Bamidele Aturu (16th October 1965 – 9th July 2014), A Man Larger Than Life.

As man trembles at the sight of your shadows, save your pride, your rage is relief and your captivity is freedom, death woe unto you, for the finest of men have breached your bounds, feasting in your lair and basking in the shadow of your terror, and now to all those still grieving, save your sympathy, wipe your tears, this is not another dirge for Bamidele Aturu, he ridiculed life’s vicissitudes to stand out as a valiant lawyer of rare courage and uncommon discipline, championing the pursuit of justice and equity for sufferers of our nations socio-economic cum political impunity, he was undoubtedly an agent of transformation as he had a unique perspective on how to empathically intermediate professionally with dedication and selflessness. As remarked by a renowned lawyer, Bamidele posed as one of the most dependable, genuine, principled, focused, pragmatic, disciplined and knowledgeable comrade of his generation, he stood for the common man sucked in the vortex of interlocking vicious cycle of poverty, he gallantly put on their albatross through all of his struggle in his quest for a better nation place till his death, as life by itself chose to stay in her default state of dystrophy denying itself of his rehabilitative contribution.
In 1987, as a boy of 22years you recognized oppression early in life, he resisted dictatorship damning the consequences to ridicule life’s ambit, an advocate of absolute supremacy of law over the leader and the led, the rich and the poor, the master and slave. A game changer, against all odds he tirelessly struggled through the obvious pressure for survival in this nation, his unwavering stance on integrity carved a niche for him among folks in the legal profession, all his life was dedicated to the course of legal equity, fought judicial impunity and died in the line of legal contention, his immense contribution cannot be overemphasized, as his treadwheel rolls down the hills of history. Bamidele Aturu challenged status quo, he had a clear vision of his call of duty his emotional intelligence was legendary and so far, his prognostication was as good as it was pronounced, 1n 2014 before his demise he was selected as a delegate to the national conference which he rejected ceremoniously, his instinct perceived another ineffectual indaba.
Dear comrade as I converse here there are many issues still lurking unresolved there are many things to say, the last government you witnessed is now unseated after they boasted they will govern for the next fifty years, now terrorism rages at full blast, people dying in mass and frequent bloodshed flows unabated, it has not fared any better than you left it, the economy heading for doom, our financial system has collapsed, public workers’ salaries remains unpaid for ten months, corruption thrives on every facet of the nation state, impunity reigns as criminals walk away unpunished, the innocent suffering unjustly, the general situation has not considerably improved.
Comrade lawyer, do not get heartbroken if your spirit happens to hover on this piece wherever it is displayed, I implore you to be of good cheer, you have fought a good fight, every drop of your sweat, tears and blood shed for the remission of our national transgression, shall speak for generations to come, though life chose to be unfair and biased to this our very special own, Bamidele ideologically reinvented himself for life lopsided crises, like minded Nigerians are so proud of you, your good works still lurk on the lips of those you impacted in a way or manner, the nation owes you immense appreciation for these your giant strides and how best can they express their gratitude?, than to improve on your legacy, embrace your value system, and by upholding the truth clad with the garment of love, affection for one another, love for our nation, as there is no challenge confronting Nigeria that is insurmountable, the recipe for our progress lies within our collective resolve to actualize the manifestation
As death is no respecter of sacrifice, you remain a national hero immortalized in specimens, you will fondly be remembered by the oppressed, and same is expected living in the memory of men and women you directly impacted, though a brief but eventful one, life was threatened by your size, death did the worst, but I contend valour is superior to death.


FTI www.fti-ng.org

continuous R.I.P