allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Tribute - Aboyade and the Burden of National Progress

allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Tribute - Aboyade and the Burden of National Progress

A TRIBUTE TO A REAL GENIUS - PROFESSOR OJETUNJI ABOYADE:

Thanks to the Guardian Newspaper for making it possible for me to know and follow this icon - a distinguished economist, Professor Ojetunji Aboyade - while he was with us on earth.  His articles on political economy and related issues were always smooth and easy to read, even though laced with syllogisms and Socio-Economic dialects.  Those days, his treatises were  usually lengthy and they normally take a whole page, and sometimes, a page and half in the Guardian Newspaper.  If I am not mistaken, his last published interview was conducted by Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi for the Daily Times Newspaper (during Yemi's short stint at the paper). And it was a delightful read. In it, he did a comparative analysis of how it was advising the late Head of State, Murtala Mohammed and advising President Ibrahim Babangida, who was the President at the time the interview was conducted.

According to him, the two leaders would listen to your advice attentively, while Murtala Mohammed would follow up with your counsel, IBB would simply do what he pleases. (By the way, about a week or two after the publication of that interview, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi was fired again, this time by his good friend, IBB, who hired him in the first case. Yemi's offense, rumor had it, was that he was using the government papers to publish "the views of those who are against IBB's government." About a month earlier, Dr. Ogunbiyi was relieved of his job at the Guardian Newspaper along with Dr. Stanley Macebuh by Mr. Alex Ibru). One could rightly argue that, but for that interview with Professor Aboyade, published by the Daily Times, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi might have stayed longer at the Daily Times than he did. In a nutshell, Professor Aboyade was an upright and highly principled intellectual who was never afraid to say it the way it is.

Growing up, I had a great attraction for his work, because I never had problem understanding or imbibing his macroeconomic analysis even though I was a Grammar School graduate who was unrepentantly addicted to The Guardian Newspaper - from the very first complimentary copy. I enjoyed and cherished his work or theorization (as The Guardian used to phrase it) the same way I enjoyed and cherished the work of Professor Adebayo Adedeji and Professor Claude Ake. 

Few years ago I saw one of Professor Ake's book at a friend's Library in Denver, Colorado (she has just completed her Masters in International Studies at the Josef Korbel School, University of Denver, and I was about completing my Masters in Energy and Environmental Law and Policy at the same institution), I pulled the book out of the Book Shelf, beaming with pride and smile all over my face, and I declared loud and clear to my fellow students present in the room: The author of this book is from my country. I was full of spirit when everyone, in turn, flipped through the book. By the way, I talked about Professor Claude Ake earlier on this Blog. He was the guy who introduced "AWO", a course of study dedicated to the life and work of Chief Obafemi Awolowo at the University of Calabar in Nigeria. 

Professor Ojetunji Aboyade was an icon, an Economist and a great man of unquestionable academic credentials. Professor Claude Ake was a distinguished political economist,  a scholar of international repute. They will be greatly missed by many.