OTUNBA
Barr. W. O. Osinusi
OTUNBA FIDIPOTE
The Osinusi Royal Family is an off-shoot of FIDIPOTE RULING HOUSE of the Awujale Dynasty of Ijebuland.
His late, father, Alhaji Oladipupo Osinusi, was a big Textile Merchant based at Abeokuta while his mother Alhaja Aduke Osinusi was a Textile Dealer.
For his Nursery & Primary education, he attended Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s Nursery and Primary School at Abeokuta, then known as Mrs. Kuti’s Classes from the year 1939 -1944. In 1945, Otunba Osinusi graduated from Mrs. Kuti’s Classes to the Abeokuta Grammar School where he was admitted into Standard IV and where he completed his Secondary education in December 1951.
He immediately thereafter moved to Lagos to start his working life. He was employed as 3rd Class Clerk at the Establishment Office of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Yaba, in 1952 and rose to the grade of a 2nd Class Clerk before he resigned his appointment early in 1958. He wasted no time after leaving the Railways to proceed to London where he enrolled for his General Certificate of Education (GCE) studies at the North Western Polytechnic in Kentish Town, London NW5.
Otunba Osinusi had always, as a young man, had the ambition to become a lawyer, a profession he was so much in love with. Immediately after successfully completing his G.C.E papers, Otunba Osinusi applied to and got admitted into the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, London, in October 1959 to read Law. He finished there and having passed his Bar Final Examination he was called to the Bar on the 27th day of November, 1962. He was a member of the Post Final Practical Training Course conducted by the Council of Legal Education, London, in the Trinity and Michealmas Terms in 1962.
Otunba Osinusi returned to Nigeria in December, 1962 and got enrolled at the Supreme Court of Nigeria as a Barrister & Solicitor on the 2nd day of January 1963.
He immediately thereafter proceeded to Ibadan where he started his legal practice as a Junior Counsel in the Chambers of late Chief Ezekiel Akinola Cole, a great legal luminary in his time.
Otunba Osinusi had always wished to contribute his own quota to the development of his home town, Ijebu-Ode. He therefore after having worked in Chief Cole’s Chambers at Mokola, Ibadan, for sometime, moved to Ijebu-Ode to continue with his legal practice and he has remained Ijebu-Ode ever since.
On the social side, he was a member of the pioneer social club in Ijebu-Ode i.e. The Ijebu-Ode Club, where he was the Social Secretary and Secretary from the mid-sixties to the early seventies
By virtue of his royal blood and his contributions to Ijebuland, Otunba Osinusi was in 1985 conferred with the distinguished title of Otunba Fidipote of Ijebu by His Royal Majesty, Alaiyeluwa Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Kayode Adetona, CFR, Ogbagba II, The Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland and the Supreme Head of all Ijebus.
Otunba Osinusi is the Chairman of Fidipote Ruling House which is one of the four Awujale Ruling Houses in Ijebu-Ode. He was the Secretary of the Council of Otunbas of Ijebuland; an office which ably held for over two decades. He is the current Chairman of the Council; an office he has ably held for about six years.
He is also the chairman of the Ojude Oba Organising Committee and the Ag. Chairman of the Awujale Central Mosque Building Committee.
Otunba Osinusi is a devout Muslim. In recognition of his adherence to the tenets of the Islamic Religion and his contribution to the growth of the religion, he was turbaned as the Balogun Muslim Oke-Imale of Ita-Ogbin Mosque, Ijebu-Ode, in 1987.
Otunba Osinusi is happily married and blessed with good children and grandchildren and his always full of thanks to Almighty Allah for all the good things the Great Allah has done for him in his life.
Otunba Osinusi feels fulfilled in life and is very contented. His hobbies include reading and listening to soft music.
