COM. KELVIN ISESELE: The “Edan” Of Esan Land.
By,
Ayewa Eraolei Felix
15Th January, 2024.
The “Edan” according to Festus Adedayo is a Yoruba Ogboni cult insignia, an emblem of membership in the Ogboni society. It is a cylindrical duality of male and female brass figures with iron stems attached to it. Mostly joined at the top by an iron chain, the “Edan” is said to signify the ‘unfamiliar capacity, experience, knowledge, and wisdom of the sage and above all the display of sincere sympathy toward humanity. The female also has a beard motif. It recreates the image of the goddess, Edan, a manlike woman, an “Obinrin bi okunrin” who possesses the wisdom of a Babalawo – diviner – and the epicenter of human morality. This image is intermixed with the supernatural powers of a witch, an ace, reputed to have powers for the defense and protection of the powerless and the poor in society.
Let me agree that I have not learned many things from my 12 years of cognate political experience on the behavioral patterns of politicians, I have learned never to take any politician seriously, and this is why when I see any of these regular persons taking a politician seriously beyond necessary, something in me always tells me that such a person is either learning the rope or suffering from the frailty of down syndrome. For example, any political relationship, no matter how lofty it is, never take it to bed because you may wake up and not find it. You don’t need to commit any offense, but that is the way the game is wired, just take solace in the cliche that says “Nothing lasts forever” and move on in good faith.
Many media practitioners in Edo State, pundits, and junk stars combined, including yours sincerely, have found it impossible to resist the temptation of taking Comrade Kelvin Isesele [ CEO OF BOSSU HOLDINGS] seriously. To be candid, he has merited not just to be taken seriously for his words and actions, but to be taken very seriously and held tightly with two hands.
Chief Dele Momodu, the publisher of OVATION Magazine once said, ” There are not too many good people in this world, therefore, when you are lucky to find one or two, hold them with two hands’. I am convinced that Momodu saying this, does not include the political class, he was referring to Nigerian businessmen extraordinary like Mike Adenuga, Rasak Okoya, and others. But the only thing that has caught our fancy so well is to find a good man at the center of the body politics of Esan Land, who is currently doing what was unthinkable, maybe it’s because his foot is found in a pure business premise.
Bossu has spent the last five years hard-headed on the frontline. As planted in his name, Isesele, he is a compassionate man who nurtured himself to bigness life’s battlefield. He was not my friend at the outset. Apart from one media engagement where I asked him two or three questions -one of which he answered with a frown, there was no direct meeting of our streams. But I later became his fan because he is playing his role well as an Ogboju Ode in this forest of heartless demons.
Bossu is a man you will pray to meet any day you wake up to find life in yourself. He restores destinies, mends broken homes, and reshapes lifestyles for good. As a middle-aged pragmatist, Bossu is already an oversized shoe to many of his peers by harnessing the good virtues in him, thereby having the permission of the old bloc to put his legs into the military jackboot of life beyond human destruction across Edo State.
The Christmas season is gone, but the role Bossu played in the lives of many Nigerians has remained firmly like the Olumo rock. I am sure many people who would read this piece will know how Bossu wished them a happy new year immediately the clock ticked into the ambiance of 2024. Not the regular sending of emojis, text messages, or phone calls, his style was to launch your feet very deeply into the new year and set the ball rolling for you- Bossu, possessing the indelible characteristics of MKO Abiola, Amb. Oladeinde Fernadez, Odegbami, and others in a country whose economic vehicle is in the reversed order make him an audacious man in his class and circumvallation.
The Story of Mrs. Mercy Egbe, the widow from Esan who was wrestled to the ground by poverty cannot be told in ten years, the beautifully, talented and gifted young lady was pauperized by the Nigerian factor and the harsh reality of life- poverty is a bad thing, it turns a good head into a dunderhead, and turn the moons into directionless stars. But with Bossu, Mercy’s destiny was restored during the yuletide when he handed the key to a well-furnished hair-making saloon to her. The material composition of the outlet is considerably too okay for a good head start in life, and we pray that the wicked eyes never see Mercy as she goes about her enterprise.
Bossu is a serial award and title winner, the latest of his awards was the most difficult award ever, the award that one cannot buy and trickily earn- the Award of Humanitarian Service Delivery which was conferred on the philanthropist by the Edo Progressives Women Association. If the Award was coming from a different quarter and not Edo Women and mothers, onlookers would have said it was influenced, but here is an Award enveloped in prayers of our mothers across Edo State, of course no greater Award than that, and we, therefore say a hearty congratulations to Bossu.
In the same, the title of the “EDAN OF ESAN LAND” has been conferred on Bossu by the Edo State Social Media Influencers and an official ceremony will be held before the end of the first quarter of the year 2024. The title is in sheer recognition of Bossu’s continuous support and empowerment for the media section across Edo State.
Bossu is a man of few words and foot-sweeping actions. He is a very strong mouthpiece of the Esan people and a shrewd defensor of the Esan Agenda- he’s very uncharitable to anyone who tries to berate the Esan leaders or take undue advantage of an Esan extract- the major reason the title of the “Edan of Esan Land” fits mostly into his personality and we are confident that he will find it evocative amongst his numerous titles and echoes it like Asiwaju will say”I am the Jagaban of Lagos”.
