September 19, 2015 started well. Hannah Awolowo, wife of Obafemi Awolowo, woke up at about 8 a.m. and got ready to host a meeting of the committee set up to plan her centenary birthday. She would be 100 years in just two months and six days ahead. The meeting was billed to hold at 10am in a living room of her residence at Ikenne-Remo, Ogun State.In her usual style, according to Premium Times, she responded cheerfully to the greeting of Managing Director, African Newspapers of Nigeria PLC, Publishers of the Tribune newspaper, Edward Dickson, and those of her children, grand children and great grand children that arrived for the meeting.Shortly after the meeting started at the Efunyela Hall, HID Awolowo was brought in and as if on cue, everyone in the hall rose to welcome her with a rousing recitation of the popular Yoruba song: “Mama o, Mama o, Mama o, Olorun da mama si fun wa…” which means: Mother, mother, may God protect our mother for us.Beaming with smiles, she responded to her children’s prayers with another prayer as it is customary among the Yorubas, saying “E kuipalemo o, eyin naa a dagba – thanks for the preparation, you will all live long.”
According to the report, after listening to the deliberations at the meeting for about five minutes, She said she needed to rest and asked to be excused. When she got to her room she demanded for her lunch of pounded cocoyam with egusi soup. After taken few morsels of the pounded cocoyam, she invited one of her personal assistants who was attending to her to eat with her, but the assistant declined out of respect adding that she would eat after the matriarch had eaten to her fill.
Not one to miss a chance to indulge in the cheerful conversation, she commended the beauty of the pair of slippers the assistant had worn and asked her to get a similar pair for her later.After lunch, she laid on her bed for a while.
But she suddenly asked to be raised up from her bed. The young men who had gathered to raise her from her sleeping position realised that she was gasping for breath and sent for her two surviving children, Tola Oyediran and Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu, who were part of those attending the meeting.Soon after her children rushed into her room, she stopped breathing.ℹ️Ethnic African Stories
