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A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has visited and condoled with the widow of his friend, the late Aremson, Mrs Funke Aremson and their children.
During the visit to their Sango Ota, Ogun State home, he said: “Aremson, as we called him, and I met in 1986 as young activists. I was in the School of Basic Studies and Aremu was in the School of Technology, both Campuses of the College of Technology Ilorin, with the third college being School of Management and Vocation.
“Aremu and I belonged to the Youth Thinkers Club, a group of patriotic young thinkers committed to a better Nigeria and the liberation of our fatherland from underdevelopment. We were also joint members of the Patriotic Liberation Movement, a working class and peasantry focused left group with leading figures like M Yaqub, later Rotimi Obadofin, Femi Ahmed, Didi Adodo, Rev Father Ofei, Bona Chizea, Alex Ayatollah and Sunday Ewen, among others.”
Dr. Hashim added that, “Ilorin where Aremson cut his activist political teeth like I, was an ideological melting pot in the mid 80s. At the youth and students fronts were actors like Sola Olorunuomi now a University Professor, Denja Yaq, Lanre Fulani, Mathew Keyi, Hamzat Ibn Suleman, and others. In the media were Dapo Olorunyomi, Lanre Kawu (Modibo Kawu Ladi Abdul Azeez), who eventually became Dapo Olorunyomi’s wife and others.”
According to him, a “tribute to Aremson’s unwavering commitment to the working people of Nigeria and the cause of a better Nigeria cannot leave out the influence of the family of patriots that produced him and ideologically birthed some of us.
“Aremu and I had a closer bond, we were very passionate about change. Some people say every opportunity to confront the status quo was like a birthday ceremony for Aremu and I. Some more uncharitable critics called us ‘petty bourgeois exhibitionists.’
In May 1986, he maintained that, “Aremu as president of the students’ union led protesting students of School of Technology and I led thousands of students from School of Basic Studies to protest the killing of students in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, in what became the ‘Ango must go’ protest. We were heading to rendezvous at the NTA, Ilorin, where we had planned to make a broadcast, when we were confronted by a large detachment of mobile anti riot policemen at the Ministry of Agriculture in Ilorin. The government declared a curfew but we managed to get together later at my grandmother’s place for a plate of mama’s Amala and Ewedu soup.
“Aremson and I kept close contact and visited each other regularly over the past four decades. He recently survived a stroke, but fell to the cruel assault of a hit and run driver.
“Why was Aremu crossing the road all by himself? He had a car which he seldom used because the road to his house was simply impassable; the last time I visited. Most residents of the community simply just park their cars.
“Aremu built his house among the poor even though I won’t consider him poor, he chose by himself what he did, not because he lacked better options.
“His choice was made easy for him by the understanding and cooperation of his loyal wife who must now bear the greatest weight of this loss.
“Aremson was an internationalist, particularly a friend of Cuba and a promoter of the legacy of Amilcar Cabral.”
Dr. Hashim added: “We were ideologically bonded until his death. Though we chose different paths as we grew up, he, a professional revolutionary, I chose entrepreneurship and mass democratic politics, but our cord of commitment to a better Nigeria remained unbroken.
“A rare patriot has fallen. A combatant for the cause of the poor is gone. My friend has become the pool of water after the rain that passes by the street never to return home again. Adieu, great one!”
He noted that the respected revolutionary, Abiodun Aremu, passed on Sunday, October 12.
He prayed for God to give the family the fortitude to bear the loss.
