reminisce and the bird must have flown past.

Alas! It came to pass that Dr. Omololu Olunloyo flew without notice and across the earthly firmament he crossed over, to the greater reality of Eternity!

It is indeed an end of an era…MOLETE BRIDGE is FINALLY DOWN. Even though, he alerted us, we failed to work and walk in redeeming the time. We are caught napping, unaware and the entire archive, the repository of the Nigerian State, lost.

Aside his academic attainments, his political status as a colossus in Ibadan and by extension in Ọ̀yọ́ state, are all too entrenched, both in history and in sociological references. In the Nigerian political space, he was an administrator per excellence. And in a Nigeria where merit and competence are receding denominators, where dignity and integrity are deminishing details of our deficits and lacks, the painful actuality therefore is the loss of yet another leading light of intellection, without a ready replacement in sight. All the gems in the museum at Molete seemingly have now left with the curator .

Nigeria has lost one of its best minds. May his soul rest in peace.

Lanre Ogundipe
Former President Nigeria and African Union of Journalists
April 6th, 2025