The last two weeks have witnessed landmark birthday celebrations by some of my favourite people. Arit Tunde-Imoyo turned 70 and she decided on a different celebratory route from a decade ago when a few of us found ourselves in Florida to mark her sixtieth. Then, it was a small, intimate affair which included spending an idyllic night in a penthouse with a spectacular view of the seaside. We bonded further on a week-long cruise along the Caribbean route. This time, she turned the celebratory dial a notch higher as she invited a larger group of friends and well-wishers to a church service and a classy dinner. It was an opportunity to meet with old friends and make new ones. It was a night that defied time as the evening turned into night so effortlessly with the aid of timeless old school music. But poignantly for me, it was yet another night that defined time. These old friends and acquaintances were showing different stages of wear and tear. The clothes were new and glamorous; but the bodies wearing them were old and in cases, sapped of vitality. It is as sharp a reminder as any for us, that we’ve come a long way and that the remaining part of the journey is short. In all the years I have known Arit – four and half decades and counting – I have always been impressed by her calmness and fortitude when faced with challenges. She has a way of exuding serenity and charm under pressure. She is a good mixer who is very comfortable with socialites yet, is very down to earth. It is among the many attributes that endear me to her.

The very next day was the book launch of Aremo Segun Osoba. I was expecting a good mix of journalists and politicians and I was not disappointed. His friends are his friends irrespective of whether they are men of the moment or relics of the past. So one expected those who have been buried under the sand dunes of fame and time to be unearthed by him. Again, I was not disappointed. His networking prowess is second to none. I have known Aremo for almost as long as I have been in journalism and he has always been there for me. So the moment I got his letter, I knew to make myself available. Just as I was five years ago when he turned 80. Aremo looks good at 85. But it is all relative. The dashing, handsome man who bestrode the social scene of the 70s and 80s is long gone. It showed in the way he gingerly climbed the stairs to the podium – something he would have done two at a time before. Yet, he is among the lucky ones. Most of his contemporaries are either dead or immobile. Speaking of mobility, I saw Chief Bode Emmanuel leaning heavily on aides and taking his time as he entered the hall. My mind went to the good old days when he was the toast of the social and business world. He had class, he had money, he had good looks – a lethal combination. He still has class and money but he has had to cede health, the most important one, to the ravages of time. But then, how many people his age can even get up from their bed let alone contemplate attending a social function?

But one person who is still sprightly at 90 is Prof Wole Soyinka, our own WS. A man of many parts, his birthday last week, had been celebrated in stages across the world in recognition of this multi-dimensional man. I reveal for the first and probably the last time, that he is one of five people I looked up to as a young adult. Of the five – incidentally, one of them was his classmate at Government College Ibadan- he is the only one I am not very close to. So my admiration has always been from afar. Twice I asked him for a full length interview during my Punch years, twice he turned it down with ‘a not yet’. I subsequently met him on different occasions in the company of three of his close friends – Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi, Chief Audu Ogbeh and the late Uncle Bola Ige. But not being close to him has not stopped me from being enamored of his person – his talent, his courage, his non-conformist, almost irreverent nature. He is different from the other four in style and character – the others, including his classmate, are more self-effacing and less political. But one thing which unites them apart from a lifetime of impactful achievement in their chosen fields, and the one thing I have hoped for in myself with all my heart and have worked towards, is that none of them is defined by money. This is significant in a country which worships money and sees wealth, however acquired, as an achievement. I believe, like my heroes, that your contribution to society and to humanity should define you.

The Wednesday of that week came the 80th birthday of Prof Olatunji Dare. It was celebrated with a colloquium almost the same way as his 70th birthday. Witty but highly cerebral, it was entirely in character that he would go that route. He is a man whose elegant writing style I envy and whose simplicity as a person, I admire. He is in many ways, a teacher of teachers who imparts knowledge at almost every encounter. As soon as I knew of the colloquium, I made up my mind to attend. The billing, attracting mainly senior journalists, lived up to expectation. Sandwiched in all of these, was also the 80th birthday of Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, the man who reputedly turned the fortune of Punch around. I knew of him in the 70s when he was about the youngest if not the first Actuary in the country. His late brother, Chief Olu Aboderin always extolled his brilliance. Gentle, but very firm and very detailed, I find conversations with him very stimulating. His analytical mind is astounding. He belongs to the first eleven in the country and I am glad he has, in his own way, shown what Nigeria is capable of.

Seeing people I have known, and in cases admired, for so many decades celebrate their now very advanced years made me more acutely aware of our mortality. Statistically, it is very unlikely that all of them will be around to celebrate another landmark birthday. It is a sobering thought. So, celebrating a birthday is actually celebrating an irredeemable passage of time. Back in the days, my boss used to tell me ‘Do it now. Otherwise, you may never have the time again’. Although he said it in deference to the pressures of deadlines which Editors have to live with, it is very true of life.

P.S. Here is wishing Chief Audu Ogbeh, the man I fondly call ‘Big Brother’, Ikem Ohia, my buddy of several decades, and Ken Caleb-Olumese known in social circles as ‘The Guv’nor’ a very happy birthday. And a post-humous birthday to Alhaji Jakande whose day is a couple of days away. If Alhaji Jakande was seen as the doyen of the ‘July Club’ then Lanre Idowu the Publisher of Aremo Osoba’s two books, must be the secretary. His birthday was a few days ago.

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