The former acting vice chancellor of the Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Prof Adekunle Adeniran is one of the nation’s most respected men.
In this bombshell of an interview, he reveals to The Punch reporter, Olufemi Atoyebi, how he failed to go to secondary school and also how he got his two biggest promotions in his academic career in one day.
Editor’s note
– He starts off talking about his life as a young man, and the travels he had to undertake and why he missed secondary education.
– He talks of the difference in Ibadan between now and then, he explains why he thinks we lived healthier then than we do now.
– He talks of his kids and wife, his highs and lows of life and what he is looking forward to.
Kindly shed light on your career.
I was born in 1935 and like the life of most Ibadan people of my generation; life for me began in the rural area. My grandfather moved out of Ibadan central to settle in Ogeye village in Lagelu council area of the city. At six, I started schooling at Methodist Primary School, Kelebe, a village that is one kilometre away from Ogeye. I also attended Christ Apostolic Church School and returned to the village and attended St. Luke’s Primary School, St Andrew’s Primary School and then back to Ibadan central to complete my primary school education at Agbeni Methodist School.
Why were you moving from one school to the other?
Family circumstances warranted it. I did not repeat any class because I was doing well in my study. I went to live with a relation in the city but when he fell ill, I returned to the village.
Former acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adekunle Adeniran
Were your parents educated?
I don’t know who taught my father how to read and write Yoruba. He was a local leader, a lay reader and a preacher at Methodist Church, Kelebe. He was a little bit enlightened and his views and opinions were respected. In those days, he helped the colonial government to collect taxes from the people and took them to a collection point in Ibadan. He was also a farmer in food and cash crop. He had cocoa, cola nut and palm trees farms.
How was your secondary school experience?
Interestingly, I did not attend any regular or conventional secondary school at all. I read at home on my own. My first formal education ended in standard six which my parents were proud of. I became an untrained teacher at a Methodist school in Lerin which is now in Ogun State. I also taught at St. Luke’s Primary School, Offa-Igbo. In 1955, I was admitted into St. Luke’s Teacher Training College where I obtained Grade Three and later Grade Two which was called Higher Elementary certificates.
In between the two certificates, I passed the London General Certificate of Education and later wrote the Advanced Level Examination which qualified me to become a student of the University of Ibadan in September 1963. I did a degree in English and graduated in June 1966. Fortune smiled on me because in November of the same year of graduation, I was given a job as graduate trainee in UI. It afforded me to study more. I went to the University of Leeds in England and returned in 1966 to do my doctorate degree in UI. I retired in 2005 as a professor. I became a professor in 1992.
Can you compare your youthful days to what we have now?
Ibadan then was not as cosmopolitan as it is today. There were non-native that were prosperous just as we have today but the city is today far more complex. I have lived through three stages of political and social life. I have witnessed the colonial era, the beginning of the self-rule in the late 50s with the likes of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Adelabu Adegoke and others playing major roles.
When Adelabu was killed, people thought my father was a member of the Action Group because of the leading role he was playing. He was attacked in our village and he ran 20 kilometers on foot to our family house at Oja-Igbo in Ibadan. In January 1966 when Major Kaduna Nzeogwu staged the first coup, I was in the university. We were very jubilant even though many of us did not know the details. We just wanted a change that will stop the central government from using its power to suppress the Western Region politically. We jumped into available taxis and expressed support for the coup. We are now in a completely different political phase because of the sustained democracy and its challenges.
I remember that in our days, we ate healthily because we lived only on vegetables and natural foods. Nowadays, people live on all kinds of western-oriented foods that are sophisticated. We ate pounded yam, amala, pap etc. Rice was a delicacy for the educated and enlightened people. I can’t remember my parents cooking rice because we had other good food as farmers. My father had trees of oranges that children plucked for free. Today, everything has been monetised.
What about the mode of dressing at the time?
Apart from my school uniform, I did not have a shirt or a pair of trousers until I became a teacher. On Sunday we wore buba and soro (native attire) to church service.
What about your friends in the village?
I was lucky to be a pace-setter. It was not as if my father had an idea of what university education looked like, but I just pushed on with the help of God when some of my friends did not go beyond teacher training education. I became an inspiration to the younger ones. Today, we have doctorate degree holders from the village.
What kind of relationship existed between young girls and boys at the time?
In my time, there was nothing like boyfriend or girlfriend. The society was not as permissive as we have today. The idea of having a girlfriend did not occur to me until I got to the university. Family value varies but that practice was not common in those days.
How did you meet your wife?
My wife attended Baptist Girls’ Teachers Training College, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta. Her friend was a fiancée of my friend. They had been going out for a year before I met her. I was fascinated by the fact that she was a trained teacher like me. In those days, we had the belief that teachers and nurses made good mothers. When I proposed to her, the mother objected it because she did not want her daughter to marry an Ibadan man. But as time went on, she changed her views about me. The father was liberal because of his exposure to other parts of the world as a soldier. We got married in 1966.
How about your children?
We have two boys and two girls. They all attended UI.
How do you spend your time in the last 10 years?
Thank God that in my younger days, I did not have a flamboyant social life. I did not attend clubs and parties. I took beer but I realised it was not good for me and I stopped. I love being at home and I do things in moderation. Today, I eat only twice a day because my body does not require much food again. I don’t eat too much meat and I eat vegetables a lot. I also walk for 40 minutes three times a week. When I was younger, I played squash in front of Sultan Bello Hall in UI, but it’s a rigorous sport and I cannot do that now.
What do you do before going to bed?
In the last four months, I listen to the news on the television or read in my library. I like to navigate the world through the internet too. I have a lot of fiction stories to read.
What was your saddest moment in your life?
That was the day I failed my A/Level examination and could not get an admission to UI. I knew I would fail after leaving the examination hall because I did not read the instruction very well. But I thank God that I did not make it because if I had made it, I would have graduated in 1965 and the job opportunity I got after graduation in 1966 would not have come.
What about your happiest moment?
There are so many like the day we had our first child on the Christmas Eve. That boy is now in Canada. In my career, I did not struggle for promotion. After my retirement in 2005, I took a contract appointment as Head of the Department of English at Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo. On January 1, 2010, I became the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. In March 2010, we held a meeting of Committee of Deans of the school and I was made the chairman of the committee. It is a big position and I was surprised that those who have been deans before I became a dean gave me the honour. As we left the meeting, we headed straight to the Senate Chamber for an emergency meeting. At the meeting, the vice-chancellor said that his tenure had expired and that the Governing Council had instructed him to hand over to me as the chairman of the Committee of Deans. What this means is that in a day, I assumed two biggest offices in the institution.
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