President Bola Tinubu has sent condolences to James Odunmbaku, a member of the Lagos State Governance Advisory Council, over the death of his wife, Olasinmi Odunmbaku, on June 25. She was 59.
The message matters less for what it announces than for who sent it. Odunmbaku, widely known as "Baba Eto," sits on a council that advises the sitting governor of Lagos, a state Tinubu governed for eight years before becoming president. A presidential statement over a private death signals the depth of a political relationship that predates Tinubu's current office.
The condolence came in a statement issued Thursday by Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu's spokesperson. In it, Tinubu described the late Mrs Odunmbaku as a former Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development in Ondo State and a longtime member of the Celestial Church of Christ, worshipping at the City of God Cathedral.
"MC Odunmbaku was also a strong politician," Tinubu said, according to the statement. "She stood behind her husband like a Rock of Gibraltar. She was his support system."
That line does two things at once. It credits her with a political career of her own, not just a marriage. And it frames her death as a loss that extends into Ondo State politics, not only into a Lagos household.
The statement does not specify which administration appointed her to the Ondo commissionership, nor the years she served. That gap matters for anyone trying to place her career on a timeline. Ondo has cycled through several governors since the return of civilian rule in 1999, and "commissioner" tenures there typically run in step with a governor's term. Without a date range in the statement, readers are left to take the title at face value.
One detail stands out on a close read. Tinubu's statement refers to her husband once as "Cardinal Odunmbaku," a title that does not appear elsewhere in the release, where he is otherwise called "Baba Eto." Whether "Cardinal" reflects a formal role within the Celestial Church of Christ, an honorific used among his political circle, or a drafting inconsistency in the statement itself is not explained. Small as it is, the discrepancy is the kind of detail that rewards a follow-up call to Onanuga's office rather than an assumption.
The religious dimension
Related News
The Celestial Church of Christ reference is not incidental. Tinubu's statement leans on it to frame how Mrs Odunmbaku will be remembered, calling her "a passionate worshipper of God and a pillar" at the City of God Cathedral. Founded in Nigeria in 1947, the Celestial Church of Christ has a large and politically engaged membership across the southwest, including in both Lagos and Ondo. A commissioner and Cathedral figure moving between those two worlds, church and state office, is not an unusual profile in the region. But it does mean her death is likely to be marked in two separate arenas: a political tribute circuit and a church memorial calendar, whose dates the statement does not give.
What the statement asks for
Tinubu's message closes with an appeal, not just an announcement. He urges "Cardinal Odunmbaku, the family and all those left behind" to "take heart" and find solace in her record of what he called "a life of service to God and humanity." He adds that she will be missed "not only by her family, husband, and the Celestial Church but also by many politicians in Lagos and Ondo."
That last line is the closest the statement comes to a claim that can be checked. If she is genuinely mourned by "many politicians" in two states, that should surface in the coming days through separate condolence statements from Ondo's current governor, from Lagos state officials, or from other members of the Governance Advisory Council. So far, Tinubu's office is the only one on record.
Short of that, the record is thin. No burial date has been announced. No details on surviving children, funeral arrangements, or a lying-in-state have been released alongside the presidential statement. The Celestial Church of Christ's City of God Cathedral, where Mrs Odunmbaku is described as having worshipped, has not issued its own statement as of this writing.
What remains unconfirmed is straightforward: the exact dates of her tenure as Ondo's Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, the funeral schedule, and whether other political figures in Lagos or Ondo follow Tinubu's office with condolences of their own. Onanuga's statement, issued Thursday, does not address any of the three.
Add a Comment