By Favour Adéwoyin
Yẹ̀kínnì Rùfáí was a native of Òkehò from Ilé Àfáà Òkè-Àgò, Olele, Òkehò. I don’t know the primary school he attended, but it’s most likely it will was D. C (now L. A) School, Òlèlè, Òkehò. He was a member of 1976/77 Set of Òkehò/Ìgànná Grammar School, Mẹ́sẹ̀óle, Òkehò.
Before I go ahead with his bio data, let me say that each time I have gone to Òkehò in recent time I used to branch to greet him and wish him well. We used to talk for some ten or fifteen minutes refreshing our brains of old times before I took my leave.
He has taken ill for some time now and, I think, his death is has come to take him home for eternal rest.Thank God for a life well spent. He did his best in football development in Òkeho when he played active role both in OIGS in the 70s and in the Town Team before it was renamed “Ọlọ́fin Football Club”.
Ẹ̀gbọ́n Yẹ̀kínnì Rùfáí was popularly known as “Bàbá Àlí”; but, people began to use his younger brother’s name “Múkáílà Àlàmú” for him and that was how the name “Àlàmú” got stuck to him to the extent that it was only those of us who were close to him and were (still are) friends to his brother who knew the difference.
Bàbá Ali was a great dribble and top striker who used to operate from the left-wing flank of the football pitch. He was a good number 11 player in the mold of Felix Owólabí (a.k.a “Ówò Blow”) and Adokie Amaziemaka both of who played for Green Eagles of Nigeria.
There is no how we can talk about the development of football in Òkehò that we won’t mention this great son of the soil. He was one of the best dribblers Òkehò and Òkèògùn has ever produced.
Besides football, Bàbá Ali was a classroom teacher and he taught on many primary schools in our locality. He also ventured into politics during the the second republic like many of us.
He was the one the UPN party transferred to “Àtayè” (or was it “Igbópẹ̀”) after Igboho as a punishment for his being a member of the NPN party. Such as as the kind of politics we have been playing from the past up to the present which we need to review.
Now, since death is a necessary end for all of us, all I can say is that God will give his family, his wife, his children, his friends and colleagues, especially his playmates and many of us who saw him as a role model in football the inner strength to bear his loss.
Bọ̀dá Gàní Oríọtá (Baálẹ̀ Aṣí), Bọ̀dá Abass Ọlọ́pọẹnìyàn (a.k.a Òṣóòwòlò), Taofeek Àdérọ̀gbà (a.k.a Mazito), Bọ̀dá Làtí Billiaminu, Bọ̀dá Sálímọ́nù (a.k.a Okey Isima), Bọ̀dá Waheed Adédèjì (a.k.a Sweetwilly), Mr. Sàláwù (a.k.a Sàlákúà), all the members and fans of Òlọfin Football Club, all the members and fans of Jet Bombers Football club and all the members and fans of other Football Clubs both in the past and now, I say “ẹ kú ara f’ẹ́ra kù. Ọ̀jọ́ á jìnà síra wọn láṣẹ Èdùmàrè”
.Bàbá Àlí, may your soul rest in peace!