Olaolu Mudashiru: Cycling to Heaven
His passing has hit the capital market and indeed a well curated groupings of Nigerians with a loud thud and this is because Dr. Bob belonged to so many groupings where he carried himself with so much elegance and comportment.
The well-respected Dr. Bob was crushed by a hit-and-run vehicle while cycling on the dark Sunday morning. I was still asleep when my phone rang out. The moment I reached out for it, I knew something terrible had happened. It was the same chill I felt when a doctor from Lagoon Hospital called that Saturday morning to announce Erelu’s passing.
I prayed very quietly as I was being told the sad chilling story. “Your friend Olaolu just passed some few minutes ago,’’ Egbon told me. “I know he is your friend and that is why I am calling you. He was cycling in Ikoyi and he was hit and lost his life.”
From that point, the news went like wildfire across the capital market, banking and finance, sporting and military circles- areas that Dr Bob moved very fluently.
AVM Makinde (rtd), a classmate and close friend of Bob in our school group, had talked about spending nights with him in his posh Banana Island apartment and how he would leave him early in the morning and cycle all over Lagos and come back before they eat breakfast.
Laolu was my friend for over 40 years. We went to the same primary school where his mother taught me – I don forget the subject sef. We lost contact when he went to the military school in Zaria and later came back to do medicine in UNILAG. My uncle in-law, Dr. Olude was his teacher at school. Dr. Olude and his father Gbolahan Mudasiru who later became the Governor of Lagos State were close buddies at Igbobi College.
We later hooked up again at the Stock Exchange where we both trained to be Stockbrokers. He was so brilliant that he came tops at the qualifying exams. No ask me wetin I carry abeg. Laolu went further to establish the widely successful Vetiva Capital with his buddy and my Oga, Chuka Ezeka. I was their first account officer while at BGL because they hadn’t gotten their licences just yet.
I worked very closely with him managing their accounts and observing very closely how he carried on his business. By this time status don change o. Him na founder and CEO, me na account officer and he dealt with me in that way which went along to make me very disciplined.
When I missed a trade, Laolu would shout at me and abuse me. I would say “sorry na, no vex.” Then at night knowing that I was hurt, he would call and say, “no vex na, but you must be serious with your work na. You be my guy but I must show you.”
I would now respond “but Laolu, if you talk to me again like that in front of those your fine staff, I go slap you.” We would laugh and move on.
Last time I saw him was in his house at Banana Island, where he had asked me to come over and taste his anti-COVID concoction. It was a blend of fine whiskey, rum and garlic or something like that. I could not drink it because of my sweet tooth, but he digested it and said, “Edgar, with this thing COVID no fit kill me.”
He still had his boyish good looks; tall and very distinguished. His grey beards gave him that aristocratic look. He had fine taste; his house was a collector’s envy. Fine paintings, well-curated pieces and well-placed furnishings that gave the space an eerie very beautiful ambience.
“Edgar, we dey watch you o. Me and Karl dey discuss you,” Karl being MD of MTN. “Me and Akin dey discuss you,” Akin being MD of Geregu “and we all agreed that you are doing well,” he would say.
He would continue: “For some places, I dey deny you sha. You too dey yab some of my people and I go dey do like say, I no know you so that when dem want bite you, I go say leave am, na my mama student, we go the same primary school.”
That was the last time I saw him. We spoke severally on the phone with me vexing that no matter what I was doing, he would not give me more than N100,000. “Look, Edgar, I be your man, you can bank on my N100,000. It will be as constant as the Northern Star. Me no be those ones wey go support with N2 million and you no go hear from them again. If you dey do 30 plays in one year, you will get my N100,000 in all of the 30 years. We dey watch you, we dey applaud you from the back.”
I would laugh and say, “ok ooo, but you know say na only one year you use senior me, because you get money pass me, no mean say you go dey talk to me like say, I be Pinocchio.”
We laughed and he died. God!!! The beautiful ones are going. Real pain. Real pain.
