Lady Macbeth it was, who said of her husband as “too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way’’.
The remark was a validation referencing compassion, simplicity, care and affection towards others.
This episode highlights the very core of a compassionate, kind and generous personality and a frontline gubernatorial aspirant in Oyo state, Engr. Rauf Aderemi Olaniyan. Today is not about his successful career as a civil engineer, where he built uncountable bridges, roads, dams and several infrastructural legacies to the benefit of humanity but today is a search into his mind, the innermost component of him that triggers him to keep touching lives with kindness and compassion. Meeting people’s needs without noise or hassle. An Attitude that characterises his life, long before venturing into partisanship. Olaniyan is known to be gifted with enormous kindness and generosity. His entire life has been a manifestation of God’s blessings to humanity, through his numerous but silent philanthropic endeavours.
The former deputy governor, for long, has been a strong pillar of support to many in education, especially orphans and the downtrodden, providing scholarships and financial support to students at different categories of schooling up to PhD in some cases. He has built classrooms, paid teachers’ salaries at some critical moments in community schools across the state and facilitated legacy policies to the betterment of the people, as we see him doing presently at the Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo, where he is the incumbent chairman of Board of Governing Council, as appointed by our leader, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. As the chairman, he has championed reforms that have brought development and tremendous impact on the students as well as the management. He has prioritized the endearing needs of persons with disabilities and intervened in labour related disputes as well as staff and students’ general welfare.
In human capital development, Olaniyan has been instrumental to the success stories of many citizens across Oyo state, both in the civil service where he retired as a permanent secretary and at the professional community, where he is a key player in the engineering and construction space across Nigeria. As a Fellow of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (FNSE) he has mentored numerous young colleagues, lifted them and held their hands to professional prosperity. He has empowered numerous by providing direct employment through his many establishments. He gave start-up capital to many youths, created empowerment opportunities for widows and he continues daily to inspire the younger ones by training, motivating, encouraging and exposing them to lifetime opportunities in all areas of human endeavours, be it in Tourism, Telecoms, Construction, Agrobusiness and Real Estate. As a farmer himself, he has created a lot of opportunities for indigent farmers, gave support on farm inputs, boreholes and tractors.
For Years, Engr. Olaniyan has been organizing free medical outreaches, free eye care with free eyeglasses for numerous people who could not afford the medicare. He has funded renovation and stocking of hospitals and health care facilities across communities. He is known for his financial interventions for critical and life-threatening medical situations requiring surgery or escalation abroad, all habitually, quietly and in anonymity, without noise or the flash of the camera.
Coming to his philanthropy towards religion, Olaniyan is a big baller and he does his giving without sentiment. His donations to mosques are as magnificent as much as his donations to churches. He quietly moves iron rods, cements, sand, wood, roofing sheets to church sites and Masjids. He provides accommodation and salaries for IRK/CRK teachers, especially those who agree to stay in the rural areas. May be because he attended a Baptist School as a child, he quotes biblical verses at ease and makes reference to the teachings of the Holy Quran at every given opportunity. His religious tolerance level is envious and noble , and he has a good friendship and working relationship with African traditional believers, many of them as his friends and political associates.
At the build up of the 2023 Presidential election, where he served as the Oyo State coordinator for the Tinubu/Shettima Grassroots Independent Campaign Council (TSGICC) ,one of our highly respected leaders, a senatorial candidate as at then, was confronted with a stoic allegation of deliberately avoiding the traditional worshippers and a resolute decision to work against his election was taken. Engr. Olaniyan, in his usual self, intervened and organized a meeting in his residence, diplomatically appeased the aggrieved elders, collected their demands, ensured they were met and made them happy before leaving the meeting venue. Meanwhile, the venue of the meeting was just meters away from the masjid in his compound. At the end, President Tinubu won and to the glory of God, our senator won.
Ask Olaniyan why he does all this: his philanthropy knows no boundaries, offering scholarships, medical support and employment opportunities to people across religious and ethnic lines. His business operations reflect fairness and inclusiveness; what matters is merit not identity. He is a man shaped by conscience, honest, principled, truthful, allergic to cheating and guided deeply by the fear of God. His generosity is legendary. In his own words: “It is God who gives and God who takes. Where are we carrying the money to?”
This is not rhetoric; it is his lifestyle. Politically, he remains one of the most trusted and beloved figures in Oke-Ogun and beyond. He likes to say, he likes to give not because he has plenty but because he knows what it means not to have. Oyo state people deserve such a fine, beautiful mind who has become an endless flow of human kindness, come 2027, God’s willing.
Adesola Yaqub is a graduate of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG) and can be reached via sholayaq@gmail.com