Scientific Pilgrimage: ‘The Life and Times of Emeritus Professor V.A Oyenuga’. D.Sc, Fas, Cfr Nigeria’S First Emeritus Professor and Africa’S First Agriculture Professor.

By Adébáyò Adésóyè

Late Emeritus Professor V.A Oyenugas short biography is contained in about twelve international biographic documents. He is listed with Einstein as one of the Top 500 SCIENTIST OF THE 20TH CENTURY. He authored about 210 articles in several local and international scientific journals, most of them reporting the results of his original research in Africa, Europe and the United States of America.

He was from Yoruba-land, Southwest Nigeria, from where countless numbers of slaves were shipped to Haiti, the Caribbean and the Americas between the 17th and 19th centuries. Despite his cerebral sagacity, he was a spiritual enigma, thickly woven into a fascinating puzzle! His biography is a scintillating cornucopia of some local and international events before and during the 20th century. It is also very informative about Nigerias past, present and unpredictable immediate future. The disparate north and south of this vast entity were Jack-knifed into a mere geographical adjective called Nigeria in January 1914, by a very restless and resourceful sadist; the British mercenary who was Nigerias first Governor- General in the early decades of the 20th Century: Baron Frederick Dealtry Lugard.

If the world wants to know why post-colonial Nigeria has been adrift since the 1960s, and the factors and principal actors behind her present location up a very murky economic, social and political creek in the early decades of the 21st century; this book provides some interesting clues to the riddle of the odd dilemma facing the most populous black nation on earth Poor people, very rich government, stupendously wealthy rulers, in a limitlessly endowed nation where tragedy and comedy are Siamese twins!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Mar 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504937856

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Published by AuthorHouse  03/24/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-3784-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-3783-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-3785-6 (e)

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CONTENTS

Foreword: Prince Deji Oyenuga. (FNIA)

PREFACE: By Chief Segun Olusola, mni. OFR.(18-3-1935 to 21-6-2012) Former Nigerian Ambassador to Ethiopia and Founder, African Refugees Foundation-AREF; A voluntary development Non- Governmental Organization in special consultative status with the United Nations Social and Economic Council (UNECOSOC).

Acknowledgement

PRO-dia-LOGUE: Officer’s Mess -(1)-

APPENDIX to PRO-Dia-LOGUE

Preamble: His Sojourn from the Anglican to the Celestial Church of Christ

Book One Home (1917 to 1944)

Background The Yoruba of Western Nigeria: From Antiquity to Nationhood in Africa

Chapter One The Seed April 9, 1917 to 1930

Chapter Two The Plant January 1930 to 1939

Chapter Three The Flower January 1940 to 1944

Book Two Away (1944 to 1951)

Chapter One Preparations for the United Kingdom, 1944

Chapter Two The Newcastle Years, 1945 to 1951

Chapter Three Race Relations, Christianity, and Communism in Britain, 1945 to 1949

Chapter Four Nigerian Romance Becomes City Wedding Newcastle Chronicle, April 3, 1950

Book Three Home and Away

(1951 to the Twenty-First Century)

Chapter One Glorious Return to Fatherland, 1951 to 1952

Chapter Two The Provenance of Nigeria’s premier University: The University College Ibadan (UCI)

Chapter Three UCI Faculty of Agriculture: The Architects of a Solid Foundation

Chapter Four Dirty Nigger Don’t Know How to Answer Questions Politely!: The Sister Edwards Oyenuga Saga of 1952

Chapter Five Oyenuga Scientific Research Philosophy

Chapter Six Agro-Geographical Survey of Nigeria

Chapter Seven Sabbatical Leave: Cornell University, Ithaca, United States of America (1960)

Chapter Eight The Educated Nigerian Is the Worst Peddler of Tribalism in Nigeria -Kenneth. O. Dike

Chapter Nine Oyenuga Political Philosophy

Chapter Ten University of Ife and the Politics of Travesty in the Wild, Wild, Western Region of Nigeria

Chapter Eleven Over-Ripe For Change!! "Awakening Nigeria’s sleeping giant; The Africa Greenergy enterprise (‘AGe’) and the Guinea-Savannah Agriculture Development.

Epilogue The Testament of a Redeemable Fool!

Reference Library

About The Author

FOREWORD

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Prince Deji Oyenuga. (FNIA).

Possibly, the most poignant testament to Emeritus Professor V.A. Oyenuga’s intellectual greatness is his listing along with Albert Einstein in a notable Biographic Journal as one of the ‘Top 500 Scientists of the 20th Century.’ He was also a respected member of -‘the best President Nigeria never had‘-late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group Party Kitchen Cabinet which transformed the Western Region of Nigeria into a progressive and most enlightened enclave within the Nigerian Federation, a decade before Independence in October 1960. Onlookers were amazed to see me prostrate fully on the floor at the London Heathrow Airport, welcoming my esteemed uncle during his brief stop-over, while on an international engagement. I was then a student at the School of Architecture at the famous Hammersmith College of Arts and Building, Shepherds-bush London in the early 60’s. He pointedly told me that it is when I return to Nigeria with outstanding accolades as an Architect that my true status as an Oyenuga would be ascertained. I did not require a greater impetus for the thorough pursuit of my studies in the United Kingdom. We both related with former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, in the early 60’s - he, as the foundation Professor of Agriculture and I, as one of the Architects- while the construction of the Ife Varsity Now Obafemi Awolowo University - was in progress. Mr. Sharon was the versatile Architect of the aesthetically renowned University’s Master Plan. The then Vice Chancellor of the Varsity, late Professor Hezekiah Oluwasanmi privately confided in me that Professor Oyenuga bluntly informed him that my Architectural drawings submitted for some buildings at the new institution should be considered strictly on merit, devoid of any deference to his kinship with me. I wrote my Architectural thesis with Distinction on my work at the Ife Varsity.

The writing of his Biography was a long overdue enterprise strictly because of his insistence on making it an autobiographical literature. I am aware of the approaches made by a couple of his former students and a celebrated Journalist in the past towards getting his consent for the writing of his biography. They always met with courteous but firm rejection from my self-accomplished uncle who considered the writing of his life story by a third party as an affront to his intellectual sagacity. Serial travails of life, particularly the protracted illness and eventual death of his beloved wife in 1996 must have derailed his intent for the writing of his life story himself. A common trait of most highly self-accomplished scholars is their frugality with praise of others. I was therefore very amazed to meet the young author of this biography in 2005, mainly because of the exceptional commendation made of him prior to our meeting, by my very strict disciplinarian uncle. My amusement was heightened when the slender young man I was meeting for the first time called himself a Redeemable Fool after introducing himself as Bayo Adesoye!

I have derived the greater pleasure from my almost a decade acquaintance with this obviously outstanding Historian and gifted Essayist whose talent for writing is patent with this biography on the Father Of Nigerian Professors. I have related with Bayo on two spiritual platforms: As a former Moslem and presently as a converted Christian. I met him as a very devout Moslem whose proficiency in the recitation of numerous Quranic verses off-head astounded me and a couple of my close Moslem associates; because of his ever-ready confession that he could neither read nor write Arabic. Professor Oyenuga, I, and his other admirers were therefore greatly disturbed by his ill-health trauma early in 2008, which defied wholesome orthodox medical cure at four private hospitals in Lagos and neighboring Ogun State, before we resorted to spiritual therapy-via prayers-at a Gospel Church where he was confined for months before his complete recovery in August 2008! His Testimony in the Epilogue of this book is a most compelling document for all and sundry, irrespective of religious background. I particularly enjoyed reading the informative treatise and therefore recommend it and the entire book for everybody, worldwide.

PREFACE

By Chief Segun Olusola, mni. OFR.(18-3-1935 to

21-6-2012) Former Nigerian Ambassador to Ethiopia

and Founder, African Refugees Foundation-AREF; A

voluntary development Non- Governmental Organization

in special consultative status with the United Nations

Social and Economic Council (UNECOSOC).

image%202_edited.jpg

Ambassador Segun Olusola. mni, OFR

18-3-1935-21-6-2012

With this publication, we are privileged to witness a wholesome act of thanks- giving for the life and experience of Emeritus Professor Victor Adenuga Tanimowo Oyenuga. CFR.

I am a fortunate spectator to the living drama of the biography book’s construction from its onset in 2003 to its conclusion in 2009 because of the Author’s role as my valued protégé and an Honorary Consultant, ‘Peace Education’, to the African Refugees Foundation.

I also experienced the old man at home, at private conferences with him alone and with a handful of others, and during acts of worship at his Church where he is founder, sole financer and Most Superior Evangelist of a very large and impressive Church Cathedral at Idi-Ose Village, Moniya Ibadan-Oyo State Nigeria.

I also cherished my status as a very welcome stranger and junior associate whom the esteemed Sage, Philosopher and eminent Scientist held very dear, long before but most especially during the eventful twilight years of his very meaningful earthly Sojourn.

As a lesson for me, I also witnessed the life-changing, nearly tragic ill-health crisis of the author- Bayo Adesoye- at the tail end of this creative enterprise.

And steadily and surely, all that tangible labor is now rewarded with this publication, which will take us across many spiritual, academic and real-life odysseys, towards the confirmation of our faith in the foundation of all religion: the Almighty God, through our Lord Jesus the CHRIST. I am grateful for the privilege of mediating this superb historical work of creativity to all of you.

AFRICAN REFUGEES FOUNDATION

Ajibulu Moniya Gallery. Surulere, Lagos-Nigeria.

"Oars alone can ne’er prevail.

To reach the distant coast the breath of heaven must swell the sails…else, all the toil is lost"

William Cowper

Dedication

To these three individuals:

1. Mr. J.A. Adesoye, (16-3-1914-1-12-2009). My late disciplinarian father, whose personal sacrifice for my education since childhood, and input to the making of my character cannot be quantified. He retired in 1972 as the Chief Produce Officer (CPO) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the Western region of Nigeria. May his modest legacy of exemplary duty, humility, and selfless service to farmers continue to swell the sails of the Greenergy Organisation, which I founded in 2002 for the empowerment of rural farmers. Toward this noble ideal, I will continue to sacrifice everything pertaining to mere comfort and personal advantage. So, help me God. Amen.

2. My godson: Oluwarotimi Olusola (‘Eyo1 of AREF’). He is a Sonenkinder: Child of the Light.

3. My dear daughter; Victoria Oluwaseyifunmi Adesoye (Vicky- V’)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

"It is good for me to draw near to God, since my whole perfection, both natural and moral, consists in my union with Him. It is good for me, indeed the best thing I can do, to hold me fast by my God to unite myself to Him by as many tier and bands as I can, by all the cords and chains of love, and by every link of that chain, to make this union as close and as strong as is possible, and so, to draw near to Him, and fasten myself upon Him by the most cleaving love, that He may reward my imperfect union here with a perfect and everlasting one hereafter…"

John Norris (AD 16571711)

Indeed!! I have been far more fortunate than I probably deserve. My modest talent for the script and my three-year tutorials at the Nigerian premier University of Ibadan, History Department, under Maharajis of African History like late Emeritus Professor Ade Ajayi and other resourceful teachers could have gone unnoticed but for the grace of God that brought me into contact with late Emeritus Professor V.A. Oyenuga in 2002. I was still am a nobody when we met. The writing of his biography has commissioned a most splendid renovation of my permanent residence in oblivion. Spinoza’s Proposition XV is expedient here: "Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can either be or be conceived without God. There is a very marvelous observation to that attraction of human beings to each other called relationships. When one soul is so constituted to meet with another, nothing can hinder the rendezvous! The writing of this book and my various experience, the good, the bad, and the ugly during the seven-year period of a mutually fruitful relationship with a Sage-Philosopher and Spiritual Scientist provided me with the precious cords and chains with which I have strongly binded myself to God Almighty. Put not your trust in Princes," the Psalmist enjoins us in the Bible. Yet, such is the admirable personal qualities of Prince Deji Oyenuga. FNIA, the professor’s nephew that I have never for once regretted the total trust and confidence placed in the top-drawer Architect since I met him in July 2005. But for his tangible moral and occasional financial support, my work with rural farmers could have met with a formidable setback in 2006. Also, the publication of this book’s first edition by an American Publishing Company could have been a much-desired, but unattainable, fleeting illusion.

My rather comic, yet expensive experience with the so-called ‘Subsidy-publishing House’ added immensely to my real life education and also permanently ‘subsidized’ my naïveté. Both Professor Oyenuga and I are eternally indebted to the endowed Lagos-based Architect. A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats a little man. I am very grateful to these great men of perceptive refinements, who found the time within their various crowded (private and official) commitments to accommodate and relate to me like a valued relative; Chief O.I. Akinkugbe (CON), doyen of the Nigerian Pharmaceutical sub-sector and Chairman, Procter and Gamble Nigeria Limited; Ambassador Segun Olusola mni, OFR(18-3-1935-21-6-2012). But for this immensely popular, benevolent, apolitical veteran broadcaster, diplomat and African culture icon, my life would have been a limited journey, with the abrupt epitaphion dated either 2005 or 2008! I also remain enamored to his illustrious senior diplomatic professional colleague; friend and soul-mate, His Excellency, Monsieur Albert-Alain Peters of the Benin Republic, formerly Director Africa Bureau, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Geneva-Switzerland. This immensely-courteous, unabashed Negritude philosopher is one of the handful high-profile elderly individuals whom late Chief Segun Olusola facilitated my contact with, in Nigeria and the West Coast of Africa within a decade. The ‘porte-bonheur’ of Monsieur Albert-Alain Peters is amazingly unfolding in his potentially thrilling biography I started writing late in 2013 as my next book. So help us God. Amen. Dr. D.B.A. Ogutuga, Chairman-CEO, DeeBee Wines and Company Ltd, and ‘the most pampered student’ in Nigerian history: late Chief Olu Akinwolemiwa, first graduate of the University College Ibadan (U. C. I.) Faculty of Agriculture in 1953. As the fateful sole foundation student in this Faculty of Nigeria’s first university in 1948, he had seven able white lecturers, Dr. Victor Oyenuga and a Soil Science Demonstrator giving him tutorials between 1948 and 1949! Details in ‘Book 3, Chapter Three. In the course of this book’s scripture and shortly after release of the first print, I was fortunate to meet about two dozen Nigerian Professors mostly former students and a couple of Professor Oyenuga’s acquaintances. My gratitude goes to these few cerebral giants among the motley crowd of Professors I met between 2003 and 2007: Professor G.B. Ogunmola, former president of Nigerian Academy of Science; Professor B.L.A Fetuga; Professor Femi Okubanjo; Professor Olumide Tewe; and Professor Mrs. Longe of the U.I. Faculty of Agriculture. Professor Pastor Isreal Folorunso Adu. FAS, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Agriculture Abeokuta and a distinguished former student of late Professor Oyenuga, singularly displayed an admirable sense of loyalty and gratitude to his eminent former teacher with a substantial contribution of fifty thousand naira in 2006 toward this enterprise. Sir, may you continue to prosper. He was also responsible for my contact with the humble, industrious and erudite Professor Akin Omotayo, current Director IFSERAR (Institute of Food Security Environmental Resources and Agricultural Research (ifserar), Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta Ogun State (FUNAAB), who facilitated my brief contact with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006. Grace, is the spiritual ordering of your steps to meet the right person, at the right moment! Justine Jones, my Publishing Consultant;-"Professional Nanny"- at Authorhouse-UK is the first recipient of this very special tribute. The other person is Professor Adebayo Williams (renowned reclusive Nigerian Essayist and quintessential patriot). My rather emotional, pre-destined meeting with this amiable reclusive Savant in September 2012 may gradually evolve into the most mutually fruitful among the crowd of Professors I met within a decade. Further disclosure on this association, for now, may result into a violation of the unwritten rules guiding our budding social contract! I started the writing of this book as a voluntary, non-remunerative but worthy and joyful undertaking. Mr. Gbemiga Ogunleye, resourceful former editor in chief, The Punch newspapers, was financially supportive to this enterprise in the difficult early days. The recently appointed rector, Nigeria institute of journalism (nij) is my brother from a different parent. Gbemiga ‘mucho gracia, amigo!’

Others in this category of helpers are Lekan Aderinokun, formerly of the Union Bank Ile-Ife, Osun State. Mr. Segun Popoola (my amiable cousin) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), and Mr. Dokun Oyenuga, Architect son of Prince Deji Oyenuga chip off the old block, professionally and in conduct whose financial support in 2007 is also acknowledged. The other Prince who dignified his Prince-ship is my kind lawyer, Barrister Bowofade Aderemi, whose father, His Royal Highness, the late Oni of Ife, Sir Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi (KBE) may remain the most prominent and accomplished traditional ruler in the modern history of Southern Nigeria. The late Professor and I are very grateful to Mrs. Toun Oyelude (CLN), former Chief Cataloguer of the Kenneth Dike Central Library University of Ibadan. I recall with profound amusement that it was during a live phone-in to her illuminative compelling The Grail Message sponsored radio programme Reflections on the Truth of Life that I first identified myself sight unseen as "The Redeemable Fool." We accidentally met each other a few months afterward, and ever since, I have continued to understand the stark difference and errors of our local ignorance between matters spiritual, and matters religious. Her generous gift of Abd-Ru-Shin’s ‘In the Light of Truth; The Grail Message’ combined ‘Volumes One to Three’ in July 2009 is possibly an act of unquantifiable spiritual benevolence to me. Toun, tonnes of thanks! Ours is a fateful encounter. She briefly joined me in interviewing the late Professor in 2006. I am also grateful to my two junior sisters, Mrs. Lydia Toyin Dosunmu-my fortunate bridge to Christ in February 2008-and Mrs. ‘Renike Olaosebikan, same to their respective husbands, Jide and Kola. I finally stepped beyond my legendary nuptial cowardice in 2008, with two very private solemn Church vows; Christ Ambassadors Bible Church, Pastor Segun Adegbite-December 2008 and New Testament Life Mission-nTLM- January 2009, Pastor Raymond Adejinmi (but yet to fully, ‘noisily’, tie the knot, Nigerian ‘stylee’! I will, God willing, Jimi Olusola III (African Refugees Foundation -AREF- Chief Executive Officer) will be my ‘Best Man’ when I finally settle the still outstanding African traditional debt to my very patient in-laws. Jimi’s input to the depth and quality of my research and reflections between 2004 and 2007 cannot be quantified. The entire Segun Olusola ‘clan’ was solidly there for me at the onset of my bizarre brief ‘moment of madness’ in January 2008! I am forever grateful to him, his elegant wife, Barrister Bola Jimi-Olusola, and their ever-cheerful beloved son, Rotimi Olusola, "Eyo 1 of AREF," my godson, for making me feel at home at their Surulere-Lagos residence whenever I came to Lagos during the days of my fateful sojourn with rural farmers in the ‘wilderness’ of rural Oke-Ogun, Oyo State farming communities. A small crowd of female and male typists worked with me on this and other endeavours for the past one decade. I cannot mention them all, but it is to Mr. Adewale Rasak and wife,Ronke at Olodo- Ibadan, who typed the final publisher’s draft of this book’s first print manuscript, in February 2009, that I express my heart-felt appreciation for their zeal and patience. Extension of this gratitude also goes to Tolulope ‘Pampy’ Awe and Helen Akpore Johnson; for their unconditional admiration, loyalty, and respective secretarial enterprise since 2013. I must be forever greatful to Pastor O.M.B Adegbite for miraculously conjuring my immediate sanity through fervent prayers in February 2008, at a most agonizing moment when all hopes for my retrieval from a most malicious man-sent spiritual attack seemed hopeless. I was totally confined as a newly converted, melancholic pilgrim at his Gospel Church, Iyanna-Iyesi, Ota Ogun State, for exactly six months and eleven days between February and August 2008, before the benign grace of God totally rescued me from abysmal depression and a most tragic melodramatic fugue! Please refer to Epilogue for my testimony. "I am pleased to inform you that we think that your informative and insightful non-fiction work would make a positive addition to our Publishing House list of titles." is a sly extract from a November 22, 2006 letter, that I received by post from the female Managing Director of the American ‘Subsidy Publishing Company’, prior to my payment of the first naked ‘Subsidy Fee’ for the first print of this book. Almost four years after the book subsidy was paid and the startling subsequent ‘strip-tease’,-via e-mail- of variously priced intercontinental book promotions fee, a couple of which I paid, I realized the real meaning of the above extract! My relative stupidity and credulous nature will remain permanently ‘subsidized’, but the kernel of her comment on this book will-by God’s grace- eventually turn out prophetic, somehow! To my dear, rugged Lanarkshire, Glasgow-Scotland based brother, Adrian-Billy Adesoye who recently ‘discovered’ Author House-UK Independent Book Publishing Services’ will the kudos go. It is like swift rescue to one in dire professional peril! I am forever indebted and joyfully ‘hand-cuffed’ in matrimony since December 2008, to a priceless jewel beyond the price of rubies; my God-sent wife, ‘Big-mummy’ Mojisola "IJI-Sowapo,"- the storm brought us together- my indomitable mother-in-law, counselor and ‘prayer Amazon’; Mrs. Margaret Olaiya Oyewunmi and her entire family for their love and affection. A huge gratitude also extends to my two sisters-in-law; Phoenix-Arizona based Oyebisi Bullock Super-glu- and Mojisola’s other charming and very industrious younger sister, Mrs. Oyenike Abdullahi of R.T. Briscoe Motors Nig. Ltd., Lagos. God bless you all. Amen.

Finally,…to my dear, amazingly vivacious daughter, Victoria…whose birth in June 2011, doused the vastly amusing insinuation, -few years back- in a rural South-Western Nigeria farming community, of my flaccidity in the romantic ‘fire’ department! ‘Vickie-V ‘!!- You’ve made the wait, worth it! Curtains!!

‘For me at this time in my life I recognize that everything is about moving closer to that which is God. And without a full, spiritual center-and I am not talking about religion, I am talking about without understanding the fullness from which you’ve come you can’t really fulfill your supreme moment of destiny’-Oprah Winfrey.

PRO-DIA-LOGUE

Officer’s Mess -(1)-

Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria, Saturday, September 16, 2006

The Saturday midday appointment between the elderly biographee and his official biographer started in October 2003, as a twice-weekly, strictly literary rendezvous. The very firm refusal of the former to consider a temporary reduction of his daily church commitments and the relocation of the latter to Kisi, Irepo Local Government, Oyo State- a distant rural farmers’ community outside Ibadan in 2004 compelled their meeting to a once-weekly affair. Saturday was the compromise day, being the only Church Free Day for the old man. These two Nigerians belong to different religious faiths and to two distinct generations; the forty-five years old historian-author is exactly half his counterpart’s age. The self-accomplished scientist turned full-time priest is endowed with a Christian religious passion bordering on zealotry. The younger man is a conscious believer. He is of the Islamic faith (2), where his intense quest for knowledge and redemption has instilled in him a profound respect for all books and faiths acknowledging God as the Supreme Being. The Bodija Ibadan residence of the esteemed emeritus "Professor in the service of the Lord" (3) was the venue of the biography book interviews. The two-hour session took place every Saturday in the professor’s book-suffocated study. This study, located in one of the three adjoining functional buildings in his residence, had witnessed alternate glorious and perilous moments of professional and domestic crisis in the past four decades. Within this small building are a couple of partitioned offices that once served as urban sales outlets for VABO Agric Industries. This briefly defunct but recently revived integrated Farm Complex is the professor’s only foray into business, sequel to his glorious exit from the Ivory Towers in 1979. Another bigger study in his main house had, over the years, transited into a neglected emporium of scientific journals, research papers, and books on various subjects of human intellectual endeavor.

For the past ten years, the Professor had lived a somewhat solitary life of a monk in an Abbey, following the demise of his much-beloved wife of widely cherished memory. Rufus, a valuable member of the household and young son of Mr. Patrick Alemoh, the professor’s aging valet, had offered the author his usual weekly treat of mineral water and biscuits, which the latter declined with thanks. A few minutes after eleven o’clock, the white-haired sage walked into his study, barefoot, in slow, shuffling footsteps, clad in his trademark white garment, frayed at the collar and cuffs. The white garment is the religious uniform of his Christian sect. He chose (since 1996) never to do any other apparel for life except for white gowns, minus footwear, in, or outside church!

Way back in the 70s, when he left the Anglican Christian faith for the Celestial Church of Christ (4), he was a ‘certified loony’ and widely derided by most of his all-knowing peers and fellow academicians. The University of Ibadan cocktail circuit and faculty lounge gossip merchants went agog with the view that the then fifty-five years old Professor logged on to the Celestial Church of Christ to access diabolic powers toward his bid to become the university’s vice chancellor! This was a position that might have been his, by ac- accomplishment, rank, and whatever other official yardstick, but which certain factors within and outside the academia combined to deny him of. He ignored everybody and stuck to his belief, in line with his prosaic but rigid philosophy; he blunted with the truth and was damned! An irony of the situation was his immutable conviction today that he would not have lived to a ripe old age if he had become a Nigerian university vice chancellor!

Etiquette of the Yoruba tradition enjoins bowing or prostrating on the floor when greeting elderly folks, which the young author did following the entry of the old professor into his study, saying, Baba, good morning, Sir. Hope you are in good health and in good spirits today. The professor replied wearily, Thank you, Bayo. I am fine, but I wish I had more time to cope with the demands of my religious activities. Was your journey from Kisi free of incident today?

In response, his young associate said, It was relatively a smooth journey, not much delay on the road, but I counted about eight damaged vehicles along the road, mostly petrol tankers, heavy-duty trucks, and trailers in various conditions of wreckage. Their drivers were considerate enough to end up in ditches, gullies, and farmlands alongside the highway! No doubt a few unfortunate drivers and some of their passengers must have ended up in the grave!

This treacherous horror of a road, dubbed highway, passing through three major high-density Southwestern Nigerian towns Oyo, Ogbomoso, and Ilorin (5) with the northern axis of Ibadan City as terminal point, stereotypes the country’s infernal intercity road network. It is a sad commentary on the state of road transportation system in twenty-first-century Nigeria, which can be aptly summed up as a veritable sermon in chaos.

For over a decade, this particular highway’s notoriety as a shortcut to the morgue for unlucky road users has continued to increase with the frequency of cluster fraud and brazen sleaze in Nigerian public-official circles. More pathetic is the plight of the church-fixated professor, with his unavoidable daily passage through the terminal and most riotous portion of this highway within Ibadan. His church is located at Idi-Ose Village, adjoining the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) (6) both of which are situated along this dreaded road.

Turning to Rufus, the professor enquired, Where are Bayo’s Coca Cola and biscuits? The young chap replied, Brother Bayo is fasting today.

The Professor looked at the author for confirmation and said, Has the Ramadan-fasting period started already, Bayo?

Not until next Saturday, Sir, but some days in the two months preceding the month of Ramadan are equally useful days of voluntary fasting for the willing Moslem, replied the author.

Despite the ravages of old age, the Professor is yet to betray any serious decline in cognition. However, same cannot be said for his eyeballs, which recently gave him early warning signs of total rebellion after six decades of relentless rigorous exposure to blackboards, books, microscopes, and other laboratory equipment; not to forget research papers, lecture notes, and the doctoral thesis of over thirty Nigerian students. Many of these students are presently accomplished professors who have made significant contributions to the Nigerian educational and agriculture policy implementation and development. Somehow, reading the Saturday’s major headline stories for analysis recently became part of the author’s weekly brief; usually the concluding phase of their meetings. To his dismay, the Professor demanded that the day’s newspaper reports should precede their usual main literary activity. Scheduled for the day was the first of the final quartet of the precisely three-year long interview, which the author was eager to complete. Concealing his dourness at the turn of proceedings, he made an attempt to save the situation by informing his eminent host that the day’s newspapers were full of bad Presidential news, but the elderly man could not be deterred whenever he wanted anything done according to his wishes! The following dialogue ensued for a considerable length of time; putting paid to the real purpose of the author’s over three-hour, early Saturday morning trip from Kisi to Ibadan.