A boy was born at Oyo town to the family of late Pa. Reverend Samuel Ayodele Banjo and Mama Comfort Jokotola Banjo (nee Osinuga) of the Arobieke family of Oke-Jaga, Ijebu-Igbo, in present day Ogun State of Nigeria on Wednesday, May 2, 1934. He was destined to be great.
A boy was born at Oyo town to the family of late Pa. Reverend Samuel Ayodele Banjo and Mama Comfort Jokotola Banjo of the Arobieke family of Oke-Jaga, Ijebu-Igbo, in present day Ogun State of Nigeria on Wednesday, May 2, 1934. He was destined to be great.A boy was born at Oyo town to the family of late Pa. Reverend Samuel Ayodele Banjo and Mama Comfort Jokotola Banjo of the Arobieke family of Oke-Jaga, Ijebu-Igbo, in present day Ogun State of Nigeria on Wednesday, May 2, 1934.
My formal contact with Professor Banjo did not start until my stint as the Dean of the Postgraduate School some 15 years later. At a reception held within the grounds of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge , the then Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences, my senior colleague, Prof Adedoyin Soyibo, asked that we should go and greet Prof. So it was that I followed him.
He was very supportive of all our humble efforts during my five-year stint as VC, especially his numerous interventions during crisis periods. He attended all the five Convocation ceremonies held during my tenure except for the 2020 edition, no thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am aware of his sadness in respect of the unsavoury developments associated with the appointment of the 13th VC of the University of Ibadan.
He apparently felt that not much was to be gained from re-opening old wounds. He told me that the other party might never have had any opportunity to defend himself. I respected his opinion, although not without feeling that only a perfect gentleman in the mould of our highly respected academic father Professor Banjo would have acted in this manner to protect his traducers.
Our honoree is a distinguished administrator; former Chairman, Advisory Committee on the National Language Centre, former Chairman National Committee on English Language ; President, Nigerian Academy of Letters ; former President West African Modern Language Association; former visiting Professor of English to the University of West Indies, Barbados; Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge, England .
Moreover, he speaks at every available opportunity on governance of the universities, university autonomy, academic freedom, financial autonomy, student admissions; public and global perception and ranking of Nigerian universities, irregular academic calendar, the university committee system, and powers of University Councils, among many other related sub-themes.
We join his family and numerous admirers to wish our own Baba Banjo many more years of service to humanity.Before flagging, please keep in mind that Disqus does not moderate communities. Your username will be shown to the moderator, so you should only flag this comment for one of the reasons listed above.
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