I mourn the passing of a Professor of professors in my alma mater, University of Ibadan.
He did not die a young man. He was 90 years old. He lived well.
He was the Vice Chancellor when that office was reserved for those with gravitas. He was a teacher. There can be no better evidence than the ubiquity of both living and departed legends he mentored. I remember, readily, Prof Niyi Osundare and the late Harry Garuba, his former students, among numerous distinguished scholars.
He was huge in every respect. He was a collosus in the academia, an intellectual giant with a presence which commanded reverence and inspired awe. He was an outstanding university administrator, the best VC in over four decades. I do not wish to write about the mediocrities and moral dwarfs masquerading as academics these days.
He knew me as rascally. He never approved of what he perceived as my excesses, heavy smoking and rambunctious effervescence at that time. He saved my career when I bathed on his lawn at the VC Lodge during a protest on water scarcity in the University.
He simply looked the other way. He identified me as Prof L. A Thompson’s protégé who, curiously, was brilliant but very hot in the head. It was a thing of joy that I was able to acknowledge this rare beneficence, publicly, at a university event. He remembered. He smiled and nodded in appreciation. He remarked that he was happy that I had become a lecturer in the Classics Department.
He saw me at the Porter’s Lodge in the Administrative block one morning, after my appointment had just been determined by a most intolerant hypocrite and his cohorts. He wanted to know about my PhD programme and what I thought about staying in the university afterwards. I informed him that I was almost a lawyer and that those clowns did not matter at all. He chuckled and wished me well.
I saw him on campus, especially at the Faculty of Arts, before I moved to Akure on the invitation of my late friend, brother and benefactor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, CON, when he became the Governor of Ondo State.
I had wished to write on his attainment of 90 years a couple of days ago. I had read a befitting tribute from Prof Nelson Fashina of the English Department, University of Ibadan. I was hoping to add a few words before this announcement.
This is an instance when one feels that a 90 year old man has departed too soon.
May he find a space in the pantheon of our worthy ancestors.
Oladoyin Odebowale is a classics lecturer at the University of Ibadan.
