The Nation Newspaper

Tag: tribute

  • Professor Ayankanmi Ayandele: A Tribute – 2

    Professor Ayandele was my teacher at the University of Ibadan and he was a damn good teacher. Those of my generation who came under his tutelage admired him for his hard work and elucidation. If one took his lectures verbatim, one did not have to read any other book because he had a prodigious energy for research and he would have consulted many sources before delivering his lectures. He was given to the use of bombastic language which many of us young people admired and enjoyed and tried to copy. He did not need a microphone because he spoke loudly and when he was lecturing in the Arts Theatre people in the library could follow.

    He was dramatic in the delivery of his lectures. Sometimes he would use a simple word say “transformation” if you did not get it, he would change it to “metamorphosis” and students would say what? He would retort “it is an English word”. He did not speak French, so when he said Louis XIV said “l’etat C’est moi”, he will say it as any Yoruba man would “Letat sest maui” and the class will explode into laughter. He would not get the joke but the joke was on us because he would have moved on.

    Professor Ayandele was the most prolific of all the historians in his generation. Apart from his book, Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria which remains a classic, he also wrote a voluminous biography of Bishop James Johnson with the title, Holy Johnson. He wrote The History of the Ijebus which remains a classic. He wrote many chapters in books and articles in referenced scholarly journals including a monograph on David Livingstone but the most enjoyable of his works for me is the book, The Educated Elite in Nigeria which was a compilation of the special university lectures which he gave in the University of Ibadan in the 70s. He was going to write a sequel to this book but unfortunately his health could not bear the exertion and rigour necessary for producing another book.

    I remember reading his book, Holy Johnson and feeling that I was reading about Professor Ayandele. Even the photograph of Bishop James Johnson reminds one of Ayandele. In the late 1890s and early twentieth century, educated Nigerians tended to be bombastic in language to the irritation of the owners of the English language. Bishop James Johnson shared this trait with his biographer who must have enjoyed reading the private papers of the bishop. Bishop James Johnson of course did not call himself holy; this was the perception of his sympathetic biographer. The bishop belonged to the class of educated Nigerians in Lagos that was so totally disliked by the Governor-General, Sir Fredrick Lugard and his younger brother, Major Edward Lugard whose critics described as the so called political secretary of the Governor-General with a fat salary and who in return described educated Nigerians as “trousered niggers dressed in Bond street attires who send their laundry to England every other week.” Professor Ayandele had prickly relations with his white colleagues in the department of History at the University of Ibadan. Perhaps this was due to his experience of racism while studying in England. His commitment to African culture shorn of the pretentions to western way of life was amply demonstrated in his book, The Educated Elite in Nigeria in which he described the Lagos westernised Nigerians as “deluded hybrids” who were neither Africans nor Europeans or as “wind sowers” because their downfall at the height of the nationalist movement was predictable unless they were ready to go native and become real Africans. Many of them later changed their names.

    Many of the European lecturers at the University of Ibadan in the late 1960s left in droves to go to Ahmadu Bello University where they felt more appreciated and far away from the fire brand nationalism of the people like Ayandele. Ahmadu Bello University was later to become the final resting place of European academics who lost out at the end of the British Empire and who were not ready to compete with uppity Africans of the like of Ayandele.

    Professor Ayandele was a serious scholar and a painstaking researcher but whatever he wrote was from the perspective of the African and he took license for generous interpretation of historical data to express his ideological commitment to African nationalist historiography. For this, we owe him a debt of gratitude. Professor Ayandele wrote history in the classical mode of literature. History to him was to be enjoyed and his use of flowery language was deliberate and to take historical scholarship from the compilation of dry data with little or no soul. He wrote like S.T. Bindoff, one of his teachers in England.

    I am surprised that professor Ayandele never won the national merit award. Of course, one is aware of the fact that sometimes, consideration of federal character unnecessarily creeps into what is supposed to be, an award for academic excellence. Be that as it may, Professor Ayankanmi Ayandele’s place in Nigeria’s academic history is settled. He was largely the founder of two academic institutions- the University of Jos and the University of Calabar. It is therefore surprising to me that when he died, neither the University of Ibadan nor these two institutions that he was closely connected with mourned him in death. Neither were there any editorials in the newspapers nor obituary comments from the federal government. This is not good enough for a life of service. Professor Ayandele had no hobbies but work. He had no family as such but the family of humanity and he was above ethnic prejudices and he was so totally loyal to one of his mentors, Professor J.C. Anene an Igbo man that when he died, he adopted Anene’s family as his own and took care of them. Ayandele was an eccentric academic but he was a good man and a good Christian. He would be remembered by those of us whose lives he touched. Adieu, great scholar, prolific writer, a man of ideas and letters and a prodigious builder of academic institutions. Ayandele was a good Baptist who before the advent of the current wave of Pentecostalism was given to paying his tithe and living modestly. He was a teetotaller and avoided the company of women of easy virtue. One hopes that the University of Calabar would immortalise this selfless man by naming one of the halls of residence or preferably the University Library just as the University of Ibadan named its library after Kenneth Dike its first Nigerian Vice Chancellor.

  • Professor Ayankanmi Ayandele: A Tribute

    I was visiting one of the universities in the Atlanta Metro area in summer of 2014 when I heard through a newsletter from the Nigerian academy of letters that Professor Ayankanmi Ayandele passed on sometimes in June, 2014. Needless to say I was shocked and somehow bewildered as to how such a great man can pass on unsung by the academia in particular and the polity in general.

    Professor Ayandele was born in Ogbomosho some 79 years ago. From his name, it can be deduced that he descended from a family of drummers. Drummers in Yorubaland historically were quite knowledgeable about the society and somehow knew not only the history of kingdoms but also the cognomen of most people. His ancestors must have influenced him in the way he developed his mental ability for retention of the details of development in his environment. He was educated in one of the Baptist schools in Oyo State before going to the then Nigerian College of Arts and Science in Ibadan which was a kind of preparatory intermediate school for entrance into Ibadan, the only university in colonial Nigeria. It was from here that he entered the University of Ibadan and majored in History. From the University of Ibadan he went to the University of London as a postgraduate student and earned the PhD in History in1964 and immediately returned to the University of Ibadan and went through the various stages of a normal academic career. And by 1972 he was not only a professor but the founding principal of the Jos campus of the University of Ibadan. This was a campus that was set up in response to the demand of the people of the then Benue-Plateau state who wanted their own university distinct from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria whose staff and student population was largely dominated by the majority group of the Hausa-Fulani in northern Nigeria. The existence of the University of Ibadan Jos campus was therefore largely resented by the powers that be in northern Nigeria but through the efforts of the then governor, commissioner of police, J.D Gomwalk who was a science graduate of the University of Ibadan before joining the police and the support of the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon who was from the Plateau, the college took off in 1971. Professor Ayandele provided the dynamic leadership for this college which was located in abandoned warehouses belonging to some tin-mining companies; Professor Ayandele worked tirelessly to make the college a reality and lived a spartan life somewhere among the Naraguta people on Bauchi road in the outskirts of Jos metropolis.

    I joined this college in 1972 and I headed the History unit and my other colleague now Professor Joseph Inikori now of Rochester University was assistant lecturer pending the completion of his PhD in Ibadan. Most of us who worked with Professor Ayandele were Lecturer grade II and Assistant lecturers in departments such as English, History, various Sciences, Geography, Islamic and Arabic studies. He, as a Professor towered above every one of us. I had the privilege of representing the college in the senate at the main campus at Ibadan.

    The country then was peaceful and Professor Ayandele sometimes drove all the way from Jos to Ibadan and back if the weather was not good for flying; I also did the same. On a personal note, I lost two children through premature birth which brought untold suffering to my wife and myself because of poor medical services in Jos. But inspite of these personal losses, as a young family, my late wife and myself had a great time, planting roses, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes and other sub-tropical fruits that only the Jos area can grow. We lived in modest shoddily built bungalows along Bauchi road built by contractors who came from the then Mid-West state apparently on recommendation from the then Colonel Ogbemudia who was a bosom friend of Governor J.D. Gomwalk of Benue-Plateau state. I remember being visited by thieves who came to rob us of the few belongings we had in our fragile homes. We found listening ears to our complaints in Professor Ayandele who made us believe that we were rendering patriotic service. We had good relationship with our students some of whom became friends because we were just a few years older than them; some of these students included Professor Sonny Tyoden who became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jos some years later. Another student that I remember is John Nwodo who later became a minister under Shagari and later under Abdul-salami Abubakar.

    Professor Ayandele left Jos in 1975 when the Ibadan Jos campus was upgraded to a federal university and professor Unuaguluchi became its first Vice-Chancellor. I had left the University for University of Lagos in 1974 because of the need for proper medical attention for my wife. Professor Ayandele’s sterling performance did not go unnoticed by the federal government which rewarded him with appointment as the foundation Vice Chancellor of the newly established University of Calabar and remained so up till 1982. He was the one who built the university from scratch and to the level of a comprehensive university with all the major disciplines of Medicine, Engineering, Law, the Sciences, Education, Social science and Liberal Arts. He took the job of building the university as a personal challenge. He breathed and lived the university every moment of the time he spent on the job. He visited Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States several times to see to the recruitment of staff and building a library worthy of a university. I had the opportunity to serve him between 1978 and 1982 when I was respectively director of the national universities commission’s offices in Ottawa Canada and Washington DC, United States respectively and also when he came to Howard University between 1981 and 1982 on sabbatical leave. He was so engrossed with the building of the University of Calabar that he brooked no opposition from the local people whom he arrogantly dismissed as “an atomistic society perpetually at war with itself”. This earned him a lot of opposition from the then Cross-river state whose people were known for the mutual antagonism between the Ibibios and Anangs, the Efik and Efuts and others which Professor Ayandele apparently could not understand but he meant well and left an enduring legacy in the solid foundation which he laid for the University of Calabar. When he left the University of Calabar, he served as regional director in UNESCO office in Dakar, Senegal as a form of self exile and from there he returned home to Ibadan where he lived almost isolated from others in his private home, only coming out to give lectures if and when invited by various learned societies.

    • To be continued.
  • Tribute to flyover governor at 49

    Tribute to flyover governor at 49

    Today is a special day for the Izon people, particularly Bayelsans.  Not because of the free education that Ijaw people now enjoy in Bayelsa State under the restoration government or because of the social security enjoyed by senior citizens of Ijaw extraction. It is not equally because the first flyover ever constructed in the state would be commissioned but because the Countryman Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson who has restored glory to his people within a short period of his stewardship will mark his 49th birthday.

    He has delivered on his campaign promise to the electorate. He is above board in his political odyssey.  He has survived the machinations of some hawks and meddlesome interlopers who would stop at nothing to return Bayelsa State to  ‘Egypt.’  One would have expected the restoration governor to roll out the drums to celebrate his birthday with pomp. But, Dickson whom some historians fondly call the Valentine Governor having being sworn in on February 14, 2012, has refused to mark the day.

    To the bewilderment of observers and government officials, the governor banned congratulatory messages on his birthday and advised those who wish to do so to channel their resources to charity organizations and orphanage homes. But, Governor Dickson’s stance didn’t come to me as a surprise because he was simply living up to his sobriquet as a countryman.  Typical of the Restoration Governor, he will be on ground on Wednesday to attend to files, hold meetings and intensify his inspection of projects to ensure that they are executed in line with specifications and global standards.

    In the last 35 months that he held sway in the Creek Haven, Governor Dickson has changed the governance culture in Bayelsa State, making transparency and accountability, fear of God, service delivery, the cornerstone of his administration. The multiplier effect of these philosophies is the ongoing massive transformation of Bayelsa.

    Today, the free and compulsory education introduced from primary to secondary schools by Dickson has changed the entire education sector and the state in general for the better. Government provides the following items free to pupils and students: textbooks, uniforms, sandals, bags, and writing materials. Government is also responsible for the payment of Science fees, WAEC, NECO, and JAMB fees for students. Already 400 primary schools and staff quarters for headmasters and principals, 24 Constituency Secondary Schools and eight Model Secondary Schools are under construction across the state.   Government also made it a point of duty to train exceptionally gifted Ijaw children in some of the best secondary schools in Nigeria. The Dickson government has spent over N6billion on the education of students of Ijaw nationality who are covered by the Bayelsa State Scholarship Scheme with the indigent being the greatest beneficiaries. Interestingly, scholars of Ijaw stock in their thousands are in Lincoln University and other prestigious universities in the world for their first degrees, masters and Ph.D programmes.

    While the church in Nigeria celebrates Dickson as the only governor that promulgated Thanksgiving Law by setting aside November 2 of every year as Thanksgiving Day in Bayelsa State, not many Nigerians know that the Countryman remains the only governor in Nigeria that renders account of stewardship to the people on a monthly basis in a town hall meeting where the accruals to the state, IGR and expenditure are laid bare for public scrutiny.

    Under the watch of Dickson, Bayelsans now sleep with their two eyes closed unlike before when they lived in perpetual fear. Government outlawed cultism, fought crime with vigour and made kidnapping punishable with death by hanging. Government installed electronic surveillance equipment and rolled- out security communications network which connect all the communities to the command and control centres, thus enabling the Governor and security commanders to be in touch with all the communities. The Government made investments in the security task force code named, ‘Operation Doo Akpor’, which is adequately equipped to bust crimes at very short notice with a response time of not more than three to five minutes, within and around the state capital. It has earned the reputation of an internationally acclaimed security outfit, having won the best security award in Africa held last year in South Africa.

    Government also built a Command and Control Centre, which coordinates activities of the various security units and receives distress calls round the clock. The state government also constituted an 11 man special task force to ensure adequate security of lives and property on the water ways pending when the marine component of Operation Doo Akpo becomes operational.

    The huge investment in security has paid off as investors and tourists and more people now relocate to the state to do business while nightlife has returned to Bayelsa, boosting its IGR.

    As a visionary leader, Dickson is preparing the littoral state beyond crude oil by diversifying the economy. Government is investing in large-scale agricultural production in areas the state has comparative advantage, including rice, palm produce, aquaculture, cassava, plantain and vegetables.

    Already, the state has invested in mega aquaculture projects with two Israeli companies to produce 3,000 tons of fish annually. Restoration Brand of Rice is currently produced from a 4000 hectare of rice farm at Peremabiri in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, 5000 at Isampou in Ekeremor and 2000 hectares at Kolo in Ogbia Council Areas of the state. The state government, in conjunction with Ostertrade Engineering and Manufacturing KFT/DPP International APS, Hungarian/Danish consortium, has established a cassava starch processing plant with a capacity to produce 600 tons of industrial starch per annum at Ebedebiri in Sagbama Local government Area. A 600-hectare outgrower cassava and 40 hectares multiplication farms at Ebedebiri in Sagbama Local Government area has also been established. This lofty cassava project has the capacity of providing over 20 thousand jobs to Nigerians. Similarly, the state currently has a palm plantation of 1200 hectares with a potential to grow the palm plantation to 2000 hectares at the current location in Elebele.

    Dickson’s government places high premium on health and that was why it has invested over N25 billion directly into a 380 bed Specialist Hospital with a world class diagnostic centre in Yenagoa with a modern staff quarters waiting for commissioning. In order to phase out fake drugs in the state, work has reached advanced stage on the Yenagoa multi-million naira World Class Drug Mart/ Pharmaceutical Complex, the first ever in Nigeria. The government constructed the drug Mart in partnership with the Prof Dora Akunyili Foundation for Safe Medicine.

    Renovation of dilapidated health centres and cottage hospitals have been completed and put to use, while new general hospital projects are nearing completion in the headquarters of all the eight LGAs. Though the diagnostic centre excites pundits but for me, the establishment of a Health Insurance Scheme, the first ever in the state is the most critical intervention of the restoration government in the sector.

    The governor within two and half years has breathed life into people at the bottom of the pyramid particularly indigent women by Promoting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through the disbursement of soft loans to over 400 women cooperative groups. The scheme was flagged off with 240 million naira last year.

    Indeed Dickson seems to be in a hurry to turn the oil rich Bayelsa to infrastructural Eldorado! In the last 35 months, over 450 kilometres  of roads have been completed across the state, 18 bridges were constructed and over 100 public buildings/ schools completed. The secretariat of the Traditional Rulers Council, a modern Police Officers’ Mess, School of Tourism and Catering Management, Multi-Door Court House all in Yenagoa are among the structures already completed. Rehabilitation of the Glory Land Cultural Centre and the Government House Clinic, three new secretariat annexes, state archives, Museum, Language Centre among others, are now completed.

    Work on the 27km road from Igbogene to Bayelsa Palm and the expanded Elebele – Opolo and Opolo-Imiringi roads and several others are ongoing. While the road linking the old and new campuses of the state owned Niger Delta University at Amassoma has also been completed. Azikoro, Boro town, Etegwe/Tombia roads and many other access roads have been completed.

    The Isaac Adaka Boro Express road is been face-lifted from a mere double lane road to a six lane expressway. Top among the ongoing projects are the airport project, the Yenagoa- Ogbia-Nembe road, dualization of 18 roads and two outer ring roads, new Governor and Deputy Governors’ office complexes. Others are the Yenagoa – Oporoma – Koluama road project opening the central senatorial zone and the forest reserves of the State, the road and rail project from Yenagoa – Ekeremor – Agge, to cover a distance of over 110km, where a deep seaport will be built, construction of the most ambitious Tourism Island Project and the Castle six-star Hotel made up of 24-suites, Amphi-theater, casino, wellness centre and conference facilities in addition to the Bayelsa Tower and Ox-Bow Lake Hotels.

    An entertainment and Tourist centre is presently under construction at the Oxbow lake area of the state capital. In addition, there is ongoing construction of an 18-hole international Golf Course/Estate and a world-class Polo ground and Club as well as rehabilitation of tourist and recreational sites across the state, including the White Man’s Grave at Akassa in Brass Local Government Area.

    Interestingly, Dickson has promoted private sector participation in real estate by setting up the Bayelsa Geographic Information System (BAYGIS) to facilitate the issuance of Certificates of Occupancy through a simplified process of obtaining C of Os for landed title within 60 days of application. This is unprecedented in the history of the state.

    The Dickson administration has successfully re-branded and shored-up the hitherto battered image of Bayelsa State, and transformed Yenagoa into a peaceful international entertainment events centre. Consequently, the state now plays host, on an annual basis to prestigious events such as the international Jazz Festival, Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant, Carribean African American Nations Music Awards and the Africa Fashion Reception. The rebranding of Bayelsa State has attracted to Yenagoa, many heads of governments and international figures like Reverend Jesse Jackson.

    The most laudable achievement of the restoration government is not the the free and compulsory education. It is not the on-going infrastructural revolution in the state, but the social security, health insurance scheme and of course, the prevalence of social justice in Bayelsa. These were made possible because of the person of Dickson and the autonomy the judiciary enjoys in the last 35 months, as the judiciary gets its funding through first line charge, eliminating the scenario where many Chief Judges go cap-in- hand to governors begging for funding!

    Born on the 28th January, 1966, Dickson  joined the Nigeria Police Force in 1986 and was posted to the Central Police Station, Port Harcourt and served as Clerk to the Station Officer, from where he saved money to further his education. He gained admission in 1988 to the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt to study Law from where he graduated with LL.B (HONS.) in 1992. He then proceeded in 1993, to earn his Bachelors of Law (B.L.HONS) from the Nigeria Law School, Lagos and was called to the Nigeria Bar the same year.

    In 1998 when all the bigwigs in Bayelsa were either in PDP or APP and later ANPP, Dickson chose to pitch tent with the  Alliance for Democracy (AD) and was elected its chairman between 1998  and 2000 and led the party to win all the elections in his zone, Bayelsa West Senatorial District. Indeed, Bayelsa State was the only state the party recorded such victory outside the core Yoruba speaking states. The party apparatchik rewarded him by elevating him to the post of National Legal Adviser between 2000 and 2002.

    The crisis in the defunct AD coupled with his desire to help President Goodluck Jonathan who was deputy governor at the time to succeed the incumbent governor, Chief DSP Alamiesiegha forced Dickson to join PDP in 2005 and became the founding Secretary of Jonathan’s political group, Green Movement in 2006. Dickson was appointed the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Bayelsa State in 2006 by then governor, Dr. Jonathan, following the exit of Alamiesiegha.

    In reward of his commitment to Ijaw cause and service to fatherland, Dickson was elected member, representing Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency   in the House of Representatives. Dickson served as the Chairman, House Committee on Justice. He was re-elected in 2011 but resigned after he was elected governor.  In appreciation of his service to his community, Dickson was conferred with the prestigious title: Olokodau of Orua Kingdom. The Tarakiri High Chief is also the Edi 1(pillar) of Ogbia Kingdom.

    As a lawmaker, he sponsored many critical bills, which have been passed into law and played a key role in the successes recorded by the sixth National Assembly. But, what is not often remembered about Dickson and for which he has not received sufficient encomium was his role in the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill at the National Assembly.

  • Idris Elba releases Mandela tribute album

    Idris Elba releases Mandela tribute album

    British actor, Idris Elba, who portrayed Mandela in the 2013 film, Long Walk to Freedom, has released an album in honour of the late South African president and activist.

    Titled Idris Elba Presents: Mi Mandela, the album showcases the best of South Africa’s emerging talents, features music that are influenced by various South African musical traditions.

    Reports have it that majority of the album was written while Elba, who also moonlights as a Disc Jockey, was filming Long Walk to Freedom, in Johannesburg.

    The work is said to be part of what Elba hopes will be ‘character albums’ based on various roles he has played, although, as with Mi Mandela, Elba is unlikely to sing on most of the tracks.

    “Mi Mandela is part of a series of albums that I’m going to make called character pieces, character albums,” Elba said in an interview with NME. “I take the character that I played and sort of explain the journey playing him, and the journey of the character, in music. What would he have listened to, what might have influenced him, what influenced me as an actor … This suddenly becomes these new songs, these new ways to write songs and express emotion attached to a character.”

    Elba has recently been under much media scrutiny after it was revealed that Sony has been considering him as the next James Bond, following the hacking of Sony students.

    The idea was met with mixed reactions. While Rapper Kanye West loved the idea, telling The Sun that casting Elba as James Bond would be ‘visionary’,  others were more critical, with radio show host Rush Limbaugh insisting that Elba can’t be James Bond ‘because he’s black’.

    Elba himself took a lighter approach to the ‘controversy’, by tweeting a picture of himself looking a little disheveled with the caption ‘isn’t 007 supposed to be handsome? Glad you think I’ve got a shot! Happy New Year people.’

    In a 2011 interview, he said that while he would certainly consider the role, he did not want to be ‘the black James Bond’.

    “Sean Connery wasn’t the Scottish James Bond, and Daniel Craig wasn’t the blue-eyed James Bond, so if I played him, I don’t want to be called the black James Bond,’ he stated.

  • Ali Mazrui: A tribute

    I first met the late renowned Kenyan scholar, Professor Ali Alamin Mazrui while I was still an undergraduate at the University of Jos in 1991; he was Albert Luthuli Professor-at-Large in the department of political science. He passed away last Monday morning in Binghamton, New York, in the United States at the age of 81. He delivered a thought provoking lecture on the political economy of Africa after which I left with a positive lasting impression of his depth of knowledge and scholarship. He was a towering academician whose intellectual contributions played a major role in shaping contemporary African scholarship.

    Prior to that lecture – and series of other lectures he delivered whenever he was in Nigeria – I had followed his popular 1986 television documentary: “The Africans: A Triple Heritage,” on the British Broadcasting Service (BBC) in cooperation with Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). He was the author and narrator of the programme which chronicled African history in a simple straight forward way. The series succeeded in shedding light on some widely held myth and misconception about Africa.

    Up until his death, he was Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies (IGCS) at Binghamton University, State University of New York. In addition to his appointments as the Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities, Professor in Political Science, African Studies, Philosophy, Interpretation and Culture and the Director of the IGCS, Mazrui also holds two concurrent faculty appointments as Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Emeritus and Senior Scholar in African Studies at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and Chancellor of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya.

    In 1999, he retired as the inaugural Walter Rodney Professor at the University of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana. He has also been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, The University of Chicago, Colgate University, McGill University, National University of Singapore, Oxford University, Harvard University, Bridgewater State College, Ohio State University, and at other institutions in Cairo, Australia, Leeds, Nairobi, Teheran, Denver, London, Baghdad, and Sussex, amongst others.

    As his stature grew, he was selected as the 73rd topmost intellectual person in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals by Prospect Magazine (UK) and Foreign Policy (United States) in 2005.

    The late Prof. Mazrui’s research interests included African politics, international political culture, political Islam and North-South relations. He is author or co-author of close to thirty books in addition to hundreds of articles in major scholastic journals and some public media. He also served on the editorial boards of more than twenty international scholarly journals. The eminent scholar was widely consulted by heads of states and governments, international media and research institutions for political strategies and alternative thoughts.

    He was a critic of some of the accepted orthodoxies of African intellectual circles of the 1960s and 1970s like African socialism and all strains of Marxism. He argued that communism was a Western import just as unsuited for the African condition as the earlier colonial attempts to install European type governments. He held the view that a revised liberalism could help the continent and described himself as a proponent of a unique ideology of African liberalism.

    Beyond this, he was also critical of the current world order believing that the capitalist system – which most African countries practice in varying forms – was deeply exploitative of Africa, and that the West rarely, if ever, lived up to their liberal ideals which could be described as global apartheid. He opposed Western interventions in the developing world, such as the Iraq War. He was opposed to many of the policies of Israel, being one of the first to try to link the treatment of Palestinians with South Africa’s apartheid.

    As what later came to be known as political Islam gained ground, Mazrui became a well-known commentator on the phenomenon. While rejecting violence and terrorism, he praised some of the anti-imperialist sentiment that plays an important role in modern Islamic fundamentalism. He also argued – controversially though – that sharia law is not incompatible with democracy.

    In addition to his published works, Mazrui was also a media celebrity – if I’m allowed to use that word. He featured in the 2009 film, Motherland, directed by Owen Alik Shahadah which features key academics from around the continent of Africa. He was the main African consultant and on-screen respondent on “A History Denied” the 1996 NBC and Time-Life television series on Lost Civilizations.

    Other works worthy of mention include: “The Bondage of Boundaries: Towards Redefining Africa,” article in the 150th anniversary issue of The Economist London (September 1993) Vol. 328, No. 7828, 1993. Author and broadcaster, “The African Condition,” BBC Reith Radio Lectures, 1979, with book of the same title (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980). Advisor to the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary “Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet” (2002).

    It’s worthy to mention that the IGCS at Binghamton University was founded by Mazrui in 1991. The Institute’s primary purpose is to develop new multi-disciplinary approaches to the study of culture and cultural influences across societies in the contemporary world. IGCS promotes the study of these cultural forces through research, publications, teaching, academic conferences, and mass media educational programs. It is particularly interested in the role of culture in the context of global forces.

    Current research foci of IGCS which has made impact worldwide include: Development and democratization; Religion and its political and social implications; Race, ethnicity, and nationalism; Language as a political force; Comparative gender studies; North-South relations; Comparative philosophy and comparative social thought.

    Mazrui wrote many scholarly works, however, “The Trial of Christopher Okigbo” remains his only work of fiction. Okigbo was a young Nigerian who volunteered and fought for Biafra during Nigeria’s civil war of 1067-1970. Unfortunately, he was killed on the war front; he was only 35 years old.

    The dichotomous figure of Okigbo was an ideal one for Mazrui’s unusual fiction. One half he was abstract poet, the other half committed fighter – willing to sacrifice his life for his political convictions. Okigbo personifies questions that have been popular for ages, particularly regarding the responsibilities and duties of the artist in society.

    Okigbo – a legendary, larger than life figure – was a good character for a novel, but Mazrui wisely chooses to go only so far: Okigbo, though at the center of events, is barely a presence in the novel. Okigbo is on trial, but it is Okigbo as abstraction – hardly the flesh and blood figure.

    I will conclude this well-deserved tribute to one of Africa’s best known intellectual and scholar with a short tribute written by Prof Samuel Ebow Quainoo of East Stroudsburg University during Mazrui’s 80th birthday celebration last year titled “Ali A. Mazrui: Always Fighting For The Little Guy.” He recounted how he got a letter from Mazrui – who he had never met – in 1991 offering him the opportunity of an Albert Schweitzer Graduate Assistantship to study at Binghamton University for a doctorate degree in Political Science and work under him as his Graduate Assistant.

    Quainoo was in a quandary exactly three days after his resignation at Liverpool City Council when another letter came through from the Political Science Department of Binghamton University, withdrawing the Albert Schweitzer Assistantship. “One could imagine my confusion and immediate depression at this rather abrupt change in my fortunes. I spent the next two days brooding over what was going on and what my next step should be. I sadly decided to go back to Liverpool City Council to plead for my job back. And then, I received a second letter from Prof. Ali A. Mazrui, reinstating my Assistantship and expressing his interest to work with me as his Graduate Assistant.

    “My four years at the Institute showed me the side of Prof. Mazrui that most people do not get to see; fighting consistently for the little guys… graduate assistants, junior staff, students, etc. I found out my case was not an isolated one and that Prof. Mazrui had come through on several occasions for people like me in similar situations. My graduate student colleagues would on several occasions sit back and compare similar stories and experiences and marvel at how this big guy would quietly fight on behalf of people like us without even offering to tell us what he goes through to make it possible for us to pursue our ambitions.”

    That is the legacy Ali Alamin Mazrui is leaving behind; fighting for the little as well as the big guys.

  • General Benjamin Maja Adekunle: A tribute 

    Everybody knows that on the federal side of the unfortunate Nigerian-Biafran civil war, the recently departed Brigadier -General Benjamin Adekunle was the most successful field commander but also the most colourful and sometimes  arguably the  most controversial officer. He was also the favorite of the international press. I was a post graduate student in Europe and North America during the civil war and we followed the course of the war eagerly and Adekunle’s activities dominated the air waves. He was largely responsible for building a brand new army division through the recruitment hurriedly from Lagos and western Nigeria,  young men who wanted to see action and rushed  through training before deployment into the hot theatre of war .

    This was Adekunle ‘s Third Marine Commando division. Because of the origin of this army formation, it required sometimes unusual and unorthodox mode of discipline which Adekunle provided.The two other divisions, namely the First and Second divisions,  were formed around the nuclei  of well-trained and professional  army units of the pre-civil war years. Due to Adekunle’s indomitable will, he was able to make good fighting men from the new recruits that gained more and more experience and effectiveness as the civil war ground on. Adekunle’s marine commando was deployed in the difficult Niger Delta where with the cooperation of the navy, made an amphibious landing on the islands in the Niger Delta and from there fighting his way from the creeks into places like Bonny and Port Harcourt.

    Before this feat no one thought the army was capable of this kind of achievement. And from one island to the other, Adekunle’s troops between 1967 and 1969, cleared the present Rivers State  and the then Cross River State  Of Biafran troops and fought their way into the heartland of Igbo land capturing Aba, Owerri and Umuahia though they later  lost Owerri and  Adekunle had to be asked to go and rest and Obasanjo asked to take over from him. He promptly ended the war after reorganization and infusion of discipline into the ranks of apparently power drunk rank and file who became over confident of their fighting ability.

    The Second Division of the Nigerian army fighting through the then Midwest region managed to clear the region of Biafran troops but suffered heavy losses in abortive efforts to cross the River Niger from Asaba to Onitsha and huge losses at Abagana before it was able to link up with the First Division of the army which had fought its way from Makurdi to Enugu through  the northern heartland of Igboland. Without taking anything from the first and second divisions of the army and their commanders, General Muhammad Shuwa and General Murtala Muhammed  whose troops naturally met much stronger opposition from the Biafrans in their heartland, Adekunle’s  troops fought in minority areas until 1969 when Adekunle and his troops entered  Igbo land and virtually finished the war before the change of command from Adekunle to Obasanjo.

    Adekunle was a strict disciplinarian who on finding out that one of his officers, Captain Macaulay Larmude had shot an unarmed  civilian  in 1968 got him court-martialled and executed publicly to teach any other gung-ho officers who would not abide by military orders of operation.

    After the war when the cement armada clogged the ports of Lagos, the federal government called again on Adekunle to clear the ports. This was an assignment which, through his unorthodox methods, brought him more enemies until his association with some free-wheeling and high flying  Nigerian women led to his premature and unexpected retirement from the army, which was his life. Murtala  Muhammed’s short administration tried to rehabilitate him by sending  him on  a mission to assist the Angolans in their campaign against Portuguese colonialism. His remit apparently involved arming the Angolan cadres.

    This was a mission which at the end of the war of liberation of Angola in which Nigeria along with Cuba, and the defunct East Germany  helped defeat Portugal and South African forces in Quito Cuanavalle. This brought glory to Nigeria to the extent that the longest avenue in Luanda, the capital of Angola, is named after General Murtala Muhammed. Adekunle apparently, due to licentious living and poor management of his resources, fell on bad times that by the time the NPN government of Shehu Shagari took over in 1979, Adekunle pitifully became some kind of security officer sometimes seen standing unobtrusively behind campaign podium. Towards the end  of his death, he had been abandoned by Nigeria and died poor and unsung.

    On a personal note, I met Adekunle in the late 1970s when I tried to persuade him to write his memoirs. His response was that he knew too much about the country that if he wrote he would shake the Nigerian edifice to its very foundation. I tried to persuade him without success that I could help put his memoirs in diplomatic language that will still tell the truth without offence. Adekunle was a fascinating man. He was a true Nigerian. He was born in Kaduna. His father was from Ogbomoso while his mother was a Bachama from Adamawa. Adekunle himself had a wife from the Niger Delta. He spoke about 10 Nigerian languages including Fulfulde,Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Bachama, Ijaw and Efik.  When I met him, he reminded me of Napoleon who was a very short General like Adekunle with unusual military skill.

    He was a soldiers’ soldier. He was a credit to Sandhurst, that military academy that trained the first crop of officers and gentlemen of the Nigerian army. If the civil war had not been among brothers, Adekunle’s exploits would have gone down into history like those of his military colleagues in other lands. He remains an unforgettable hero of the Nigerian-Biafra civil war and his place in Nigerian history is settled.

  • Tribute to Prof. J. F. Ade-Ajayi

    Within government, institutional and corporate circles, the University of Lagos is generally regarded as first amongst equals. There is no pretense about this to the extent that the official slogan of the University is “University of First Choice and Nation’s Pride.”

    The foundation of this enviable position was laid by great scholars who piloted the ship of the University over the years. One of these great scholars was the late Emeritus Professor J. F. Ade-Ajayi, who will be laid to rest tomorrow, September 19 in Ikole-Ekiti. He was aged 85.

    In the words of Emeritus Professors Michael Omolewa and Akinjide Osuntokun, “Ajayi was largely responsible for giving the University of Lagos its academic character, credentials and physical infrastructure”. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos from 1972-1978.  In a reminiscent piece entitled: “Ade-Ajayi’s Years of Development at the University of Lagos”, Professors A. F. Ogunye and T.G.O. Gbadamosi said his tenure was characterized by growth, development and expansion.  “The University made notable strides in the area of constitutional, academic and physical development.  These generated public awareness and interest in the university, thus leading to financial and moral support for the institution.”

    In the area of physical development, Ogunye and Gbadamosi argued that “about 21 buildings emerged including hostels for both male and female students and sports centre.  Faculty buildings included those for Chemical Engineering, Mass Communication, Science, Arts and Advanced Legal Studies. Service buildings included the Health Centre, Main Auditorium, Conference Centre and Guest Houses”. Till date, these buildings greatly eased the problem of congestion and consequently enhanced teaching and research in the university.

    In the area of sports development, Prof. Ogunye and Gbadamosi recalled how Prof. Ade-Ajayi’s tenure removed the derogatory remark of “Eko  for show” which was usually used to present Lagos athletes as only good in flashy and flamboyant dresses and not good on the field of play.

    According to the duo: “Eko for show’ was revised and re-coined ‘Eko for Gold’ when Unilag made a tremendous impact at the 7th NUGA games hosted by Unilag in 1978.  She won a total of 19 gold medals to place second behind UNIFE’s 20 gold medals.”

    Amongst students of the University who excelled in different sports during Ade-Ajayi’s tenure were Tony Omoregbe, Adokie Amasiemeka, Felix Owolabi and Francis Onwuchi, who were once key members of the national football team, the Green Eagles. A sports commentator, Hameed Adio also featured prominently along with P. Idahosa, Joshua Kio, Felicia Ochonogor and Eseroghene Ibini who were track and field athletes who represented Nigeria and excelled at several international competitions.

    Accommodation was a major problem of students in the University before the Ade-Ajayi era.  The Ashby Commission originally conceived the university as non-residential. However, the plan was abandoned when it was discovered that majority of the students came from outside the state.

    In the words of Ogunye and Gbadamosi, “Ade-Ajayi addressed the problem by building additional halls. Jaja Hall was built in 1973, Block C was added to Amina Hall in 1975, an extension was made to Moremi Hall in 1975 and a New Hall Complex or the 2,000 students’ hostel was built in 1978, all during Prof. Ade-Ajayi’s era.”

    Revealing the foundation of Unilag becoming the Nation’s Pride and University of First Choice, Professors Ogunye and Omolewa argued that the foundation was laid by Prof. Ajayi through what they called “a superb staff development programme”.

    Using the Chemical Engineering Department as an example, they revealed that from the onset, any first class graduate of the department was appointed an Assistant Lecturer outside the department quota and sent abroad for a Ph.D programme – while running his salary at home and wholly supported by the university abroad.

    “Some of the staff who benefitted under the scheme included Prof. Abiola Kehinde, Prof. John Edewor, Prof. Kayode Abdul-Kareem and Prof. Rahamon Bello, the current Vice-Chancellor of Unilag.

    “The generous staff development programme in Chemical Engineering was equally applied to other departments in the university. Some of the beneficiaries included Prof. Akin Oyebode to University of Toronto, Canada for his Ph.D in Law and Prof. Peter Adeniyi to the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, for his Ph.D in Remote Sensing.”

    It is gratifying to note that both Oyebode and Adeniyi became vice-chancellors of University of Ado-Ekiti and Federal University of Technology, Akure, respectively.

    Olusegun Akinluyi, who worked closely with five substantive Vice-Chancellors and three acting vice-chancellors of the university, described Prof. Ade-Ajayi as an academic administrator/administrative academic par excellence, a historian and reflective visionary with a clear mission, an informed innovator, a transformer of the occasional potential crises of senate into developmental advantage and a leader who at meetings did not relish the silence of the graveyard but welcomed criticisms and brainstorming.

    Frontline politician, Chief Ebenezer Babatope similarly described Ade-Ajayi, who was his boss as Vice-Chancellor of University of Lagos between 1973 and 1978, as a man of ideas. “He influenced many lives while he was at the head of the administration of the university.

    “Ever unruffled by events, Prof. Ade-Ajayi was ever at home with all those who believed in the dissemination of the truth in the discussion and analysis of men, matters and events of any situation”.

    Prof. Anthony Asiwaju, who wrote a piece entitled: “Insertion of Unilag as a World-Class University” in a collection of essays which elucidated J. F. Ade-Ajayi’s life and career, said Prof. Ade-Ajayi worked very hard for the re-positioning of Unilag as a world-class university.

    While describing Ajayi’s vice-chancellorship as watershed and full of uncommon accomplishments, Prof. Asiwaju said “Perhaps, the most indelible marks of Ajayi’s feat in repositioning Unilag for the status of a world-class university were the so many qualitative infrastructural expansions that still stand in witness.

    “First, were the structures that were aimed at enhancing qualitative academic productivity. These included the present Faculty of Arts building including the Arts Lecture Theatre, Faculty of Science, the Chemical Engineering building and the University Auditorium.

    “Next were the structures targeted at advancing the cause of an integrated academic community. These were outfits which drastically reduced off-campus accommodation of staff. They included such new residential houses and block of flats as the three multi-storey lagoon-side towers, the nearby College of Medicine residences, the adjacent new professorial houses on the Main Campus and the blocks of flats on the grounds of the defunct College of Education”.

    Asiwaju further identified the ultra-modern Staff Club building, the Bookshop building and refurbishing of the Main Library, amongst others.

    Consequent upon his landmark achievements in office, it would not be out of place if one of the structures put in place during his tenure, preferably, the Main Auditorium is named after him, in appreciation of his exemplary leadership.

    Similarly, other Vice-Chancellors that followed his footsteps, especially, Prof. Akin Adesola (1981-1988) as well as Prof. Jelili Adebisi Omotola (1995-2000) should equally be appreciated, so as to encourage future vice-chancellors of the university to work harder for the sustenance  of the laudable legacies of their predecessors.

    It could be recalled that Prof. Akin Adesola constructed the New Senate House and the second access road. He also expanded and repackaged the main entrance to the university. Prof. Omotola, however, built the Multi-Purpose Hall, established Unilag Ventures, the platform through which the university till date produces Unilag Water, Unilag Bread, amongst others, introduced the students’ work-study scheme and made several academic and non-academic members of staff house owners.

    While the new Senate House could be named after Prof. Akin Adesola,, the Multi-Purpose Hall could also be named after Prof. Omotola.

    • Popoola, teaches at the Mass Communications Department, Unilag.

  • Tribute to Professor Ade-Ajayi

    When Professor Ade-Ajayi turned 85 recently, a book with the title of J.F Ade-Ajayi, His Life and Works was presented with pomp and pageantry at the new University of Ibadan Conference Centre to celebrate an iconic figure in the history of African academia.

    Professor Ajayi was born in Ikole, Ekiti State to a doting father and an enterprising mother. His father was a local post man and a counsellor in the palace of the Elekole. Even with his limited exposure to western education, his father knew that the key to a bright future for his young son was education. He therefore billeted the young Jacob in the house of a local teacher so that he could have a head-start among his colleagues. Later, he was sent to Ado-Ekiti where he also lived with a teacher and friend of his father while he was going to the Ekiti Central School that later metamorphosed into the famous Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti. It was from Ado-Ekiti that at the age of 11 in 1940, Ajayi left for Lagos, the frontier of opportunity at that time and enrolled in Igbobi College for his secondary education.

    Igbobi College brought the young man into contact with other Nigerians. While in school, he never took the second position he also never played any games and rose to become as was expected school library prefect and from that time onwards, he and the world of books could not be separated. He was not only a bibliophile and a bookworm, he was also determined to go as far as his brain would take him. On leaving Igbobi College, he was too young to go to Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, the only university in West Africa affiliated with Durham University in England. He also did not have rich parents who could have sent him abroad. He contented himself with taking examination to the Yaba Higher College to read English, Latin and History.

    As providence will have it, University of Ibadan opened its gate in 1948 and Ade-Ajayi crossed over and was one of its first students. Three years later, he graduated with a general degree in English, Latin and History. He later went to Leicester University where he took a first class honours degree in History and he later went to the University of London for a PhD in History.

    He returned to Nigeria in 1958 and within five years of returning home, he had not only become a professor but one whose views were very much sought after at home but particularly abroad. With Professor Onwuka Dike, he blazed the trail of the study of African History and African Historiography generally. Before this time, Euro-American historians dismissed the idea of African history and asserted that Africa had no history and that if it had any, it must be the activities of the Europeans in Africa. One even famously said, Africa was a dark continent and darkness was not a subject of history. Ajayi and others both in Africa and some in Europe and America embarked on the diligent search and study of the African past. The absence of written documentation, they asserted did not mean the absence of history and that in any case, it is not the entire African continent that lacked written civilisation as can be evidenced by written materials on North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Sudan belt of Africa, the eastern coast of Africa and the southern part of Africa where European and Arab accounts of the places provided substantial material for the study of the African past. Even where there were no documents, Ajayi and others led the world in the understanding of the usefulness of remembered accounts as contained in oriki, cognomen, oral poetry, kinglist, festival re-enactments of the past etc. Memorised history by griots and other professional historians in the courts of rulers who must remember their histories or lose their lives also provide materials for understanding the African past. Ajayi and others were able to unearth these golden materials for the purpose of elucidating the past of Africa and even foreshadowing the future. He and others taught Africa and the world, the fact that availability of written documents should not be equated with objectivity in history and that African history and other histories of other parts of the world should be studied from a multi-disciplinary approach from which even the sciences of archaeology, anthropology, botany, zoology, linguistics and the use of radio carbon-dating could be enlisted in unravelling the past of Africa.

    After Dike became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan and after he left in 1966 because of engulfing political problems in Nigeria, Ajayi became the torch-bearer of what later evolved into the Ibadan School of History. This school succeeded in establishing the fact and reality of African history and that it was a serious academic discipline worthy of pursuit. The impact of this school was in helping Africans and their leaders have confidence in themselves in the face of European denigration and psychological undermining. This led to the description of the Ibadan School as “a nationalist school of history” designed to challenge western orthodoxy that tended to see non-Europeans as inferior who had no history at all and that if they had any history at all, such history was not important.

    He was sought after and given generous grants to teach in American universities such as Stanford, Wisconsin, and North Western to mention a few as well as in British universities such as Birmingham, the School of African and Oriental studies of the University of London and even in Moscow. His reputation was so formidable that the Rockefeller Foundation generously endowed the University of Ibadan as Centre for African Studies. Ajayi’s scholarship carried him to the membership of the board of governors of the United Nations’ University in Tokyo of which he later became chairman. Ajayi did not just believe in the esoteric nature of scholarship, he applied his scholarship to give historical backing to the idea of the Lagos Plan of Action in 1970 arguing that African frontiers and boundaries were new phenomena associated with the ephemeral colonial phase of African development and that in the African past, African territories were open with no frontiers and that they meshed imperceptibly into one another. He was also one of those who set up the Association of African Universities (AAU) and he was active in the Association of Commonwealth Universities while he was Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos.

    Apart from helping to build the faculty of arts at the University of Ibadan and to help develop graduate studies in Ibadan, Ajayi was the one who built the University of Lagos from the ashes of ethnic rivalry to the pinnacle of a first class African university. Most of the physical landmarks existing in the University of Lagos today were built by Ajayi when he was Vice Chancellor.

    Ajayi’s life has touched the lives of several people in Nigeria and in the outside world. A grateful nation honoured him with the Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR) and he was also a winner of the academic laurel of the national merit (NNOM). He wrote several books and widely on several topics, just as mentored several students and he was a professor of professors because many of his former students have occupied and are occupying important academic positions in Nigeria and outside Nigeria today. Apart from being a seasoned academic, Ajayi was a thoroughly civilised man and a gentleman. A quiet worker not given to the loud noise of many of his compatriots and in his evening years, he devoted himself to the study of the Bible and the word of God. In all his endeavours, he was complimented by a virtuous and lively wife, Christine Ajayi who made the home environment so convivial for the flowering of the academic tree into which the academic mustard seed had grown. Ajayi’s life was also enriched by his four daughters and a son who are well grounded in their various academic and professional callings.

    Adieu our teacher, role model, inspirer and a great act to follow.

  • Adadevoh: A tribute

    SIR: Early April, Lagos State Health Ministry and Commissioner, Dr. Jide Idris, appealed to all health practitioners to watch out for patients presenting symptoms of Ebola so that Nigeria would be delivered from the endemic disease already spreading through Guinea.

    The burly patient that she admitted on Sunday, July 20 had just flown in from nearby Monrovia, having cleared airport screening for hidden weapons, hazardous materials, and illegal substances, with the might of ECOWAS bureaucracy beside him, a passport of the United States of America with him, and powerful Government connections behind him.

    What the airport security was ill-equipped to detect, however, was an even deadlier national threat – the virulent etiological agent for Ebola! Hence, in his medical history, he conveniently denied his recent contact with a case of Ebola, visits to any person infected with the virus in a hospital, or participation in a funeral of a person who died of the disease. All three criteria, it turns out, precisely described Patrick Sawyer’s status vis-a-vis the late sister, Princess, whom he lost to Ebola, on July 8.

    In Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, an epidemic met its match that effectively stopped its incurable match of death. Obligations to the Hippocratic Oath of her noble profession compelled the Senior Consultant Physician to do no harm but only good. Her august patient had just landed from endemic Liberia with distinctive symptoms; therefore, she summoned uncommon courage, ignored his denials, queried Ebola nonetheless, arranged for blood analysis, and skilfully turned his hospitalization into quarantine! By doing this, she stopped an epidemic and saved a nation from a deadly virus.

    As soon as his test from LUTH came back presumptive positive, she promptly alerted Federal and Lagos State Health Ministries. In so doing, she identified the index Ebola patient on Nigerian soil, stopped nationwide spread of the virus, and saved a nation from an epidemic!

    A private clinic that relies on corporate retainer-ship and patronage of the affluent to get by, should not mess around with a VIP patient; but that, in a nutshell, is all she did by defying the petulance of a Liberian ECOWAS delegation that pressured her to discharge Mr. Sawyer to attend the “8th Joint Retreat of ECOWAS Institutions, Permanent Representatives and National Units”. By denying him medical clearance to proceed to Calabar, she saved Nigeria from an imminent epidemic….

    While she gave him medical care for his disease, he gave her medical disease for her care! But she patiently absorbed the impact of the infection that she contracted unwittingly without spreading it. In so doing, she saved her nation and averted a looming epidemic that was not!

    …Yes, with her very life, she made a supreme sacrifice but saved a nation from ominous Ebola epidemic!

    If ever a case or nominee for posthumous National honour is needed, CASE CLOSED…!!

    Much Respect, many Thanks, and GOD bless the memory of Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh…!!!

    • Joe Okungbowa (Ph. D)

    Miami, Florida, USA.

  • Tribute to Chike Offodile (1924-2014)

    A lawyer Ike Uko in this piece pays tribute to the late Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Chike Offodile.

    When earlier in the month, the news of the passing on of a great jurist and cultural icon Chike Offodile broke, most people, who knew him mourned the passage of the great man.

    I first met Chief Chike Offodile in  2000 at Sheraton Hotel and Towers Abuja, during the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association. I was a candidate for the office of Assistant Publicity Secretary in that year’s election.

    Since all senior advocates were automatic delegates, I approached any such senior lawyer I could reach. I approached the genial old man and sought his support for my ambition. He listened to me, wished me well and promised to vote for me.

    I was excited and thanked him. It was unbelievable that such a great man that was Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice as far back as 1984-1985 could be so approachable. That encounter led me to know more of him.

    As a boy growing up in Onitsha Urban Town in the 70s, one cannot but hear of his name as one of the great lawyers in town. But nothing more than that except seeing lawyers in their trade dress as one went to school in the morning passing through the High Court.

    I discovered that the legal icon attended the great Christ the King College, Onitsha, taught briefly at St. Mary’s Primary School and worked for about 10 years at the then post and Telegram Department (fore-runner to NITEL) before he travelled to England to study law. He qualified in 1959 and came back to Nigeria same year to enroll as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. There was no Nigerian Law School then and newly qualified lawyers merely enrolled in the Supreme Court and go straight to practice.

    Chike Offodile practised under another giant of the legal profession, Chuba Ikpeazu, the illustrious father of Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN and others. You can tell much about a person from the company he keeps. Chuba Ikpeazu also attended Christ the King College, Onitsha being among the second set of students.

    He studied Pharmacy at the then School of Pharmacy Yaba and practised it before jetting out again to Cambridge University where he studied law and was called to bar in 1946. He practised and became a Queens Counsel in 1961 before his elevation to the High Court of the Federation Capital Territory, Lagos, in 1962. He was among the pioneer members of the inner bar, who took appointment as judges (as is common in the United Kingdom).

    Back to our subject-matter, apart from legal practice he was very much at home with his Onitsha custom and tradition. He took the Ozo Title and rose to become the Onowu Iyasere of Onitsha. He became Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 1979. As at his death he was the oldest practicing senior advocate in the old eastern region and junior only to two others who got the rank in 1978. In 1984, he became Attorney-General and Minister of Justice under the Military Government of Major-General Muhammadu  Buhari and Brig-Gen Tunde Idiagbon. It was a trying period for the nation that was divided between following the rule of law to the letter and stemming the tide of monumental corruption by the ousted civilian regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Decrees were churned out as is customary in Military regimes to deal with the challenges of the revolutionary government. My condolences go to the family, especially to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) son Francis Chukwuemeka Offordile and Nneka Offordile the daughter, a past Legal Adviser of the Nigerian Bar Association.

    •Ike is a former Assistant Publicity Secretary of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).