Read what I did in this house!
Ile Prince Folarin Daodu, Ede, Osun State
Rediffusion House.
I grew up in this house
Then one of the best mansions in
Osun Division of the Western State
Very few of them.
My late father, Francis Akinsola Ojo, was the Manager, of Rediffusion, station, Ibadan with the transmitter in Ede, this house.
ECN was good with power supplied directly from Osogbo while there was a diesel generator in case of any unforeseen circumstances.
The house was serviced with all luxury then, Grundig TV, Refrigerator, kingly seat, a maid and others.
I paid a visit to the house recently and found almost all the fixtures intact – the step, the ceiling made of wood, the parking floor, the frame, the balustrade, the wall not cracking but still solid, the floor.
All testified to a house built with the precision standard by seasoned professionals
Nostalgia ran through my brain
How Anti Silifa, Wulemati, and Badirat used to play with me downstairs in the night whenever they came to watch the TV.
Each of them at different times would lure me downstairs
I also remember fondly, when a popular and fearful masquerade Jamujamu would be my father’s guest at night and accompanied my father downstairs to serve him Teacher or Seaman’s Schnapps!
I remember watching through the window the town parade of the army or soldiers from the Ede Army barrack singing ‘ bo bata ese re, Ede law, Ede lade’
I remember the day the late Oba Laoye visited the house on a tour of the Rediffusion equipment therein
I remember that that day marked a turning point in my life.
The late Timi adopted me as his son and from that day shared my life between the palace and Rediffusion house.
I remember that it was in this house that respected Babalowo living beside this house would always visit every Monday to pray for me
I also remember that it was in this house that I shook my head against the motion moved by one of the Reverend Fathers who visited my father after a mass that ‘I would be a Reverend Father.
I also remember that my younger brother, Dele Ojo-tony was born in this house.
Wale Ojo-Lanre,Omo Iya Oniru