….Ladbone. What a name !
What a man ! Here resides a legend whose fame is well preserved, whose iconic attributes are well affirmed.
Ladbone is a legend before his time. His renown is large, pivoted in observable giantism. He is a professional in the mythic original essence who is indifferent to tribal provenance or the convenience of faith.
He is a man of exuding merit and classical deliberative principle. He cannot , and he will not be dissuaded from the righteous path. His grip on his vision is certain. His discernment about his universe is obvious; sometimes stern, sometimes implacable, but always defined in giant truism.
Ladbone holds no malice. No grudge. No dispute that I know of .
He could be stirred in the exuberance of the youth. He could glow in sterling admiration of a worthy exemplar. But he does not need to know you to appreciate your excellence. He does not need to ascertain your tribal beginnings or sectarian leanings to rouse his intellectual affirmation.
Like Andy Akporugo, Ama Ogan, Ted Iwere, Okey Ndibe and General Muhammed Buba Marwa – all who gave me a place in the sun at different moments in my phases in The Guardian, Ladbone resides in some special signification for his fearlessness, for his forthright and sometimes defiant individuality. He remains to me genuine as a gem, fierce as a furnace, principled as principle could be.
In the dark days of old when I was orphaned, trampled and cheated, he stretched a healing hand even without knowing me, save for the singular attainments of my intellectual input. That was enough for him.
Now that I do not need him. Now that I am far beyond the slings and the arrows of the animadversion, now that I reside in an island of some calm resolution, now that I can pretend an indifference to his fame, i can pretend a distanciation from his fortune. Will that be fair and just? Will that be noble and glorious ?
I am resolved. I am true. Congratulations to a great man.
Prince Uthman Shodipe – Dosunmu
