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……

 

BEYOND

RESONANCE

An Inaugural Lecture delivered at the University of Lagos

on Friday, 25 February 1977.

by

A O AWOJOBI, D.Sc (Eng.) London

Professor of Mechanical Engineering

University of Lagos.

NEWTON AND MOTION

The elementary Principle of Inertia first enunciated by Sir Isaac Newton late in the 17th century needs to be recalled here as a prelude to the fascinating science associated with the resonance of mechanical systems:

“Every body remains at rest or continues its uniform motion in a straight line unless otherwise impressed upon by an external force".

The statement conversely shows that in the absence of an externally impressed force, every body is either at rest or is moving with constant speed in a straight line.

It is a paradox of the motion of a class of systems subjected to mechanical vibrations that the first law of Newton is not true. The motion of a vibrating body is time-dependent and when the body is passing through its position of stable equilibrium there is instantaneously no external force impressed on it but it is neither at rest nor moving with uniform speed even when it is moving in a straight line.

Similarly when the body is at rest in either of its extreme positions of vibration, the externally impressed force does not vanish as the First Law dictates but, ironically, reaches its maximum value.

While the First Law is not true at such moments, we, adherents of Newtonian Mechanics, are relieved by the “Second Law” which clarifies the paradox of the motion of such a body.

Perhaps, were Sir Isaac Newton living in the hyper-legalistic society of contemporary times, he would have carefully framed his First Law to read:

"Subject to the provisions of the Second Law stated hereunder, every body remains at rest etc…"

We require also to direct attention to another aspect of the First Law - the “force” whose existence is needed to cause motion.

In considering this causal relation between force and motion, two related preliminary questions are necessary here: "What is motion? Does every type of force set a body into motion?”

Newton assumed that there would be motion as soon as there was a net force on the body, since to him, force and motion - like Siamese twins - were an inseparable pair. Indeed, according to Newton, there was no time-lag or phase-difference between force and the motion it caused.

Again, the fascinating science of resonance in mechanical vibrations shows that this is not true.

Motion, in Newtonian times, was conceived principally as a bodily movement and early experiments to verify the theory or Newtonian philosophical thought were based on rigid body apparatus. Contrary to Newtonian thought, a body on elastic suspension can be observed to be motionless indefinitely when a periodic force in a certain frequency range acts on it. With similar fascination does one watch a body suspended from a Wilberforce-spring continuously wandering from positions of linear motion to perfect rest to angular motion and back to linear motion. With relish also does one observe, the transfer of motion from one body to another, coupled by a flexible connection as the system exhibits the well-known phenomenon of "beats".

In these examples, there comes a time in the motion of the system when there is a sympathetic reaction to an externally impressed action at which time the beauty of resonance unfolds itself to our most curious gaze.

It is, therefore, appropriate at this juncture to ask: "What is this resonance that tends to shake our faith in Newton, the father of Mechanics, or unavoidably impels us to search and re­search the profundity of his ancient postulates”?

RESONANCE

The human body is a fine specimen of a network of vibratory motions: heart beats pound at regular intervals under the action of the restoring forces of cardiac muscles; at lower frequency; the chest is raised and lowered by the vibratory motion of the lungs; the limbs oscillate about appropriate joints whether in walking, trotting, jogging or running; the teeth chatter in cold, bitter weather at very high frequency, albeit in transient motion; finally, all the muscles are set into this characteristic to-and-fro motion during any type of physical exercise be it random or form­alised as in Yoga or the athletic routine set out in the curriculum of our University Department of Physical Education !

In these examples, it is easy to count the number of oscillations made per second to give us the most important and fundamental parameter of vibratory motion - the natural frequency.

However, a body does not have to be in motion to possess this property of natural frequency. Indeed, a system is usually at rest in some position of stable equilibrium but it has a natural frequency because it is a property of the system. It is a matter of simple experiment to estimate the natural frequency of such a system by displacing it from its position of stable equilibrium and counting the number of oscillations it makes within a known time interval.

Two problems immediately arise - the system may come to rest so quickly due to imbalance in the relative values of its inertia, stiffness and damping that no estimate can be made of its natural frequency. Secondly, its inertia may be so large that it cannot be displaced from its position of stable equilibrium even by a hammering blow. Whether or not we could find the natural frequency of a system by experimental methods, our first assump­tion is that every mechanical system, be it in motion or at rest, possesses at least a natural frequency.

In like manner, every mechanical system at one time or the other will come under the influence of some external excitation or generalized force. When the excitation is of a periodic nature it subjects the system to vibratory motions at the frequency of the external excitation. Such motions set up vibratory strains and stresses which generally result in fatigue leading sooner or later to failure of some component of the system depending on the level of the fatigue strains or stresses

The primary interest of vibration engineers is the undesirable situation when the variable frequency of the external excitation happens to coincide with a natural frequency of the system which is fixed by properties inherent in the system. It is known that under this condition, the level of fatigue stress is at its peak, the system vibrates with highly magnified amplitudes of motion in sympathy with the external excitation and, damage comes much sooner than later - a state of resonance has been reached by the system. .

Our modern concept of resonance heightens interest in its study for we consider the situation when the amplitude of the periodic external force is decreased until it becomes vanishingly small. It is found for this small periodic force that for all frequencies away from the neighbourhood of resonance, the system - for all practical purposes - is at rest, but when this small force is tuned to resonant frequency, waves of appreciable amplitude are propagated throughout the entire system.

Perhaps it is necessary to accentuate the magnitude of the disaster that is associated with very small forces exciting a system at resonance by some historical references to collapse of bridges due to wind action rather than collapses during construction due to negligence of any or all of the building team - civil engineers, architects, technicians, craftsmen, contractors and businessmen.

The effect of wind on stability of bridges has been a formidable problem and started attracting attention after the catastrophe of the first Tay-bridge built by Sir Thomas Bouch in 1877. The bridge spanning two miles (or 3.22 km) was completely destroyed by a gale eighteen months after its completion while 75 passengers with their Edinburgh mail train perished in the disaster.

Whilst this example arising from sheer brute force of the wind would not interest the vibration engineer, it serves as a good comparison for the same effect being produced by the action of very small forces as depicted by the next two examples.

The Broughton suspension bridge suffered collapse as a result of military action - a body of troops marching in unison and creating periodic impacts that coincided with its natural frequency of transverse vibrations !­

The singular example of the collapse in 1940 of the 2,800 ft span (or 854.4m) Tacoma Narrows bridge in the USA a few months after its completion was the real genesis of research into the problem of small wind forces on bridges. Investigations conducted showed that the collapse resulted from torsional oscillations of the bridge about its longitudinal axis due to the steadily growing periodic aerodynamic reactions of a gentle wind in the eddies of the wake downstream of the flow. This unexpected large effect of initially small disturbances has ever since taught traditionally static civil engineering designers to consult vibration engineers to make careful checks of the dynamic stability of any large structure like a bridge, dam, skyscraper or tower for each of its six degrees of freedom of motion before commissioning a half-baked design of a structure for use by the client.

After this introductory definition of 'resonance' we may still be wondering by asking ourselves: "What is the relationship between Resonance and a Chair of Mechanical Engineering which is being celebrated by this Inaugural Lecture"?

Mechanical Engineering as a subject largely devoted to machines and prime movers depends for its existence on the presence of forces acting on components of machinery and engines or in general, mechanical systems. In most cases, the effect of these forces is to set the component or system into motion which can either be unidirectional or oscillatory. The fact that most mechanical systems deal with cyclic processes or repetitive actions makes a study connected with forces producing oscillatory motion to be pre-eminently dominant and, therefore, of fundamental interest to mechanical engineers. The failure in service of components of mechanica1 systems is almost without exception due to strains and stresses arising from transient or sustained vibrations.

The field of study provided by the resonance of mechanical systems is practically unbounded and the choice of the class of systems in which a budding researcher might wish to specialize. I dare prescribe, would depend on his own natural frequency! By some natural inclination, I found myself fifteen years ago fascinated by the varied class of systems characterized by the vibrations of large-sized bodies on elastic soils. I was introduced at that time to a consultancy on the design of the Magla Dam to be built then in Pakistan.

                                                                                    3

                                        STATICS AND THE CIVIL ENGINEERING DESIGNER

Until recent times, the design of structures on soils is regarded as the domain of Civil Engineers. Unfortunately, the Civil Engineer­ing designer lives in a static world. He seems to be so awed by the massive structures of his buildings, dams, bridges, towers and skyscrapers that he can very rarely conceive of their mobility. The static settlement of such structures is to him an invariant. Their mobility is very much inconceivable except for natural disasters like a landslide of the subsoil or the

un-kind forces of earthquake, hurricane or volcanic eruptions. Such microwave movements of structures resulting from earth tremors due to traffic disturbances on buildings and bridges or propagation of waves due to distant explosion, impact of tidal waves on dams and embankments, effect of running machinery on industrial houses, rocking of skyscrapers due to unbalanced dynamic forces generated within them are all dangerously ignored by the traditional Civil Engineering designer or, at best accounted for by rules of the thumb and arbitrary factors of safety, based on partially known, wholly unknown or wrongly assumed controlling parameters.

In short, the design of structures on soils, as a domain of Civil Engineers, has been largely treated as a branch of soil statics for which the work of Karl Terzaghi has been a prominent text. However, it has now been fully established that the tools of statics are grossly inadequate for tackling the problems of such structures especially in this modern world subjected to the fits and starts of nuclear explosion and the many external excitations some of which have been mentioned earlier.

In order to solve the problems, either the Mechanical Engineer, whose world is traditionally dynamic, invades the territory of the static Civil Engineer or he begins a crusade to activate and convert his proverbially sedentary colleague.

Advances in the last decade have been made possible by a combination of the two alternative attacks resulting in a gradual replacement of arbitrary methods of solution by a systematized scheme of theoretical study confirmed, when possible, by experimental investigation.

THEORY OR EXPERIMENT

Let us go back to the established importance of natural frequency in the science of resonance. The fundamental question that has dominated the course of my own research is: "What ­will be the resonant frequency of a given structure on an elastic soil when it is set into a prescribed form of vibratory motion"?

This question shows that our study must be capable of pre­dicting a result if it has to be regarded as useful. If the structure is yet to be built, the frequency of possible external excitation such as the impact of tidal waves at the proposed site of a dam is usually known and the design of the structure would be guided by a prediction of natural frequency based on the system parame­ters which are at the disposal of the designer so that the natural frequency of the structure can be kept away from the known fre­quency of the external excitation to avoid resonance.

Conversely, if the structure has been built, resonance can be avoided either by a prescription of the frequency of imposed excitation, if this is within control, or an adjustment of the system parameters to ensure a natural frequency away from resonance.

What has made theory supreme in this class of study is the intrinsic fact that the dynamic elastic modulus of soil is known to be very different from and greater than the static modulus. Laboratory tests based on soil statics using a tri-axial machine were used in 1965 to confirm this result which had been observed earlier by Bernhard (1953).

In other words, a unique nature of this class of problems is that a basic parameter of the system, the dynamic elastic modulus, is in itself an unknown quantity. A direct measurement by experi­mental methods using wave propagation was only known but this was accepted to be unsatisfactory because it can only give an average over a very large area rather than in the dominant region which is the vicinity of the vibrating structure.

Due to the absence of accurate theory, faulty experiments were designed and carried out by Jones (1958) in Britain and the United States Army Engineers as recorded in the Technical Report of the Corps of Engineers in July 1963. The use of these results to determine measured dynamic modulus from their measured resonant frequencies gave errors in some cases of up­ to 100%.

Thus, our resort to theory thus becomes inescapable not only for establishing a relationship between the natural frequency and the system parameters but of finding out in the same exercise a method of determining the dynamic elastic modulus. Similarly, in an elegant manner static solutions are recovered from the dynamic results by considering the limit when the frequency of harmonic vibrations tends to zero.          

HISTORICAL SURVEY

Mr Vice-Chancellor, Sir, with your kind permission I would like to say that we have hitherto been climbing the resonance curve of this lecture from the left-hand side and we should now attempt to be tuned to resonance by proceeding to the actual text of the Inaugural Lecture.          .

First, it is appropriate I pay tribute to earlier workers through a brief historical survey. The first attempt to solve the problem of the vibration of a rigid body on elastic media seems to have been made by Reissner (1936) who considered the case of the vertical vibrations of a rigid circular body on the free surface of a semi ­infinite elastic isotropic medium. He made the assumption that the stress distribution under the rigid body was uniform and derived the displacement for the rigid body under this assumption.

An improvement over this assumption was, later made by Sung (1953) and, Quinlan (1963). Both assumed that the stress distribution under dynamic conditions was similar to the known static stress distribution. Before resorting to this assumed stress distribution, Quinlan remarked: "It is hopeless to attempt to solve the boundary-value problem for a rigid base. However, some information may be obtained by investigating the vibrations produced by a load distribution under a static rigid base”. In

their separate solutions, they assumed further that the displacement of the centre of the rigid body -  derived from the assumed stress distribution - should represent the displacement of the whole base of the rigid body. 

Miller and Pursey (1954), writing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, assumed a constant stress distribution for vertical translation and a stress proportional to radial distance for rotation about an axis normal to the surface. Realising that the (linear or angular displacement derived from these assumed stress distributions would not be constant under the rigid body as demanded from physical considerations, they took a simple average of the displacement under the rigid body to represent the actual displacement of the contact base.

Yet another improvement came from Arnold, Bycroft and Warburton (1955) who considered vibrations of a rigid circular body on both a semi-infinite medium and an elastic stratum for the four modes of vertical, horizontal, torsional and rocking vibrations. Further work, on the stratum problem for vertical vibrations was later done by Warburton (1957). Their approach was to assume a stress distribution similar to the static case and to take a “weighted” average of the resulting displacement under the rigid body. The weighting function for displacement was proportional to the assumed stress distribution. Other authors who worked on the assumption of a stress distribution propor­tional to that obtained from consideration of static loading alone include Biot (1943) and Hsieh (1962).     .

The only work among the earlier models which solved one aspect of the problem without assuming a stress distribution was by Reissner and Sagoci (1944) who considered the case of the torsional oscillations of a circular rigid body on an elastic half-space. Unfortunately, the use of Legendre's functions and oblate spheroidal coordinates which they employed is limited only to this one-dimensional problem. Reissner and Sagoci (1944) in this work had erroneously remarked that to solve the problem otherwise would require solving an infinite number of simultaneous equations involving Bessel's functions. In a note correcting this false notion, Sneddon (1947) reformulated the pro­blem of the dynamic stress distribution for only this torsional mode in terms of dual integral equations which he, however, did not solve.

Miller and Pursey (1955) in their second paper to the Royal Society, although adhering to the assumption of a constant stress distribution under the rigid body, hinted that a superior approach would have been to start from the known displacement distribution. A single integral equation of the Fredholm type and first kind involving the unknown stress distribution was derived but not solved and the hope was expressed that some future work might achieve this end. A review of some other earlier theories all of which were very similar to the above appeared in a French publication by Dawance and Guillot (1963).

Difficulties encountered either in the theoretical formulation of the problem or in the solution of the analytical model led other workers to experimental and semi-empirical investigations. The approach of this class was first based on the common experience that one main difference between a rigid body resting on a medium and the same body vibrating is that part of the medium in the latter case is also in motion. Therefore it follows, they argued, that a static stress distribution can be used to some

extent to predict the resonant frequency of the rigid body if some mass of the medium were added on to the mass of the rigid body. The question that naturally follows is: “What proportion of the medium is to be added"?

The idea of making allowance for the inertia of a vibrating system taking part in the motion is well known in mechanical vibrations. It is clear, however, that energy methods will be very tedious and perhaps impossible for the present problem since displacement functions in the medium (from which velocities are to be derived) are yet unknown as these depend on the unknown stress distribution under the rigid body.

In order to answer this question of equivalent inertia of the medium, a number of empirical and semi-empirical methods were evolved. Jacobson and Ayre (1953) suggested, for a rec­tangular base, that the mass of the medium to be added to the rigid body is that contained in a half of the semi-ellipsoid which has two of its semi-axes equal to half the length of the base and the third, half the width. This was clearly a rule-of-the-thumb absolutely without quantitative validity.

Another school of thought introduced the “bulb of pressure”concept which considered the mass of the medium participating in the motion to be within a certain pressure zone subtended by the rigid body. A few prominent exponents of this idea were Crockett and Hammond (1949), Eastwood(1953) Rao and Nagaraj (1960).  

One other idea closely associated with the problem of the equivalent mass is the concept of the “subgrade reaction” by which the elastic effect of soil on which the rigid body is resting is visualized in the form of spring reactions or spring rates. The coefficients of subgrade reactions are defined in terms of load per unit deflexion (horizontal or vertical) per unit area. This concept was used, for example, by Terzaghi (1942) and later by Hsieh (1962).

In all these attempts, it is sufficient to summarize that, like the question of the equivalent inertia of the medium, nobody succeeded in giving a satisfactory answer to the magnitude of the coefficient of subgrade reaction in relation to the dimensions of the base of the rigid body, its mode of vibration and the elastic properties of the soil under dynamic conditions.

Finally, there was another empirical method strongly favoured by Lorenz (e.g. 1950), Tschebotarioff (e.g. 1951) and Alpan (1961) which disregards completely the mass of the participating medium but studies the motion of the machine-foundation mass under the influence of the soil reaction in the form of restoring and dissipative forces. Also, isotropy or homogeneity of soil is considered not important. The value of this approach is lost when one observes that, despite the experimental 1abours involved in determining the nature of the restoring and dissipative forces, the reliability of the results of the tedious exercise is an inde­pendent variable.

DUAL INTEGRAL EQUATIONS AND THE MIXED

BOUNDARY-VALUE PROBLEM

The problem of a rigid body vibrating on an elastic medium is now known to be best expressed in terms of dual integral equations because they readily depict the mixed nature of the boundary conditions at the surface - a constant displacement at the contact base and a vanishing of surface stresses outside the loaded domain.

The pair of equations derived from the governing elastic equations for the vibrating medium takes the form:

where F(η) represents the non-dimensional transform of the unknown dynamic stress distribution under the rigid body and g(x) the displacement function of the contact base. Consequently, the first of the equations expresses the boundary condition on displacement and the second, the vanishing of stress outside the loaded domain.

The task in the last fifteen years therefore can be divided into five:

(i)                  The formulation of the governing dual integral equations for the given system from the

elastic equations of motion of the medium using appropriate transform calculus;

(ii)                The solution of these equations by some appropriate method which makes it possible to

design experiments and interpret experimental data in a readily usable form;

(iii)               The evolution of equivalent analytical models so that a given model can be reduced to an

analytically less difficult model for study;

(iv)              The emergence of a well, established conclusion that surface dynamic elastic constants

are the dominant parameters;

(v)                The consequent resonance method for determining surface shear modulus from the

torsional oscillator irrespective of the Poisson's ratio of the medium, the stratum depth

or the nature of the heterogeneity of the subsoil.

A detailed bibliography of these works is given after the list of references: the chronological order of the works gives a reflection of the graded study beginning with homogenous elastic half­-space and stratum and the stratum with a hyperbolic variation of shear modulus with depth. In all these works any or all of the following modes of vibration are considered:

 (i)  vertical vibration of circular body

(ii)  vertical vibration of long rectangular body

(iii)  rocking of long rectangular body

(iv)  torsional oscillation of a circular body

(v)   vertical vibration of a body with rectangular base of finite dimensions.

7

NOVEL RESULTS OF SPECIAL INTEREST

The supremacy of theory over experimentation in this study is justified by the following examples which were unknown before the establishment of the results and, indeed, unknowable through experimental methods:         

(i) In ordinary spring-mass system it is known that the smaller the mass the higher the resonant frequency. The results of earlier authors which were geared towards this known result were first contradicted by the analytical model of Awojobi and Grootenhuis (1965) that there is indeed a turning point in mass-resonant frequency curve leading to the two enigmatic results that the resonant frequency of a massless body on an elastic medium is zero (not infinity) and that there is a resonant frequency beyond which no resonance can be observed irrespective of the mass of the body. These results were also explained as arising from the dispersion of waves which gives rise to damping irrespective of inherent thermal damping in the elastic medium due to relative displacement of adjacent particles.

(ii) A body vibrating on a stratum behaves as if it were a body of known increased mass vibrating at a known lower frequency on a half-space having the same elastic properties. This compensating effect was established ­from a discovery that while the approximations for the hyperbolic sine and cosine are true

for small values of x, the hyperbolic tangent arising from a quotient of these approximate results

is true for all real values of x (Awojobi, 1969) and more important, the result remains true for the slopes of the two curves throughout the whole range of x.

(iii) The Winkler model of theoretical soil statics has been regarded for over a century as a purely theoretical or academic model with no relevance to the reality of practical soils. This myth was first exploded by Gibson (1967) by his discovery that the two assumptions he imposed ab initio on a half-space that its modulus of elasticity should increase linearly with depth from zero at the surface and that its Poisson's ratio should be 0.5 (i.e. the medium should be incompressible) make the half-space behave as a perfect Winkler model. It was indeed an unexpected result to discover that Gibson's result is true even for a stratum of arbitrary depth provided it rests on a frictionless bed, (Awojobi, 1974).

The importance of this latter discovery is that whilst result requires that a very thick bed of saturated clay is required to approach a half-space, the depth of the stratum in comparison with the dimensions of the base of the body is irrelevant for ensuring that the saturated deposit of clay approaches the Winkler model.

(iv) Finally, the latest works have moved to a study of hetero­geneous soils in which the shear modulus varies hyper­bolically with depth such that a stratum emerges into a rigid bed at its base. It has been established by this variation that irrespective of the rate of heterogeneity of the soil with depth, providing two soils have the same surface elastic properties, the difference in the response of a rigid body vibrating on either soil is indeed negligible.

The study recorded here is by no means exhaustive. It only indicates the complex nature of the problems considered even after such major assumptions have been made that only one rigid body exists on the infinitely wide surface-area of the medium and that the body is perfectly subjected to only one mode of vibration thus avoiding the further complication of coupled modes of vibration. However, by appropriate design of a vibrator and its base plate, these two assumptions can be realised in practice when testing a site for the determination of its dynamic elastic constant which can then be used to estimate the response of a vibrating rigid body on it or to predict the response of a proposed structure ever before it is built.

In each case, resonant frequency can be predicted and appro­priate advice can be given for the design or operating frequency of machinery to be installed in buildings. Similarly, advice can be given on the design of dams and foundations of large structures based on the known frequency of the external disturbances.

RELEVANCE TO NIGERIAN ENGINEERING INDUSTRY

Mr Vice-Chancellor, Sir, it now gives me great pleasure to end on a note of the relevance of this study to the engineering industry in Nigeria. This is important because a technologically underdeveloped country like Nigeria cannot afford the luxury of the philosophy of knowledge for its own sake in the main part of the curricular of her Universities, or, indeed, the entire educa­tional system and certainly not in the field of engineering. 

There must be a conscious effort through a deliberate policy to ensure that the product of academic research is, first, of localised interest to Nigeria rather than the more popular approach of being seen as a contribution to the universal stock of knowledge. This popular approach has been exclusively to the benefit of only the developed countries because they have tremendous human and material resources to exploit fully and immediately the benefits of such research. 

On this crucial point, especially in the field of science and technology, it is essential that the underdeveloped world evolve its own policy for dealing with this grave situation. The strategy and tactics of such a policy is indeed a security matter, which is outside the confines of a public lecture of this nature. It should be emphasized, however, that a study of local interest is not synonymous with an insignificant contribution to knowledge at the universal level. Therefore, Nigerian Universities must not fall into the danger of encouraging half-baked output or produc­tion of poor standard materials under the guise of solving local problems. 

This warning is the main intention of the following illustration which brings us back to the issue of relevance of the subject of this lecture to the Nigerian engineering industry. Although the universal nature of the applicability of mechanical vibrations like most scientific subjects has been adequately illustrated earlier in the lecture, yet the aspect of the lecture which is of immediate and direct relevance lies in the golden oil-age to which Nigeria now belongs. This is because prospecting for oil requires the detonation of buried explosives from which waves are propagated thus setting buildings and structures in the vicinity of the explosion into vibration. In this connection, the Department of Mechanical Engineering was approached about six years ago by a leading        foreign-owned oil company in Nigeria to carry out some routine study of an empirical and semi-empirical nature as a means of providing some defence against spurious claims arising from court actions instituted by landlords in oil-prospecting states of Nigeria against the oil company. 

Briefly, the company was receiving complaints that the vibrations set up by the detonation of charges in oil fields were having adverse effects on buildings and farm-houses. Allegations were made that cracks which could ultima­tely lead to collapse of buildings were being initiated due to earth tremors arising from the oil prospecting operations. 

Although an opportunity presented itself for very cheap consultancy, the proposal of carrying out routine field tests followed by semi-empirical analyses was the least attractive because it is of little or no academic value. The problem involved was recognized not only as academically challenging but of direct relevance to the future of Nigerian oil industry. It was therefore suggested to the company that it sponsor a full-time research student in order that a proper theoretical and experimental study be carried out to find out whether international standards relevant to oil fields of Europe and America required any modification in respect of the soil properties and geology of the oil states of Nigeria. 

The major findings of this work completed in three years of study including extensive fieldwork in the Rivers State showed ­that the international standard of 2in/sec. (or 5.1cm/sec.) damage criterion for peak velocity requires to be reduced to 1in/sec. (or 2.54cm/sec.) in Nigerian oil fields. Furthermore, a novel relation­ship was found for the safe weight of the explosive and the depth to which it should be buried in order not to exceed the safe peak velocity of 1in/sec. for a building situated at a specified radial distance from the buried source. Finally, an interesting result was discovered that contrary to the expectation of the surface vibrations or peak velocity of a building decreasing continuously as the depth of the buried charge increases, there exists first a depth at which the vibration reaches a minimum and begins to increase with further increase in the depth of the buried explosive and then a maximum beyond which the vibration progressively decreases. 

These results - being established for the first time since previous works had been limited only to surface explosives which are appropriate to quarry blasting and which theoretically were relatively easy to analyse - found ready acceptance in the Interna­tional Journal of Earthquake Engineering in which they were published in two parts in 1974 and in 1977. 

BEYOND RESONANCE

 Mr Vice-Chancellor, Sir, distinguished scholars and colleagues, it is now appropriate to end by recalling the title of this lecture: "Beyond Resonance". Throughout the lecture the emphasis hitherto has been on the dominant vibration term "RESONANCE" with no reference whatsoever to the significance of the word 'BEYOND'.

It is in the modifying word 'BEYOND' lies the skill and genius of a vibration engineer. In the context of vibrations of elastic soil it had been generally believed, as discussed earlier, that the resonant frequency increases as the inertia of the system decreases. However, it is equally known that a system without inertia does not vibrate, i.e., it is static. 

Philosophically, a static body can be conceived as vibrating either at zero frequency, with an infinitely large time period which implies it is too sluggish to leave its position of rest and, therefore, takes indefinite time to complete a cycle or at an infinitely large frequency since it will be passing through its mean position an infinite number of times per second. It can only perform either motion if, and only if, it does not leave its position of stable equili­brium at any moment of time. If the alternative of inifinitely large frequency were the correct interpretation of statics then there would have been no problem in accepting the older theory that the resonant frequency increases as the inertia decreases which is the expected result. If, however, the body without inertia vibrates at zero frequency then a problem arises because a discontinuity would exist in the curve of inertia against resonant frequency. This simple philosophical analysis indeed gave impetus to a deeper study of the problem.     

The dilemma was resolved by establishing a turning point which exists at some value of the decreasing inertia which brings the curve back to the origin in the limit when the inertia vanishes. This turning point establishes the range of frequencies beyond which resonance does not exist for a rigid body on a homogeneous elastic half-space. The study becomes more interesting when equivalent systems can be found with other types of media as have been shown earlier. 

The beauty of the discovery is derived from its simplicity- that the frequency factor beyond which resonance does not occur independent of the inertia of the body is just less than unity thereby giving the basic simple criterion for the design of the dimensions of the base of structures vibrating on elastic soils in order to ensure that the structure is not excited beyond resonance as 

c²

R   >     -                       (4)

Ω

where c² is the velocity of shear waves in the medium. Ω the exciting angular frequency or pulsatance, and R is the required mean radius of the foundation base. 

Mr Vice-Chancellor, Sir, distinguished scholars and colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I now wish to end by noting that there exists a correlation between the subject of this lecture and social engineering which I define as the art and science of ruling a sophisticated society like a University: men in power succeed only when they govern firmly and fairly without double standards- this they do if, and only if, they learn to run the machinery of government­ well BEYOND RESONANCE!           

REFERENCES

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Arnold, R. N., Bycroft. G. N. and Warburton, G. B., 1965, J.Appl. Mech. 22. 391.

Awojobi, A. O. and Grootenhuis, P: 1965, Proc, Roy. Soc. A, 287, 127.

Awojobi, A. 0., 1969, Int. J. Solids Structures, 5, 359.

--------- - 1974, Geotechnique. 24, No.3, 359.

Awojobi, A. O. and Sobayo, O. A, 1974, Earthquake Eng. and Structural Dynamics. Vol. 3, 171.

Awojobi, A. O. and Sobayo, O. A 1977, Earthquake Eng. and Structural Dynamics. Vol. 5, 131,

Bernhard, R. K., 1953, A.S. T.M.. S. T.P. No. 156, 225.

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Crockett, J. H. A. and Hammond. R. E. R. 1949, Proc. Inst. Mech. Engrs., 163, 512.

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Jacobson. L. S. and Ayre, R. S.. 1958, Engineering Vibrations.McGraw Hill, N.Y.

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Lorenz, H., 1950, Proc. 3rd Int. Cont. Soil Mech.. Zurich. 1,46.

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--------------   1955, Proc. Roy. Soc. A, 233, 55.

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Terzaghi, K., 1942, Theoretical Soil Mechanics.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Awojobi, A. O. and Grootenhuis, P. 1965, Proc. Roy. Soc. A 287, 27.           I

Grootenhuis, P. and Awojobi, A. 0., 1965, "Vibrations in Civil Engineering", Proc. Int. Association Earthquake Engineering. Session V, P. 181.          .           I

Awojobi, A. O. 1966, J. Appl. Mech., 33, 547.

-----------------   1969, lnt. J. Solids Structures 5, 369.

------------------  1970, Int. J. Solids Structures 6, 315.

------------------  1971, J. Appl. Mech. 38, 111.

------------------  1972, Geotechnique 22, 333.

------------------  1972, Int. J. Solids Structures 8, 759.

------------------  1973, Geotechnique 23, 23.

------------------  1973, Quart. J. Mech. & Appl. Math. XXVI, 235.

Awojobi & Gibson, R. E. 1973, Quart. J. Mech. & Appl. Math. XXVI, 285.     .

Awojobi. A. O. 1973, Quart J. Mech. & Appl. Math. XXVI, 483.

Awojobi. A. O. 1974, Geotechnique 24. 359.

-----------------   1974, Geotechnique 24. 655.

-----------------   1975. Int. J. Solids & Structures 11, 467.

-----------------   1975. Geotechnique 25, 221.

Awojobi, A. O. & Tabiowo. P. H. 1976. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics 4, 439.

Awojobi, A. O. 1976, Int. J. Solids & Structures 12, 739.

LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT TO IMMORTALISE PROF. AYODELE AWOJOBI

by

 Kunle Awobodu 

Prof. Ayodele Awojobi, who was born on March 12, 1937 in Lagos and died at the University of Lagos on September 23, 1984, has turned out to be a source of guilt in every conscientious Nigerian that followed his activities. 

To refresh our memories, who was Prof. Ayodele Awojobi? He was an exceptionally gifted human being, a prodigy that recorded excellent results throughout his academic career at C.M.S Grammar School, Lagos, then Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Ibadan and Zaria, and the Imperial College of Science and Technology of University of London where he obtained D.I.C. and Ph.D., and proceeded to become the first African to be awarded a Doctor of Science Degree in the field of Vibration in Applied Mechanics. At the University of Lagos (Unilag) he set a record of being the first lecturer to become a professor at the age of thirty-seven and within a nine year period of lectureship. 

Prof. Ayodele Awojobi as exemplified by his various inventions, was a confluence of theory and practice. His unique teaching techniques, in a general testimony, contributed immensely to the success of many of his students who now occupy exalted positions in various organisations, including government. 

Awojobi’s decision to become a social crusader that led to his early demise has now been vindicated by Barack Obama’s victory in America. As an optimist, he believed if he, as a Blackman had been equated to Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein by academics, then good leaders that would turn Nigeria into Britain could emerge here in an enabling environment. 

The pan Africanist philosophy and patriotism made him reject all entreaties to his returning to Europe to make a better use of his talents. He set out to fight societal ills such as corruption that has been the bane of Nigeria, making the poor poorer. As a strong believer in the rule of law, he identified the judiciary as the arm that could save the nation from mismanagement. Hence, he became a private law student of late Chief Rotimi Williams. Having acquired some knowledge in law, he began to institute legal actions against those whom he believed were clog in the wheel of the Nigeria of his dream. 

In his naivety, he underestimated the crudeness that characterized the Nigerian politics. During his case against Governor Akin Omoboriowo of Ondo State, whom he alleged to have come to power through electoral fraud in 1983, he was attacked by political thugs in Akure. The professor, who never believed in charms, remembered that one of the thugs used a mysterious object to thump him in the chest and his body system immediately became disorganised. He never recovered from the illness caused by the attack as he died a few months later at a young age of 47. 

The death of this foremost pro-democracy activist during a military regime, especially the one that had just seized power from a civilian government would of course not attract government sympathy. Hence, the clamour for immortalisation of Prof. Awojobi by the public did not make any meaning to Buhari – Idiagbon junta that had just sent Awojobi’s close associate in social crusading, Dr. Tai Solarin to jail. 

Since then all efforts to make government immortalise Awojobi’s name never materialised. The irony was that Awojobi’s admirers and followers in the academics and pro-democracy circles, and even his students who found themselves in positions of power failed to do something commemorative of this man. A mistake every one of them had always lamented and/or regretted after leaving office.  A sad and painful collective amnesia. 

However, those of us who have been championing the cause for the immortalisation of the Professor would not relent. Last year, Awojobi’s students led by Gen. Tunde Adebanjo (Rtd.) and Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu organised a memorial programme for him at the University of Lagos with the mounting of his bust in the institution. 

In those days, Prof. Awojobi had large following among students as he delivered lectures tirelessly from campus to campus in Nigeria. He became the godfather of students. In his selfless struggle for the promotion of education, he designed mobile science laboratories free of charge for the free education programme of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his governors. Identifying challenges of students on campus, he designed a bed that could be converted to desk and chair. 

Each time an academic institution was renamed after a dead politician, student leaders had always wondered why such gesture was not extended to this unique educationist, Prof. Ayodele Awojobi. Naming a higher institution after the late educationist, Dr. Tai Solarin was one of the best decisions taken by the government to appreciate the work of a good teacher, the character moulder of future leaders. 

Disillusion rivalled hope as many political office holders who promised to immortalise the professor reneged on the noble cause, while efforts to name the road that leads to Unilag after him failed. In a letter written to this writer nine years ago, Prof. Wole Soyinka lamented the fate of Prof. Awojobi, describing him as an unsung genius of our times. Prof. Akin Oyebode, while delivering a memorial lecture for Awojobi last year, emphasized the need to acknowledge and celebrate our great men and women of learning. 

Now our call has met a receptive ear in Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. Just a single letter written to him by Ayodele Awojobi Foundation ignited a process. The Lagos State government has commenced work in earnest on the remembrance of the Professor. The work includes the sculpturing of his statue that will be mounted in a garden at Iwaya, towards Unilag second gate. This will be unveiled by the Governor on September 23, 2009 to mark the silver anniversary of his death. 

The seriousness attached to this project by the Commissioner of the Environment, Dr. Muiz Banire and the Director of Conservation and Ecology, Mrs. Adebola Afun reveals the level of discipline in the Fashola Government. Any statue that does not show a striking resemblance with Awojobi will be unacceptable to the governor. Anxiety in the court of the sculptors! 

Prof. Ayodele Awojobi had really come ahead of his time. The kind of discipline he recommended for a leader that could change our society is now manifesting in a Fashola. Whatever we do today becomes a record for future reference, either positively or otherwise.

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Kunle Awobodu, C.E.O, Reo-Habilis Construction Ltd, 70d, Allen Avenue, Ikeja.