By Ola ‘Kiya, Reporting
A professional colleague and extended family brother of late Rev. Solomon Balosibina, Arc. Matthew Onoba, has related how the deceased once told, while under the weather, that he told his mom that if any ailment could prevent him from feeding well, then fire was on the mountain.
Arc. Onoba, himself a cleric with TREM and brilliant creative writer, made the disclosure in his tribute to his elder brother, senior colleague and friend, Rev Balosibina who joined the Saint triumphant on Saturday, February 12, 2022.
According to Managing Director of Onoba Associates, Konkritek Ltd and Raremax Global Investment Ltd, Rev Balosibina, who was hardly sick, had malaria and visited him only to meet energetic ‘Iduro,’ (Durojaiye) as the deceased is fondly called by his peers at home, devouring a sumptuous bowl of pounded yam and egusi soup with reckless abandon!
Arc Matthew Onoba
Hear him: “Bro Solo was seldom sick, he was physically strong and of a good and humorous nature.
“Once, many years ago, I got a report that he was ill and I went over to see him. I met him with a bowl of pounded yam and egusi (his favourite meal) and I exclaimed, ‘Bros! I thought they said you have malaria?!’
“E yi, e gan’ Efolake, meki yan, imedijijen, biki muneso! (I told my Mum, if I was ever sick and I lost appetite, then it would be a serious ailment!).
Abuja-based Onoba, whose tributes betrayed deep ties with the deceased from the cradle, went ahead to drop a hint on how he impacted his life and others’ as well as how the deceased met his lovely wife in Kaduna in the 80s.
Read on:
“Osuda Solomon Balosibina, he impacted our lives……
“A brilliant Architect, a dedicated Senior Pastor and a Reverend; a down to earth lover of Nature and the organic. One by whose hands, God granted healing reprieve to many, a family man and a brother, a Senior friend with a great sense of humour. that is who Solomon Balosibina was. My Osuda and my Counsellor.
“Solomon and I were born, bred and raised in the same family home. I grew up to know him as big brother as we played in the sand; Ezekiel, Rauf, Tayeeb, Omoloju, Dele, Oloto, I and our several other peers and brothers in the Enibe neighbourhood; Solomon to us was simply Iduro. His brothers are my brothers, his friends my friends, his family my family. We harvested cocoa together and shared banters to no end. Extremely brilliant, he was a great example to emulate.
His being in the School of Architecture was obviously one of the factors that swayed me to that noble profession. Wherever he lived was home to me, whatever he did was an example for me.
When he Supervised the Presidential Lodge Building at Abuja, he took me and my late friend, Godwin Oritogun to holiday with him in his Porter Cabin Accommodation. When I finished the National Youth Service and I was waiting for employment, he took me in with him at Inuwa Wada Road Kaduna where myself and Ezekiel would stay up ‘gisting’ into the night to awaken to banters, fried eggs, bread and tea and more ‘gist’.
“After my first year at the School of Architecture and I had no vacation job, Solo then was working on a School Project and he encouraged me to sit everyday and watch him as he penciled and inked his project, it was a great learning experience for me and we shared his lunch everyday for the whole of the holiday. He taught me the rudiments of drawing and of Architecture.
“When he met a young 16-year-old girl as ‘PR and front desk officer’ at Habitat Associates, with the name Deborah Onoba, he told me, ‘Matt, I met a very pretty lady at the Office today and with her name, I know she is your Sister and I want to marry her!’ When Kemi walked into Solo’s house on that glorious November 1985 evening, I had an opportunity for my own ordained ‘pay back’ and I told Ezekiel,’ I love this Sister of yours and I want to marry her’!
“Bro Solo was seldom sick, he was physically strong and of a good and humorous nature.
“Once, many years ago, I got a report that he was ill and I went over to see him. I met him with a bowl of pounded yam and egusi (his favourite meal) and I exclaimed, ‘Bros! I thought they said you have malaria?!’
“E yi, e gan’ Efolake, meki yan, imedijijen, biki muneso!’ (I told my Mum, if I was ever sick and I lost appetite, then it would be a serious ailment!).
“Solo loved his family and his mother who she treated as a Twin Sister and a great mother. He loved to love her and he doted on her with relish! May God strengthen Mama Folake for us, for the family, for Ogori. May God strengthen Deborah and the Children, May God comfort Aunty Iroyin, Ezekiel, Imisi (Ebaiye), Aji, Bro Tunji, and all the other siblings and grand children. May God grant solace to the Arogunmasa family.
“Of late, Ogori has lost a great many men and women; may God comfort us, console us and grant the rest of us long life. May God heal our land. May God grant our brother, Solomon Balosibina, Ebab’Edi Arogunmasa ogben eternal rest. We shall surely meet him on the resurrection morning. Solomon impacted his generation.”
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