Opinion
13yrs after Alh. S.A. Arowona: Tribute to my late father
To Monday 29th January 2024 marks 13years of the demise of a great philantropist, father and lover without discrimination, carrier of large heart and care giver of all seasons, Alhaji S.A. Arowona.
He was a father to all, builder, mentor and guardian to many souls through his extraordinary character of charity and concern for the less privileged.
He exhibited the altitudes of been different from every fathers during his lifetime. He created time to discuss issues together with his family members and move around at his convenient moments with cognizance attention to the attitudes and actions around him.
He used to talk to them about feelings and encouraged them to take life very simple and easy because according to him, “Everything in life is vanity and should be treated as such”.
Although, some of his philosophical postulations, if not all, were outrightly ambiguous to me and I wouldn’t realize there essences until he passed away. Growing up, I knew him as a man uncomfortable with laziness and cruelty. I saw him openly struggle with his own entrenched business mindset and high sense of contentment.
He taught all his children to take farming as our extra-curricula activity because we all grew up to know his exceptionally large farm village and incidentally, together with his farm labourers, as kids, we quitely watched how his farm was involved in the chain of food production ranging from Cassava cultivation, havesting, processing and packaging to become garri ditto to every other farm products such as maize, guinea corn etc which we consume at home circulate among family members.
I closely watched him as he tried to give clear definitions to hardwork and obedience among his children as against unseriousness that is fast gaining the centre stage in our society today which he sincerely demonstrated among all his children including yours sincerely. He was a complete disciplinarian and not wicked, he was so generous and humble to a fault.
During the proliferation of Multi-purpose Co-operative Society in Kwara State, i remembered seeing many of them approaching to be either their Patron, Treasurer or Financial Secretary while most mosques also offer him same.
These kinds of experiences are uncommon to be gotten from a father who was ready to do anything that could bring smiles to the lips of his children and everlasting happiness to the entire family. Most children, I know don’t have much praises for their fathers, particularly when it comes to upbringing.
I remembered vividly when our eldest brother, Alhaji Ibrahim Salman-Arowona (now Baba Arowona) told us immediately after the fidau prayer for our late father that: “My dear siblings, what you see that we have being doing since the day Alhaji died, as you can see that people are trooping in to pay condolences, we did not spend 1kobo. Everything was done by people, not with our money because the deceased had indeed done everything for the people and to the people before he died.”
We are still learning the lessons of life which you confirmed to us that we can not graduate from until we exit the world while all the knowledge that you passed across through signs, actions, and verbally are still evergreen.
Cut in…..Uncontrollable tears
The entire family prays for you everyday for whom you were and for the wonderful meaning and reflections that you gave to our lives as the family remain very strong and united.
We are all thankful to God that even at death, we still remember you as our father. May Allah continue to be pleased with you, forgive your shortcomings, accept your good deeds and admit you into al-janatul firdaos.
Arowona Abdulazeez writes via sardauna2@gmail.com
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