• About His Late Wife, DAME CAROLINE ADEBUTU
The last few weeks have been trying times for billionaire businessman, Sir Kesington Adebukola Adebutu, who is the Odole-Oodua of The Source, who lost his wife, late Dame Caroline Oladunni Adebutu.
Many did not know the depth of their love and friendship till he wrote a moving tribute in honour of this great woman he called Fellow-Soul Traveller, who shed the mortal coil on the 19th of January 2023.
Papa Kesington Adebutu is not one known for betraying emotions easily. But when his wife died he wrote this beautiful tribute which says a lot about their closeness.
“Primarily, I must greatly appreciate the Supreme Lord for bequeathing to me a noble souI that you have been to humanity, for upward of 83 years and 63 years of them to me and the Adebutu Dynasty,” wrote Chief Adebutu.
“It is indeed the Lord’s doing and marvelous it is in the eyes of all of us, whose paths crossed yours while it lasted.
I must also acknowledge you specially for coming to my life when you did, and more for the quality of life you brought into my sojourning in the earthly field. You were my first love and I could still recall when you were a spinster, you were my Ladun and I was your Bukunola.
When children started arriving we dropped that and we became Baba and Mama Ladi.
“I wouldn’t forget in a hurry how you stood by me through thick and thin, during our challenging times, all through when fortune smiled on us and till your very last moment. You were such a pristine soul who tolerated me to no end and saw only my good sides despite unhidden escapades particularly, when the body was very willing and mind cooperating”.
“You were such a rare breed and if there is anything as life after life, I will surely look for you again. Your inevitable departure from the earthly plane has created a great void in me and it is my abiding Christian faith that is enabling me to come to terms with the reality that your physical severance is real. To say I will miss you is for lack of better words to express this tortous certainty”.
“Thus: I lack the appropriate word for which to describe you – my personal person to compare you to inestimable jewel, diamond, pearl or any precious stone for that matter is to demean you to the level of venality, which you are far beyond”.
Indubitably, you traversed the physical plane as a rare soul who descended to the world, for the purpose of showing humanity the ideal motherhood. This was manifestly discernible in your enchanting spirit, family embrace and uncommon love that you unceasingly showed to me, all the children even from different lineages, family members and associates”.
“To lose such a soul is to find oneself naked and in an empty world”.
“This is the stark reality of my plight, since you bade the world bye”.
“With the awareness that human being is both terrestrial and celestial entity, I vouchsafe that your earthly life was laden with human kindness, of fellow feelings and love to all”.
“On the celestial angle, you gave your life to Christ very early and you qualified among those who worked in the vineyard of the good Lord, Which set live eternally in the peaceful repose of the supreme Lord, when their time is up in the coarse material plane.
Sleep on my beloved Wife, Faithful Friend & Trusted Companion as I pray the good Lord to wit;
In your hands, o Lord I humbly entrust the virtuous soul of my adorable wife.
While alive you embraced her with your tender love, now in death, I beseech thee o Lord, to deliver her from every evil and bid her eternal rest in thy bosom in Jesus name. Amen”.
Who was Dame Caroline Oladunni Adebutu in her lifetime?
We can tell you. She was Yeye-Mode of Iperu, Yeye Oba of Odogbolu, and Iya-Apesin of Lagos.
She was born in Odogbolu on the 19th day of June 1939 to Pa Clement Jaiyesimi Okuwa (Agbegilere) and Mama Comfort Badejoko. She was the third child of a large family consisting of several brothers and sisters. Caroline Oladunni Adebutu attended St. Patricks Catholic School, Yaba between 1946 and 1948. She returned to Odogbolu to continue her elementary studies at St. Paul School, Odogbolu, between 1948 and 1951.
She later returned to Methodist Girls High School, Yaba, Lagos for her secondary education, between 1952 and 1957. Caroline Adebutu was an exemplary student. She obtained Grade I in West Africa School Certificate Examination and she was then employed by the Board of Customs and Exercise as a Clerk in December 1957. In September 1958, she attended the Federal Training Centre, where she graduated as a Stenographer, Grade II.
On 18th of August 1960, her love for her darling husband, Kesington Adebukunola Adebutu was formalized at the Marriage Registry, Lagos. The marriage has endured ever since and is blessed with many children.
She continued to work at the Board of Customs and Excise till 1963, when she was awarded a scholarship by the Federal Government of Nigeria to study Secretarial Practice at all Pitman’s College in London. She qualified as a Secretary Typist and on her return to Nigeria, was posted to the Ministry of Health and subsequently back to the Board of Customs and Excise. She then rose to the position of the Personal Secretary to the Chairman, late Mr. Ayodele Diyan. Following his demise, she was posted to the Federal Ministry of Transport, where she worked till 1971.
As her family grew large and the strain of motherhood began to take its toll, she acquiesced to her husband’s request to resign from Federal Civil Service and become a full-time housewife. However, she continued to trade in order to occupy some spare time she had. In the process, she became one of the largest distributors of Colgate Palmolive.
To the glory of God, she found greater and deeper fulfillment in the service at God’s vineyard. She was the Vice President of the Christian Daughters Association of Nigeria, Patroness of Youth Fellowship as well Egbe Aladura Owuro, all of the Wesley Methodist Cathedral, Iperu-Remo.
Dame Caroline Oladunni Adebutu was also the Vice President of Club 57 (Her Alma Mater Club for Graduands of 1957), Methodist Girls High School, Yaba, Lagos.
For service to humanity, she participated greatly in the Diabetes Association of Nigeria, Ogun State Chapter. She was also the Iya Igbagbo of Christian Association of Nigeria, Iperu Branch.
Socially, she continued her support for her darling husband who, today, is the Odole Odua, while Dame Caroline Oladunni was the Iya-Apesin of Lagos.
Similarly, she held the title, Yeyemode of Iperu. However, the most fulfilling was the opportunity to support her husband in God’s vineyard as Knight of John Wesley, and she as Dame Caroline Oladunni Adebutu.
In October 2019, in recognition of her tender love to everyone whose path crossed her’s, particularly the younger ones, she was conferred with the title of YEYE- MODE, while her husband was made ODOLE-OODUA both of The Source.
What shall she say unto the Lord, for the grace of a fulfiled llfe, all she has to say is thank you Lord.
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