Excellence, Service and Patriotism
by
Akin Oyebode

Text of a Lecture delivered at the Commemoration of the
Life and Times of Late Professor Ayodele Awojobi,
organized by the University of Lagos Engineering Class 69-72 on July 9, 2008
at the Julius Berger Auditorium, University of Lagos.

Akin Oyebode is Professor and Head,
Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, University of Lagos

Introduction

In the great universities of the world, the memories of great scholars and scientists are usually kept alive by having structures or chairs named after them as a means of inspiring on-coming generations to strive to attain or even surpass their larger-than-life statures and exploits. It does not appear as if Nigerian universities have fully appreciated these norms since we are yet to evince sufficient acknowledgement of the contributions of the great minds that it has pleased Providence to allow to pass through the portals of our higher institutions.

It is, therefore, my intention to begin this presentation by saluting the 1969-72 Mechanical Engineering set of the University of Lagos for their high sense of history and awareness of the need to acknowledge and celebrate our great men and women of learning by deeming it fit and proper to host events commemorating the life and times of the late Professor Ayodele Awojobi, undoubtedly, one of the most gifted and insightful teachers that have ever paraded the precincts of this great citadel of learning. Anyone who had had the good fortune to encounter the incredibly talented and prodigious polyvalent academic, would agree that Awojobi was indeed a man and a half, the likes of whom appear, perhaps, only once in a generation.

The man in whose honour we are here gathered today, the late Ayodele Awojobi, was an uncommon academic, engineer, inventor, author, social commentator and political activist. It is no exaggeration to say that in Awojobi, we were presented with a man who approximated a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein rolled in one. It was as if our late Professor had a premonition that his sojourn on this planet was going to be brief. For, he packed so much into his life and thereby succeeded in leaving his footprints on the sands of time.

Professor Ayodele Awojobi, as we all know, had graduated with a First Class in Mechanical Engineering from the Ahmadu Bello University and ended with a Ph.D. and D.Sc. from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London. He became a Professor at 37 and died at 47, that is, for just 10 years during which period he demonstrated thorough grounding especially in mechanical vibrations and numerous academic disciplines, so much so that he soared so high in public consciousness as both a consummate engineer and critical social analyst, the omission of whose exploits would be clearly inexcusable in any chronicle of people and events in Nigeria of his time and beyond.

Professor Awojobi showed through his uncanny intellect, uncompromising attitude towards academic excellence and dogged commitment to the betterment of the society the promise and possibilities of Nigeria. His heritage is a perpetual challenge and inspiration to succeeding generations that the best is actually possible if only we are ready and willing to put things right in this country. The fact that we are today reminiscing about the exploits of the great man 24 years after his demise is sufficient proof, if there was any need for such, that death can only take away great men but it cannot destroy their good works.

Our prayer is that may Nigeria be blessed with more persons like Awojobi who would be well placed to illuminate the path towards a better Nigeria and constitute a searing and veritable scourge to evil-doers, negative forces and all those that do not wish the nation and the people well.

The Quest for Excellence

The theme of today's lecture is particularly apt because Awojobi can be considered an epitome of all that is excellent, patriotic and in the public interest. However, the beginning of the discourse should be the struggle to attain excellence in both our private and public lives. Without what Subomi Balogun had characterized as "the culture of excellence," it is doubtful if we can ever play in the big leagues. The nation seems to be afflicted with the tyranny of mediocrity at almost every facet of human endeavour and except and unless and only to the extent that we as a people decide to imbibe the sense of best practices in all that we do, the nation would continue to be caught up in the labyrinths of diffidence, self-doubt, stunted growth and hopelessness.

The search for excellence should perforce begin with ensuring that only the best is good for Nigeria and the only way to do this is by insisting that our best and brightest occupy the highest positions of power, influence and authority in the country. A rigidly enforced meritocracy in the dispensing of preferment is apt to lift the country up from its present morass of poverty, underdevelopment and disillusionment. Accordingly, the pursuit of excellence should start from the process of recruitment of the nation's elite and the placing of round pegs in round holes.

Right from the kindergarten to the university, we need to encourage and promote a culture of reward and advancement based on merit and intellect. To the extent that the quality of life of the people depends on the quality of those manning our institutions, to that extent should we have to insist that the best persons available are put in charge of our affairs without heed for extraneous considerations such as ethnic origin, creed or gender. In other words, we have to inculcate in our people the sense of excellence such as to accept the desideratum of perfection or near-perfection, especially in our public institutions manned, as is being here suggested, by the most capable and competent hands available.

Excellence, undoubtedly, abounds everywhere in the country What has been lacking hitherto has been a deliberate and conscious effort to seek it out. Of course, excellence carries a high price tag but if we possess the will to entrench it in our national life, we should be prepared to pay the price without caring whose ox is gored. It is instructive that the foundations laid by the Mandarinate system during the Chi'n dynasty in ancient China formed the leitmotif for the current successes being scored by present-day China. Same can be said of the preparations laid during the Meiji period of Japanese history which account, to a considerable extent, for the Japanese ascendancy in the current global political economy. Thus, an enlightened ruling class would make a conscious policy decision to cultivate excellence by way of developing the country's human capital in order to ensure the emergence of a self-propelled and competitive economy in an increasingly difficult, uncaring, beggar-thy-neighbour world.

In a situation where only bones are left for late-comers, time is definitely not on the side of a country such as ours which continually leaves undone what it ought to do. We can no longer afford to be sending forth our "third eleven," to borrow Chinua Achebe's words in a harsh economic climate where victorious generals do not like taking prisoners. This explains why sloganeering on Nigeria becoming one of the 20 most developed economies by 2020 is little more than hot air. As a wiseacre remarked recently, at the end of the day, we might actually end up among the bottom 20 economies in the world if the much-needed drastic action is not taken in critical areas of the economy. If there is no firm commitment to excellence and insistence on the best and brightest for positions in both the public and private sectors, we would only continue to move round in circles, with, as our people say, all motion, no movement.

Nigeria is amply gifted with resources, both natural and human. Nevertheless, the Nigerian predicament has been lack of a clear and focused leadership ready, willing and able to put square pegs in square holes with a view to moving the country to the next level of socio-economic and political transformation. The moment the country becomes blessed with the right kind of leadership, imbued with a sense of excellence and a tenacity of purpose, Nigeria should be able to square the nation's circles and make visible progress towards growth and development. The pursuit of excellence in all its ramifications, based on a clear-cut vision and mission would definitely launch the country along the path of finally realizing its incredible potentials.

While pockets of excellence and original thinking may exist in different areas of human endeavour, there is a definite need for coalescence of all the talents and informed views in the country within a holistic framework in order to impact in a meaningful way on the effort towards nation-building and improvement of the lot of the common man. It is the extent to which policies and activities are harnessed within a broad, national strategy that can help make a difference between success and failure. The multidimensional scope of the search for excellence compels new thinking by the powers-that-be on prioritization of the goals, objectives and strategic choices confronting the nation. Policies, programmes and actions need to be constantly fine-tuned and possibly, re-worked or re-configured in order to ensure proper focus and relevance. It hardly requires re-stating that such an exercise requires tremendous intellect and savvy in order for excellence to be achieved. Without the necessary strategic sensing and deliberate policy decisions, the nation cannot achieve optimal growth and development, regardless of pious declarations of intent.

In the final analysis, to recall the statement of Joseph de Maistre, a people get the government they deserve. Therefore, a well-informed society is apt to appreciate the necessity for excellence in the different facets of human activity. If this is so, we cannot stress too strongly the need of our people for greater appreciation of excellence in both our private and public lives if we seriously wish to number among the more enlightened members of the human race. Accordingly, every effort should be invested into nurturing a culture for excellence among our people. They should be ready and willing to decry any manifestation of indolence, corruption and mediocrity in our national life and hold themselves out and able to strive for a better society despite the risks associated with such a mind-set in contemporary Nigeria.

The devastation wrought on our psyche and developmental process by pervasive corruption is, quite simply, unimaginable. It is bad enough that we still rank among the most corrupt people in the universe. A situation where the cost of engineering projects in Nigeria is in multiples of what they cost elsewhere is definitely untenable. That the presentation of the Nigerian passport and travel documents at various foreign destinations would most often invite opprobrium and suspicion of some malfeasance or the other, should be enough to put all and sundry on notice regarding the world's perception of our country and ourselves. This brings into bold relief the necessity to inculcate new societal values, especially in relation to public service, which is our next issue of focus.

Serving the Common Interest

Nigerians tend to be self-seeking and self-serving when placed in positions of public service. In the face of a government that generally does not seem to care for anyone, it is quite understandable why our people have to fend for themselves and make self-interest their categorical imperative at every available opportunity. In a situation bordering on the hobbesian state of nature where life was "solitary, nasty, brutish and short," where every man cared for himself while the devil took the hindermost, it would be most imprudent, if not, in fact, downright suicidal for people not to be motivated by self-interest instead of an elusive and ill-defined public interest. Self-preservation, as we all know, is the first law in nature.

However, the truth of the matter is that no-one is or can really be an island to himself. Man lives in and is of society. The social Darwinist society foisted on us by votaries of free enterprise capitalism which extols individual freedom and liberties at the expense of the common good and the common cause can effectively lead to social disintegration and anarchy. It is for this reason that the privileged few must always spare a thought for the needs and interests of the larger society. More importantly, as Africans, we are basically a communal people, more attuned to thinking in the collective and communal than the dog-eat-dog notion bequeathed to us by our erstwhile conquistadores. Even in the advanced capitalist societies of the West which trumpet the advantages of freedom of contract and private property, it has been considered necessary to pay credence to feelings of solidarity and the utilitarian values of the welfare state in a bid to ensure a wholesome society.

Accordingly, whenever the issue of service crops up, it is imperative to pose the following questions : In whose interest? Should we continue to seek and pursue our individual interests whenever we are called upon to render service to the nation or the community? What should be put in place to check the propensity of members of the governing class for filthy lucre? Is it feasible to attempt a bridging of the gap between public and private morality? etc.

To some, man exists in this world, basically, to maximize his potentialities even if through a rabid and relentless pursuit of his interest. In fact, considerable jurisprudential ink has been wasted to justify the egoistic nature of man, sometimes, in fact, anchored on biblical injunctions. Quite often, the argument is along the line that man being the best judge of his interest, he is better placed than the state or the community to defend or pursue same. As J. S. Mill once opined, over his body and mind man is sovereign!

However, ranged against this body of opinion is the viewpoint which stresses the social nature of man and, therefore, places him under the superintendence of society. In the words of Jeremy Bentham, for example, the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the acid test of all governmental activity. Thus, leaving man to serve himself can only lead him to perdition. Within this perspective, society must always act in order to save man from himself which would, therefore, entail the enactment and enforcement of legislation founded on the ideals of social utilitarianism.

In considering these two diametrically opposed views, everything would seem to depend on one's perception of the nature of man and his purpose here on earth. If all there was to life was the need to satisfy one's epicurean tastes, then, perhaps, there would be no felt need for individuals to worry or care about societal interests. However, to the extent that man is a social animal, to that extent can it be said that he must pursue his interests with full cognizance of the needs and goals of society at large. Accordingly, there is an argument to be made in favour of dedicating one's life to the betterment of society.

Self-interest can, by no stretch of the imagination, be considered as being in the public or social interest except in pursuit thereof certain benefits are conferred on the public or society as a whole. The individual utilitarian could, of course, attempt to pass off his happiness for that of society but no-one is deceived except, perhaps, the unwary. Service to society, its needs and interests is, therefore, laudable and worthwhile. A life committed to social well-being is, surely, a life well-lived and worthy of emulation by the rest of society.

Service to humanity has always been extolled. From the saying of the ancients that it is fit and sweet to die for one's country to the biblical statement that there was no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for his friends, the sense of sacrifice of the self for the majority is clearly one of the highest of human values. It should be emphasized that by paying the supreme price in the service of the common cause, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola and innumerable heroes of the struggle to entrench democracy in Nigeria would be etched forever in the memories of the masses and indeed the Nigerian nation to the chagrin of the enemies of freedom and the open society.

Regrettably, the overly individualistic ethos which informs inter-personal relations in contemporary Nigeria mocks anyone actuated by feelings of brotherhood or love for the common cause and commitment to the public interest. This attitude should be seen as being both dysfunctional and counter-productive. Doing things for society without expectation of any reward is an attitude that should be encouraged especially among the young who labour under distorted values, lack of faith in the future and considerable despair and disillusionment. If Nigeria is ever going to make it as a wholesome and well- structured society, it is definitely not too early to start canvassing a re-orientation of values, advocating greater emphasis on, to paraphrase the late American President John F. Kennedy, what we all can do for the country rather than what the country can do for us. It is if, and only if we can implement this bit of social re-armament that we can rest assured that we are in the right track towards a better and more cohesive society.

Interestingly, leadership in the country hardly connotes service; rather, those in leadership positions expect to be served and tend to live off society without any qualms whatsoever. The arrival on the national political stage by a President who announced that he would like to be seen as a 'servant-leader' was met with considerable doubt and cynicism. The implication of this is that we are yet to come to terms with the idea that leadership connotes service and for as long as people see those in leadership positions as rulers or bosses instead of servants (which they really are), for that long would the country be enmeshed in authoritarianism, lack of transparency and non-accountability. Service to humanity is indeed one of the highest of human values and the earlier Nigerians apprehended this fact, the better for the future of the country. Altruism and love of fellow man are some of the enduring values of a good society. Regrettably, the jury is still out on whether or not the Nigerian leadership is prepared to imbibe such values.

The Catechism of the Patriot

Although, in the words of Samuel Johnson, patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel, there is a lot to say for love of country and commitment to the cause of the fatherland. In our own circumstance, where the country has remained largely a geographical expression, as Chief Obafemi Awolowo had characterized Nigeria over 60 years ago, patriotic feelings and an avowed commitment to the national cause are relatively scarce commodities among the population. Whenever discussions on the fate of the country arise, there is, more often than not, a consensus that Nigeria was not worth dying for.

Admittedly, institutions such as the armed forces, security and para-military organisations like the Police, Customs, Immigration Department and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the National Orientation Agency and even the National Youth Service Corps operate on the premise of patriotism and the desideratum of coherence in nation-building. However, there is ample room for improvement so far as patriotic sentiments go. While patriotism has more to do with a deepened consciousness of and commitment to the nation and its defence and protection at all times, it should not be allowed to degenerate into jingoism or xenophobia which are clearly antithetical to good neighbourliness and social well-being. The excesses of fascism and Nazism in the last century have taught the world the necessity never again to succumb to uncontrolled nationalist fervour. This is why the recent outburst in South Africa against immigrants from other African countries should be deprecated in no uncertain terms.

Of course, healthy patriotism evidenced by the emotions of football fans during World Cup or regional championships or indeed athletic contests in the Olympics and other global tournaments is, perhaps, the acceptable limit of the avowal of nationalist sentiments in today's world. Even then, some football fans have tended to carry things too far so much so that matches have sometimes had to be re-located to neutral venues in a bid to avoid mishaps. However, in an age of the obsolescence of the nation-state in favour of larger economic integration units across the world, patriotic sentiments are becoming gradually subdued and muted except, perhaps in Africa and the rest of the developing world whose romance with nationalism and patriotism is, generally speaking, of recent vintage and could be expected to endure for much longer.

In a sense, therefore, patriotism can be considered an unhealthy, if not, in fact, dangerous and inimical to international solidarity as well as social well-being. It needs to be given a short leash in order to curb its more deleterious aspects. Yet, it should be acknowledged that patriotism fulfills a positive role as a means of social mobilization and consolidation of efforts at nation-building.

A Peep into the Future

Nigeria occupies an incredibly strategic position in the scheme of things in the world. With abundant human and material endowments, Nigeria is better placed than most countries on the African continent to make the transition from the Third World to the First. The prospects of Nigeria are, to put it mildly, staggering. With over 90 universities, albeit at different stages of disrepair, countless polytechnics and colleges of education, Nigeria can be truly said to be at the take-off stage for socio-economic transformation.

The emphasis here on human capital development rather than reciting the statistics on oil production and export is deliberate in view of the reality of petroleum being a wasting asset, more so as the industrialized consumer economies are now fully seized of the task of inventing substitutes including bio-fuel, wind and water as energy sources in the face of prohibitive cost of oil imports. We should realize that our oil would dry up one day and even the abundant gas with which we are endowed might prove no solution to our developmental needs except we start planning right away. The observation by the late Claude Ake and Bade Onimode that Nigeria runs a 'disarticulate' economy, that is, an economy that produces what it does not consume and consumes what it does not produce is as poignant as ever. According to them, except, unless and only to the extent that Nigeria is able to link its production to its consumption can the country get a reprieve from its present position of stagnation, squalor and underdevelopment and assume its rightful place within the family of nations.

The very fact that successive administrations in the country have been unable to elaborate a feasible master plan for the country's rapid socio-economic transformation and instead concentrated on massive pillage of the nation's resources bespeaks a conscienceless political leadership, motivated solely by avarice and naked self-interest rather than the public interest and social amity. It is obvious that the present governing class lacks both the ideological and intellectual wherewithal and requisite commitment to steer the national ship to a safe berth. What is even more bothersome is the abysmal ignorance or unawareness of what needs to be done within a rigorous and well-thought out and realizable blueprint. Latching on to exogenous frameworks such as the Vision 20-2020 and other stratagems inspired by Policy Support Instruments of the Bretton Woods institutions, would only seem to suggest mental laziness and an insufferable inability to harness local expertise and know-how in the task of creating a new Nigeria.

What it all boils down to is the crying and urgent need to trust our own ability by deploying local expertise in confronting the critical problems of the day. Adopting a turn-key approach, for example, in the design and construction of projects constitutes a shameful and unacceptable vote of no confidence in our engineers. A new policy is, therefore, called for which would think Nigeria first before enlisting the help of the so-called foreign development partners. If other developing countries which have since turned the bend in their developmental efforts had relied so much on foreigners as we do, it is unlikely that they would be exuding the capability, self-confidence and competitiveness which have today made them objects of envy even by the technologically advanced countries of the West.

Our future, therefore, lies in self-reliance rather than an unthinking, wholesale imitation and concession of both our thought processes and institutions to those whose interests might not necessarily coincide with ours. We have the capability to create our own El Dorado. So much have the Arab Gulf states and Asian tigers demonstrated. What we have lacked hitherto is the will to attain self-actualization. There is no doubt in my mind that a dogged self-reliance and endogamous development strategy would unleash our creative genius and launch Nigeria along the path of self-discovery, modernization, national pride and self-fulfillment.

The argument usually made is that we do not need to re-invent the wheel and should, therefore, feel free to take advantage of the state of the art technology of the western countries. The point, however, is that there is a lot to be gained in learning by doing, aside from the issue of self-worth, satisfaction and self-confidence derivable from products emanating from our own imagination and ingenuity. Unfortunately, a leadership that runs abroad for routine medical tests cannot be expected to grasp the benefits of entrusting its own experts with the task of providing solutions to the urgent problems of the day.

Conclusion

Eight years into the 21st century, Nigeria is still enmeshed in general incompetence, illogicality and mass disillusionment. The fact stares us all in the face that the lack of the correct attitude to excellence, service and patriotism has been the bane of all our efforts towards national development. Although there are oases of promise and growth within the Nigerian firmament, such positive phenomena are, regrettably, few and far between.

The world has never known any such thing as a free lunch. Therefore, Nigerians must be prepared to lift themselves up by their bootstraps. We are equally endowed like other people in the rest of the world and, therefore, possess the ability to transform our country into a more wholesome environment. What has hitherto been lacking has been a leadership that would radiate a passion for excellence, service and a high level of patriotism. With the correct leadership, Nigeria should be able to turn the page on poverty, squalor and underdevelopment.

However, we need to keep hope alive and believe that in fullness of time, Nigeria's backwardness would become history. With many more Awojobis in different areas of our national endeavour, Nigeria would indeed be able to transcend its present niggardly circumstances and claim its deserved position in the international community.

I am done. I thank you very kindly for your attention.
 

The Man AYODELE AWOJOBI

	(1937 – 1984)

 ‘Prof. Ayodele Awojobi is, undoubtedly, one of the most gifted and insightful teachers that have ever paraded the precincts of this great citadel of learning. Anyone who had had the good fortune to encounter the incredibly talented and prodigious polyvalent academic, would agree that Awojobi was indeed a man and a half, the likes of whom appear, perhaps, only once in a generation’

........Akin Oyebode

‘At the University of Lagos in the late 70’s and early 80’s Professor Awojobi had held sway the University’s community with his seminal lectures like ‘Nigeria in search of a social order’, ‘where our oil money has gone’, "In search of a political order" and "Nigeria Today" amongst others which had made Awojobi an emerging participant of a literary insights of those days.’

........Paul Mamza

 "I became attracted to Ayodele Awojobi. And believe me, it is for this reason that I went to the faculty of Engineering and studied mechanical engineering. You see, I would not survive a day without reading all the newspapers. I met Awojobi in the journal... and I became attracted to him. And so I decided that I was going to study whatever course this man read..."

......Justus Olugbenga Daniel

(a.k.a OGD)

 "Awojobi came to Park Lane (where Awolowo's residence was located in Apapa, Lagos) to argue with the leader. He would pick on any topic and argue with Chief Awolowo as if they were colleagues. He started buying books on law and was planning to do a degree in law so as to match Awolowo on points of law,"

......Odia Ofeimun

‘.I can only talk of Prof. Ayo Awojobi in the present. In Awojobi you see a thoroughly brilliant, confident, selfless and patriotic academic whose horizon is very wide. In the Faculty, he is primus inter pares. He is different things to different observers. A guy tells you if you can be an engineer, you can be any other thing you choose to be. If you end up being an engineer, you will love him and say he is brilliant. If you are unable to make it, you will hate him and call him a braggart. He is all of the above.’ 

...... Titi Omo-Ettu

 …the late Professor (Ayodele Awojobi) established a sound and worthy reputation as a gifted scientist but one with a social conscience as evident in his revolutionary interrogation of the Nigerian State in the media."

......Reuben Abati

  '...I thought if by chance I found myself in the position of power, I would honour this man who, even in death, endured verbal attacks from those he fought for....

...... Kunle Awobodu

 ‘Prof. Ayo Awojobi, in his life-time, was a rare Nigerian, part of a special breed whose major interest was the welfare of others and indeed, of the Nigerian nation at large. He was truly respected and highly revered by his students for his uncommon brilliance and uncanny ability to reduce the rigours of engineering science to simple logic and easy vocation. At another plane, he fought relentlessly for the institution of probity and accountability in government and transparency and focus in governance.

.........Temilola Kehinde

 ‘If Ayo Awojobi had lived to old age, he would have been seventy-one years old now. Having completed his PhD in 1964, two years after a Bachelors degree, he came in as one of the pioneers of the then new Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos in 1965. Professor Ayo Awojobi died at the relatively young age of 47 in the heat of the battle for a better Nigeria. That battle still rages on. Sometimes one shudders at the risk and other things Awojobi would have done under the Abacha regime he did not live to see’ 

...........O A. Fakilede

 To be a social crusader in favour of the amelioration of the human condition is normally a courageous selfless feat. To be iconoclastic in challenging the rulership of the day for not living up to popular yearnings, that takes exceptional courage. The late Prof. Awojobi was not only exceptionally selfless and courageous, he was both an epitome and personification of encyclopaedic intellectual ingenuity. He was, therefore, a quintensential role model.

.........Adebayo Ninalowo

There is a generation of Nigerians who do not know anything about Prof Awojobi, it is incumbent and imperative that his memory is not besmirched by specious comparisons because if we do not set the records straight, who the hell will?

.........Tunde Bilesanmi,
 

Celebrating an Icon:
A Proposal for the Ayodele Awojobi Centre:
An Engineering Teaching & Learning Centre, University of Lagos

by
Adegbenro, Professor O (Class of 1972)
Aiyesimoju, Dr. KO (Class of 1981)
Mowete, Dr. AI (Class of 1980)
Damisa, Dr. OO (Class of 1973)
Fakinlede, Professor OA (Class of 1977)

Introduction

If he had lived to old age, the late Professor Ayodele Awojobi – Nigeria's first professor of Mechanical Engineering would have been seventy-one years old now. Having completed his PhD in 1964 (two years after Bachelor's degree), he came in as one of the pioneers of the new faculty of engineering in the following year. It is a welcome development that classes of University of Lagos engineering alumni are gathering to honour him at this point in time. Professor Ayodele Awojobi died at the relatively young age of 47 in the heat of the battle for a better Nigeria. That battle still rages on. Sometimes one shudders at the risks and other things Awojobi would have done under the Abacha regime he did not live to see! The University of Lagos of his time consisted of a star-studded faculty of many who remain house-hold names till this day. Several did not live to old age (Professors Olakanpo, Fagbemi etc were in that class) From the Faculty of Engineering, Ayodele Awojobi was the quintessence of that generation and our faculty's best brand. It is not too late in the day to celebrate our icon.

Professor Awojobi was always an all-round student all his life. Mathematics and History were studied with equal vigor and passion. He could start an argument with a freshman (today's JAMBite) on religion or psychology and he exhibited that academic tradition of allowing superior argument to win. It is no wonder that his influence transcended engineering and Unilag to become one of the most famous university professors in Nigeria. Many will remember him as the major witness during the twelve two thirds political wizardry of a pre-Maurice Iwu electoral magic. Awojobi shouted himself hoarse telling Nigeria what the allegedly missing 2.8 billion Naira would do to educating Nigerian youths if the money had been spent in that way. Lucky man, he left the scene before the money stolen from public purse went to a higher order of magnitude! Awojobi was loved with passion. Students loved him and would carry him shoulder high anytime he tried to give a public lecture! He was also hated the same way. On his fortieth birthday, March 1977, he organized what he called Birthday Lectures. Daily Times, the highest Circulating Daily at that time wrote a condemnatory editorial arguing among other things that Awojobi was “talking when older and wiser men were quiet!” He was Head of the Mechanical Engineering in my final year. We went to complain that we did not have a lecturer for a particular course. Awojobi had convinced us there was no problem within five minutes of our reaching his office and gave us a political lecture for thirty minutes after. We completely forgot the ire with which we went to his office initially.

State of the Faculty

The faculty of engineering at the peak period in Awojobi's time boasted a star-studded class of professors and lecturers up to fifty in number from the best engineering schools the world over. A cursory look at the Faculty of Engineering prospectus of the 70's reveals a list of degrees from the top ten universities in today's world rankings. Even among this group, Awojobi, with a D.Sc from the famous Imperial College of Science & Technology was a man apart.

Something untoward happened to our engineering faculty in the intervening years. The student population in 1973 was about 300 students in four departments. Today, we have nearly ten times that number in twice as many departments. The famous drawing offices at rooms 106, 115 and 206 did not graduate to become technical computing and graphics laboratories; instead, they are poorly equipped, overcrowded and leaky classrooms. Many returning alumni will recognise some old equipment and laboratories only that the former are obsolete, in a state of near disrepair and the rooms may be leaking and certainly inadequate for their present mandate. Surely, the faculty of engineering needs a new lease of life!

It has not all been bad news. The faculty that Awojobi left has been there up in front – leading other Nigerian engineering schools in many ways. The NLNG prize in Engineering for this year was won by Dr. Meshida of the Department of Civil Engineering just as Professor Susu and Dr Abhulimen of Chemical Engineering had done a few years before. Professor Susu of Chemical Engineering, Distinguished Professor Olunloyo of Systems Engineering as well as Emeritus Professors Oladapo and Orangun of Civil Engineering have all won the National Order of Merit Awards. Unilag engineering graduates are doing very well indeed both locally and internationally. Yet, it is time to raise our game beyond the local context. We need to move beyond rejoicing that we have had teachers from the world's top universities to a point where we too can be justifiably described as a member of that same league. That journey is a long one. A new Centre for Teaching and learning within this faculty may be the best way to start that. Naming it after such an icon as Professor Awojobi creates an avenue to immortalize our best brand and make his achievements and value part of the lives of present and future students of this great faculty. 

 Proposed Centre

This short tract proposes to initiate a change of this situation by providing better facilities for the faculty of engineering in a teaching and learning centre named for the late professor - “The Ayodele Awojobi Centre”. This will consist of a block of four storey buildings of laboratories, Seminar and Lecture rooms as well as a Lecture Theatre. Our estimated cost for the physical structure is two hundred million Naira while three hundred million Naira is our estimate for the equipment. It is hereby proposed that this sum of five hundred million Naira (N500,000,000.00) be raised for building and equipping the Ayodele Awojobi Centre as a starting point of a wholesale rebuilding and rebranding of the University of Lagos Faculty of Engineering.  

Challenge to this gathering

There is the need for a powerful International Coordinating Committee to oversee the fund-raising and delivery of this Centre. The local committee can serve as secretariat of the whole process and will be able to provide all the support services. Alumni, students, parents, staff, friends and all other well wishers of this faculty who are in positions of power and influence can deliver this product in a very short time. Such people are hereby invited and encouraged to give generously to this project. Leaders of corporate bodies may even be able to do much more than making personal gifts and interventions. Such people are also needed to be part of the National coordinating committee who will later constitute or appoint the governing board for the Ayodele Awojobi Centre. We will also be grateful for additional ideas and suggestions of what we can add to the present proposition to achieve the set objectives of the Centre.

AYODELE OLUTUMINU AWOJOBI
LIVES ON!!

BSc, PhD, DIC, DSc (Lond)
‘Ayus Perchlorate Hyperchlorisa’
‘Macbeth’
‘Giant of Akoka’
‘Professor Dead Easy’
‘Romeo’
Engineering Genius

by
’Busola and ’Yombo Awojobi
9th July 2008.

Ayodele Olutuminu Awojobi was born on Friday the 12th of March, 1937 at Oshodi, Lagos State. His father was the late Chief Daniel Adekoya Awojobi of Itun-Elepe, Ijomu Quarters, Aga Ward, Ikorodu, Lagos State, a retired stationmaster with the Nigeria Railway and the former President of the Christian Union of Ikorodu and the Environs from 1977 to 1986. His mother was the late Madam Comfort Bamidele Awojobi (nee Adetunji) a petty trader from Modakeke, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

Young Ayodele spent his early life with his brothers and sisters in Lagos under the watchful eyes of our mother as he attended St. Peter’s Primary School, Faji, Lagos from 1942 to 1947. Like his siblings, he was literate in Yoruba, knew the first hundred numerals and the alphabets in English before he was five years old. We were taught by our mother who, as a house girl, learnt to read and write from the children of her master and mistress in Lagos.

Like most geniuses who pass on without writing their biographies, his teenage years are encapsulated in the words of Professor Olajide O Ajayi, CON, a classmate of our elder brother, Engineer Oluyinka Awojobi, at a recent lecture:

These brilliant performances later culminated in his setting the school’s new record at the then West African School Certificate Examination, when he scored eight distinctions in the 1955 examinations. This result remained as the school’s record until 1967 when it was improved upon by one of Ayodele’s younger brothers – Oluyombo.

Brother ’Yinka would call Ayodele ‘Ayus perchlorate hyperchlorisa’ (coined from Latin and Chemistry) because they often engaged in seminal discussions till the early hours of the morning.

The late Revd Canon B A Adelaja, the twenty year-long-serving Principal of our alma mater wrote in the 1969 annual school report:

Seven more Awojobis were educated at CMS Grammar School. The thirteenth graduated in 2003 with excellent grade. Altogether, four generations of Awojobis have passed through the school from 1937. No other family can lay claim to that feat in the oldest and the best grammar school in Nigeria.

In 1955, which was Ayodele’s final year at the Grammar School, the Dramatic Society of the School, of which he was a member, staged William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth”. Ayodele was asked to play the lead role of Macbeth when the original actor took ill one week before the premiere. It was claimed by many of his colleagues that, in playing the role of Macbeth, Ayodele, in fact, committed to memory the whole of “Macbeth”. Thus, during rehearsals, he was able to prompt other actors in their lines.

After leaving C.M.S. Grammar School, Lagos, Ayodele worked briefly at the Federal Government Secretariat, Broad Street, Lagos before he left for the Nigerian College of Arts Science and Technology, Ibadan to read for the G.C.E. (Advanced Level) in Physics, Pure and Applied Mathematics. Needless to say, he successfully completed this course by scoring distinctions in the three subjects in June 1958. This brilliant result earned him a Federal Government scholarship to study Mechanical Engineering at the then Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria (now Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria).

His academic brilliance was again evident throughout his Engineering course, obtaining his first degree of BSc. (Eng.) London with First Class Honours in 1962.

Later in 1962, again with the award of a Federal Government scholarship “On Merit”, Ayodele left the shores of Nigeria for University of London’s prestigious Imperial College for his post-graduate course in Mechanical Engineering. Late in 1965, he submitted his thesis and this was successfully defended. He was awarded his PhD in 1966.

In March1963, Ayodele got married in London to Miss Mabel Abiola Iyabode Odetunde also of Ikorodu. The marriage was blessed with children most of whom have graduated from the University of Lagos.

In 1966, Dr. Ayodele Awojobi returned to Nigeria and was encouraged by his former lecturer at Nigerian College of Arts, Zaria, Prof. S.A. Adekola, to join the academic staff of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos, Akoka. These were the early years of the University and as a Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Ayodele Awojobi contributed immensely to the growth and subsequent worldwide recognition of the University’s Faculty of Engineering.

In 1974, Ayodele had the honour and singular distinction of being the first African to be awarded the post-doctorate degree of Doctor of Science, DSc, by examinations by the University of London. This great achievement contributed in no small measure to his being appointed a Professor by the Senate of the University a week after his promotion to the grade of Associate Professor.

He was 37 years old, one of three authorities in the whole world in his field, “Mechanical Vibrations and Resonance in Rigid Structures”. The other two were a Russian and an English.

When in 1972, Nigeria was going to change from left-to-right-hand driving, Ayodele, working with some of his students and technicians in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, successfully converted a Jeep from right to left hand steering. This fabrication he named AUTONOV 1 (from Automobile Novelty)

This is what the present governor of Ogun State, Engineer ’Gbenga Daniel, said about Brother Ayo in an interview published in The Guardian of Nigeria on 24th May 2003:

His younger brothers, ’Busola (civil engineer) and ’Yombo (medical engineer), who were taught Physics and Mathematics at the CMS Grammar School by Ayodele, have proceeded to

• fabricate Autonov 3 which is the conversion of the conventional motor cycle to a tricycle that serves as a personnel carrier or as a village ambulance,
• invent a manual haematocrit centrifuge from the rear wheel of the bicycle. This centrifuge revolves at 5 400rpm with a centrifugal force of 3 360g. It is more efficient and five times cheaper than the imported electric model.
• fabricate a portable concrete mixer using the back axle of the car and which can rotate 360° like the swivel chair.
• construct an operating table which is 80% wooden and 20% metal but functions like the imported brand made of cast iron and costs 90% less.
• produce a furnace that is fuelled by the dry maize cobs, coal or wood.
• fashion a water distiller from domestic gas cylinder and helical copper tubing. It is powered by the furnace and produces 10 litres of distilled water in an hour.

In academic circles, he was called ‘Professor Dead Easy’ as he would solve all mathematical problems without recourse to a textbook, eight-figure table or the slide rule!!

On the political and social scene he was ‘The Giant of Akoka’ because he defended the rights of the downtrodden during the military era and would defeat the lawyers to their game in the courts while the judge saved the latter’s face by ruling that he had no locus standi in the case!!

Professor Ayodele Olutuminu Awojobi’s sun eventually set in the morning of Sunday 23rd day of September, 1984 in his official residence at the University of Lagos, Akoka. The ‘Macbeth‘ took the final bow in the manner of another Shakespeare’s works, Romeo and Juliet, but his good works have not been interred with his bones.

On his future…

“At the age of 65, I will have built the infrastructure. There would be very few illiterates in Nigeria when I mount the soapbox. Then, I will go into proper politics.”

- Ayodele Awojobi in an NTA interview programme in 1981.
- Courtesy November SPEAR 1984 magazine

Some food for thought……