Even though Prof. Akinjide Osuntokun’s name rings a bell, I never met him in person until our paths crossed at the Ijora, Lagos office of The Comet (now defunct) when I joined its editorial board in 2000. He is one of the great Nigerians I have had the privilege of working with on the editorial boards of both The Comet and The Nation.
Gentle, easy going and soft-spoken, Osuntokun, who clocked 80 on April 26, could hardly hurt a fly. Even when he is angry, he comports himself. It is an understatement to say he is brilliant and his brilliance tells in his invaluable contributions on the editorial boards and in his other assignments. Of course you cannot expect less from a man with an exceptionally rich academic background who had served the country in various capacities, home and abroad.
You cannot miss the fact that he is a historian of repute. But the man is equally witty and blessed with uncommon candour. I remember one of the things he said on the editorial board of The Comet in those days at the Ijora office. A certain chief executive had narrated the story of some unworthy and wicked workers who stole four brand new tyres that their company purchased on a Friday for one of their vehicles, to facilitate the movement of their product to the market. The tyres were fixed on a Friday. But by Monday when the workers resumed, all the tyres had disappeared, with the vehicle suspended. For a company that was struggling to survive, this, definitely, was a huge loss. Prof Osuntokun replied that such a thing was not uncommon in a situation where members of the staff are owed months of salary arrears! His sympathy was with the workers. Obviously that was not the kind of reply the narrator expected.
But this does not mean Osuntokun supported stealing. It was only a reflection of his candour because what the person who told the story, himself an elder and respected member of the gathering, expected were bashings left, right and centre condemning the thieves who stole the tyres, as well as the security men who looked the other way as the tyres were taken out of the gate. And Prof. Osuntokun knew this. But he did not toe the line expected in spite of his respect for the person who narrated the story. That is the man for you.
Of course, Osuntokun could not have supported stealing. He had held several positions of trust but we never heard he stole. Indeed, in their days, stealing, that we have found all manner of names to glamourise these days when the act involves personalities (in order to lessen the gravity of the fact that they actually stole, and by extension, their punishment), was taboo in their days. Not that it was not there at all; but it was few and far between. And when caught, attempts were not made to glamourise it as we do now; the big thieves were served their due comeuppance in a manner that would not make the common thieves green with envy.
For Prof, as he is fondly called, money or material attraction means little. It is obvious he does not belong to the category of many other Nigerians who have no sense of shame. It would appear he waited patiently in heaven to be served his portion of the ‘scarce commodity’ before coming to the world. But for his being contented, he would have been a member of AGIP, that is, Any Government In Power, that many Nigerians shamelessly belong to. To further drive the point home that money is not everything, he had turned down several international assignments that would have fetched him a lot of money, opting instead, to remain in Nigeria. This was a demonstration of selfless service to the nation.
But one aspect of his life that really fascinates me is his marital life. His wife, Dr Abiodun Osuntokun, died in 2003. He has refused to remarry since then. Nineteen years as widower is no mean task, especially for a man like Prof Osuntokun who had the means, financial and otherwise, the erudition, handsomeness, cosmopolitanism, fame, and what have you to husband even more than one wife if he so desired.
Remaining single was therefore a tough decision to make in a local milieu where polygamy is the vogue and a veritable means of one proving to be a man. A man like him would have been a ladies’ man in his prime. An epitome of handsomeness that many young girls (not to talk of ladies and even women) would be falling over themselves for, offering him soap when having his bath by the riverside, each pleading passionately with him to take their own. Jide Osuntokun nwe lodo, gbogbo omoge nyo’wo ose: temi ni ko gba, temi ni ko mu; temi ni ko gba, iwo ni ma fe”, kind of situation. Apologies to my number one music maestro, King Sunny Ade.
Polygamy, though fashionable among our forefathers in this part of the world, was for the sole purpose the harem and their children could help in the farms, because farming was their preoccupation. But many people who go into polygamy these days do so for various trivial and sometimes inconceivable reasons. It is their own way of being a man. If the man had remarried at the time his wife died 19 years ago, he would, as he has always maintained, have had to be comparing and contrasting which of the two is better, a thing he does not think is good enough for the memory of their union. “There were attempts to persuade me to marry another woman, but it wouldn’t have been fair to the memory of my wife, nor would it have been fair to the person I would have married, because I would have been comparing the two of them. But I thank God it made me to bury myself in my writing, my commitment to whatever the activity I enjoyed, especially writing”.
Beyond that is the tendency of the new (or is it younger wife) to want to take dominion of the house, the foundation of which was laid by someone else, and any attempt by the man to resist would be frowned at by the younger wife, and perhaps interpreted as the man not loving her, or even comparing her with a dead person (his first wife). This might be the beginning of the problem for both the man and the late wife’s children. Prof’s children should therefore be eternally grateful to him and to God for this selfless decision.
Indeed, if Prof Osuntokun’s children have not been showing gratitude to him for this especial selflessness, they had better start doing so. By saving them from what Yoruba people call ‘agbole were’ (mad people’s compound) that polygamy represents, he has rendered them an invaluable service which must have had a major impact in the various enviable positions they have found themselves today, saved from the ruinous distractions of polygamy.
Whether Prof has not had any girl or woman friend since the wife died can only be answered by him. But that is not the point I am making because that would be a very tall order for any man.
The more reason he deserves applause is because, as a Christian, he has the opportunity of a second chance at marriage after losing his wife. So, he would have committed neither crime nor sin if he had remarried. In spite of this, he refused to remarry. I doubt if the wife herself would expect him to live a life of celibacy all of these years. But I have a feeling she would be satisfied by her husband’s decision not to mingle (remarry) at least for the sake of the memory of their union, and in the interest of their children.
But Prof too has God to thank for the gift of contentment. It takes more than simply being human for someone like him who had taught for decades in several universities where you come across all manner of ladies – tall, slim, light complexioned; or fat, of average height, black and beautiful – and all you can wish for is that God should let this cup pass over you and it would be so all of the time, just like that? In this wise, one can only also imagine the temptations that Osuntokun would have passed through in the hands of women and ladies who would have wanted to succeed his late wife at all cost, especially knowing that he is a widower.
Born on April 26, 1942 in Okemesi, Ekiti State, Professor Osuntokun began his primary school education first at Holy Trinity School, Ilawe, and later Emmanuel Primary School in Ado-Ekiti. He proceeded to Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti (1956-60); Ibadan Grammar School (1961-62); University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies and Queen Mary’s College (1964-65); University of Ibadan (1963-64, 1965-66); University of Ibadan Post-Graduate School (1966-67); Institute of Commonwealth Studies and School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1968-69); Ecole Pratiquedes Hautes, Sorbone University, Paris, France (1969, among others.
He had taught as lecturer, senior lecturer, associate professor at various universities, including the University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, University of Maiduguri and Redeemer’s University, Mowe, Ogun State. He had also served as visiting professor, head of department of history, dean college of humanities as well as professor of history, among several positions in various ivory towers.
Beyond the classrooms, Prof Osuntokun was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Germany (1991-95), a position he occupied until the Abacha regime came and wanted him to sell the regime to the outside world. A thing Osuntokun refused and which consequently led to his removal and incarceration for six months, without charge. He was also director, Nigeria Universities Commission Office, Washington DC, U.S.A., as well as in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Prof Osuntokun had authored several books including Chief S. L. A. Akintola: His life and times; Power broker: A biography of Sir Kashim Ibrahim and Abidakun: An autobiography of Professor Akinjide Osuntokun, in addition to several seminar and convocation lecture series. He also bagged Presidential Honour, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Malabo, 1990; Officer, Order of the Niger, OON in 2004.
Like many of his contemporaries, Prof Osuntokun is still bewildered that a once promising Nigeria that they were very proud of in their time has been reduced to the present unenviable status of the poverty capital of the world by rapacious rulers. Rudderless. Adrift. And lost.
Permit me to end this piece with the following words of wisdom by Dare Babarinsa in a tribute to Akinjide Osuntokun in The Guardian of April 7. “For our country to make progress, many Nigerians must be ready to follow the example of Prof Osuntokun, leave our comfort zone and be ready to endure hardship to transform our society.” Are we ready?