- By Jasper Uche
The recently celebrated World Teachers’ Day afforded me the opportunity to reminisce about the fallen intellectual colossus, late Professor Aja Akpuru-Aja, the Ebonyi State-born international scholar who will be sorely missed for his “grand, grandiose and grandiloquent” footprints and social capital.
I started hearing of him before I gained admission for my first degree at Abia State University, Uturu, in December 1997. He was admired beyond his department. His influence pervaded the entire campus landscape. His people skills, language power, friendly disposition, and unique way of teaching, endeared him to virtually all and sundry. He loomed larger than life. I got hugely inspired by a letter of commendation to him, personally endorsed by the then incumbent US president, Bill Clinton, on account of his book, ‘United States Presidential Personalities and Power of Persuasion in Foreign Policy.’
Aja’s routine lectures were held at the university auditorium because of the large number of students (including those who were from other departments) that turned up to pick his brain. Students looked up to his masterful interventions and robust dissection of public-interest issues during the University Public Lecture Series. Indeed, Aja’s charisma as a political scientist was palpable.
His academic trajectory was capped with a doctorate in International Relations from the University of Port-Harcourt. During his doctoral studies, his shining brilliance earned him a stint as a non-permanent teaching staff in the Department of Political Science. He was always fond of his PhD supervisor, late Professor Olatunde J.B. Ojo. It was through Aja’s eulogies that I developed interest in the works of neo-Marxist scholars like Claude Ake, Julius Ihonvbere, Eme Ekekwe, Daniel Offiong, Bode Onimode, among others. He linked me up with Prof. Bola Akinterinwa (a world-class international relations scholar) during my postgraduate research, and encouraged me to become an Associate Fellow of Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos. Until his death, Aja was a professor of International Relations & Strategic Studies at Abia State University, Uturu.
His five-year appointment as a Directing Staff in the prestigious National Institute for Peace & Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru, Plateau State, gave me joy. I visited Kuru for the first time on his invitation. He was at various times a visiting scholar at the Nigeria Defence Academy, Kaduna; Nigeria Defence College, Abuja; Foreign Service Academy; and Nigeria Institute for Security Studies, Bwari, Abuja. His books are highly resourceful in the defence, security and intelligence formations. He was a PhD external examiner to numerous universities.
My friendship with him was nurtured when I became Students Union Government (SUG) president of ABSU in 2000 and it remained till his death. Hence, his death is a big personal loss to me. Prof. Aja was my number one academic inspirer. He was a mentor, a senior friend and a life coach. During my lonely travails on account of students’ unionism, he made sure that I didn’t have emotional trauma. He resonated hope in me with appropriate soothing words. His guidance was full of tough love.
During my stint as a local government chairman in my state, he invited me over to his village in Okposi, Ebonyi State. I slept in his guest house. My driver and the police orderly attached to me were also accommodated and lavishly entertained. That night, we nearly brought down the roof of his expansive living room with our debates and analysis of local and international politics. He was always willing to teach and impart knowledge. In fact, anyone around him must imbibe a lifestyle of security consciousness and strategic line of thought in all issues.
Aja was a man with a large heart. I acquired some humane values through him. I co-authored my first three academic articles with him. He exposed me to audiences I dreaded. The most significant of such outings was when in 2008, he instructed me to prepare and deliver a paper on his behalf at a workshop on ‘Conflict Resolution’ held at Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel, Abuja, now Abuja Continental Hotel. Before I returned to the Southeast, the organizers had called him and spoke about me in glowing terms. He was proud of me and I was humbled by the high level of confidence in me as a budding scholar.
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It was his wish to be my postgraduate degrees supervisor but I preferred do the programmes at one of the first generation universities in Nigeria (UNN) since my parents couldn’t afford overseas education. He tried in vain to convince me to run the programmes at ABSU. He didn’t like my fixation for UNN. But I was clear about what I wanted. However, he kept a tab on my academic forays. After my PhD at UNN in 2015, he persuaded me to join the teaching staff in the department of political science of ABSU, so that, according to him, I would be a role model to the students. I obliged. My application was expressly approved by the then Vice Chancellor – Prof. Uche Ikonne.
After a year and three months, I embraced the opportunity to join the teaching staff at UNN. But Aja protested against it, for two reasons. One, his thinking was that I would grow faster and become more relevant at ABSU, since I am from Abia State. Two, he believed that my political adversaries could latch on it to blackmail me. I humbly told him that I had personal reasons for leaving, and today, it has remained one of my best decisions.
He couldn’t attend my book launch in Enugu in 2021 but he found time to read the complimentary copy and personally visited with a cheque in support of the academic stride. When I informed him that I was nominated for deputy governorship position by PDP in Abia State in the 2023 general elections, he wished me well and advised that I prioritize my personal safety and security. That was vintage Aja!
Indeed, the country has lost a consummate humanist, a teacher of teachers, and an unassailable authority in strategic studies..
•Dr. Uche wrote in from Abuja