Caption: From left late Prof Ayo Banjo the 6th VC and Idowu Olayinka 12th VC of the University of Ibadan at the Nigerian Institute for International Affairs, Victoria Island in June 2022 where Bana Banjo received an award as a role model on education from the Hall Mark.
I thank the Vice-Chancellor and University Management for giving me this slot to speak at this Special Meeting of Senate in honour of our highly revered 6th Vice-Chancellor, Professor Emeritus Ladipo Ayodeji Banjo, NNOM, CON, FNAL, the first Professor of English Language in Nigeria.
The relationship between Baba Ayo Banjo and my humble self, was vertical. Those you taught at Government College Ibadan, and in the Department of English, University of Ibadan taught my teachers. For example, one of your former students at Government College Ibadan, Professor Thompson Adeyemi Badejoko, FNMGS, Past President Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society, recruited me as a Lecturer Grade II in 1988 when you his former teacher was still in the saddle as Vice-Chancellor.
Although you lived to a ripe old age of 90 you were too precious for us to have ever contemplated your ever leaving us. The last time I met with you in person was in December 2023. Although you had been homebound for some months before, then you still managed to crack jokes with your ‘twin brother’, Baba, Professor Emeritus Ayo Bamgbose. You even made an oblique and scary reference to the fact that you were not sure you would still be alive by the time you would turn 90. Within my heart I dismissed the idea. Happily, you were alive as of 2nd May 2024 which was your 90th.
Your two classical autobiographical works, In the Saddle (1996) and Morning by Morning (2019) would remain invaluable companion for anyone who aspires to lead a University in Sub-Saharan Africa.
About 11 years ago, I approached you to allow me collate all your speeches on education planning and management with the hope of publishing same. You consented. This was published in 2014 under the title Repositioning the Nigerian University System: Perspectives of an Insider: Selected Speeches of Professor Emeritus Ayo Banjo in Commemoration of his 80th Birthday. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press (Olayinka, A.I., 2014. Ed.). I have given the University Librarian a copy of the book for her to digitize so that it can form part of our Institutional Repository.
As a secondary school teacher at Government College Abraka, Government College Ughelli and Government College Ibadan before coming to the University of Ibadan as Lecturer, and through persistent hard work and seminal publications you rose through the ranks to become Professor, before your preferment as the Dean of Arts, Head of the Department of English, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and in retirement as Emeritus Professor of English as well as Pro-Chancellor at the University of Port Harcourt, University of Ilorin, Ajayi Crowther University Oyo, whatever you did not know about Nigerian education system is probably not worth knowing!
Ever since your demise, one had read many tributes in your honour from many individuals from different walks of life. They all alluded to your legacies of selfless service to God and humanity, your integrity, your fearlessness. Our sincere condolences to all members of the Banjo Dynasty, home and abroad. And to all your kits and kins in your ancestral homes at Ijebu-Igbo and Ijebu Ode, especially to your cousin, His Imperial Majesty, Kabiyesi, the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona.
We were very proud of you while you were alive; ironically we are even now prouder of you after you had crossed the veil to join the Saints Triumphant.
About three weeks ago, one of your friends, the eminent Professor Emeritus G O S Ekhaguere, NNOM, of our Department of Mathematics called me on phone. He inquired why was it that with all the achievements of Professor Ayo Banjo our University had not deemed it necessary to name a monument after our longest serving Vice-Chancellor. I thanked him for his observation but pointed out that the Vice-Chancellor’s lodge was re-named as Ayo Banjo Manor in 2019 by the Council of the University. He was relieved that we had given honour to someone most eminently deserving.
As I wrote in commemoration of your 90th birthday on 2nd May 2024, and which The Guardian (Lagos) was kind enough to publish on its back page the following day, ‘The wisdom of the sage is built on their age. The reason we need them is the number of seasons they have seen. A nation without the aged is like a people in a cage’.
Our supplication to God as you return to your maker is that may your kind return again and again among us, Baba Banjo.
Your memories shall remain evergreen in our minds and our hearts. Sun re oh, our father who held court in New Bodija, and who presided as the Chairman of Senate in this hallowed chambers from 1984 to 1991.
Good night, Sir.
Idowu Olayinka
Immediate Past Vice-Chancellor
University of Ibadan
Thursday, 8th August 2024
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