HIS EXCELLENCY, CHIEF BISI AKANDE, CFRFormer Governor of Osun State Our honouree of today is special in many ways. When he was born in lla Orangun on January 16, 1939, the Yoruba wars had long ended, but the echoes remained and some of the veterans of that war were still very much alive. When at 40, he became the Secretary to the Government of Oyo state in 1979, the echo of the war could still be heard in the ancient Ile-Ife and its neighbouring community of Madakeke. In 1983, when our distinguished honouree was now the Deputy-Governor of Oyo State, the Ife-madakeke conflict was again in full conflagration. In 1999,…