An Address Delivered By Chief Obafemi Awolowo On The Occasion Of His Installation As The First Chancellor Of The University Of Ife At Ile-Ife On Monday 15 May 1967
YOUR EXCELLENCIES, YOUR HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
“When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.”
Today, my heart overflows with profound gratitude to God Who has made it possible for me to be in this gathering, and to play in it the historic role of the first Chancellor of this most promising University.
By ordinary human calculations, I was not due to regain my freedom until 11 May 1969 – that is, two calendar years minus four days from today, or a little less than three calendar years from the date of my release from prison on August 3, last year. But by the Grace of God, and the divine agency of Lt. Col. Yakubu Go won, Head of the Federal Military Government, here stand I, in the midst of you, as the principal figure of this memorable occasion.


My thanks, therefore, go very deep to Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, the late Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, Col. Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, Military Governor of Western Nigeria, the Chairman and Members of the Provisional Council of the University of Ife, for the parts which they have severally played in making the early restoration of my personal liberty and my installation here this morning as the titular head of this reputable seat of learning, the accomplished facts of which all of you are undoubted witnesses. It is not generally known that, apart from labouring for my release up to the time of his death, and apart from gallantly and heroically laying down his life for his military superior and friend, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi became, in his death, an unpremeditated ransom for my redemption.
The University of Ife was founded in i960; and although it was officially opened in 1961, it actually began its regular academic session in its Ibadan Campus in the year 1962. Like other Universities in this country and elsewhere, it is dedicated to the teaching of all the academic disciplines which have so far been and will in future be, instituted by the formidable and venerable world of learning.

From its birth seven years ago, the University of Ife has, in spite of some unhappy vicissitudes, had a steady and healthy growth. With an initial intake of 180 students, it now has an undergraduate student population of 923, composed of 795 male and 128 female students. There are, in addition, 22 post-graduate students, one of whom is female.
The University authorities expect that the present under-graduate student population will increase to 1,500 in the next academic year. It is my earnest hope, however, that this anticipated figure will have a phenomenal rise when, in the near future, education becomes free at the University level, as already agreed by the Leaders of Thought in Western Nigeria, regardless of their differing political beliefs.


Of the existing student population, 57 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively, are pursuing courses in non-science and science subjects. It is the aim of the University to reverse this ratio to 3 : 2 in favour of Science, within the next three to five years. I fully support this aim; and am pledged to foster it in any way I can.
It is my considered opinion that Science and Scientific Method, if properly mastered and conscientiously applied, will provide the Master Key to all our problems—be they technical, political, economic, or commercial. Even the non-science disciplines stand considerably to benefit from the employment of Scientific Method. Already, there are authoritative books on THE LOGIC OF THE HUMANITIES.
It has been said by many well-meaning and knowledgeable patriots that Nigeria is in a hurry. I will go further and say that, after she shall have survived her present paroxysm, Nigeria has need to make a leap over a quarter-of-a-century, if she is to satisfy the legitimate yearnings of her teeming peoples. After very careful consideration, I have no doubt in my mind that this feat of social rocketry is feasible, provided that Science is the booster and the Humanities the controllers. It is for this reason that I regard as enlightened and farsighted the University’s plan to reverse, within the next five years or so, the present approximate ratio of 2 : 3, in respect of students doing science and non-science subjects.


Though the fact is generally known, yet it can bear repetition, that the University moved to its present site only last January. And from all appearances, it has settled down so well, in that short period of time, that unwary visitors may be tempted to believe that the University has been here all its life.
For this and other achievements, all praise is due to the late Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, and Col. R. A. Adebayo, both of whom, on different occasions, squeezed water, so to say, from the Regional Government’s financial flint to make this campus the elegant and inspiring place that we now see. Equally, our sincere and profuse thanks go to those foreign Governments and Foundations which have been of assistance to us in the past.
Much work, and much expenditure remain to be done and incurred before we can claim to be fairly well established in this new home of ours. Even the Science disciplines are still in Ibadan and are only expected to move in during the coming academic session. In this connection we have implicit trust in the oft-repeated and firm assurances of the Military Governor, Col. Adebayo, that he regards the Ife University project as one of the top priorities in his Government’s scheme of things. In fact, in the current financial year, he has already demonstrated the earnest of his Government’s good faith, by making relatively substantial provisions for the University in the Budget.
We also look forward to our friends and well-wishers including overseas Governments and Foundations to give us as much assistance, in cash and kind, as it is ever within their power to bestow on this infant but fast-growing institution.
As for my fellow-Nigerians, I only wish to seize this opportunity to give them advance notice of my future plan for raising funds for the University. Before very long, I shall launch a “University of Ife Endowment Fund”; and I have no doubt that when the time comes they will respond generously to my appeal.
It is my ambition that the University of Ife – and indeed every other University in Nigeria for that matter – should be reasonably independent financially. It is incompatible with and subversive of the academic independence of a University for its Council and Vice-Chancellor, now and again, to go cap-in-hand to beg for funds from the Government, especially when such Government is controlled by a political party.



Whether we are conscious of or acknowledge it or not, the fact remains stubborn and indestructible that poverty, disease, social unrest and instability, and all kinds of international conflict, have their origins in the minds of men. Unless we tackle and remove, or at the very least minimize, these evils at their source, all our efforts in Nigeria to bring about happier circumstances for our peoples, and all the endeavours of mankind to evolve a better world, would be completely in vain. It is only when the minds of men have been properly and rigorously cultivated and garnished, that they can be safely entrusted with public affairs with a certainty and assuredness that they will make the best of their unique opportunity and assignment.
For this reason, I do fervently beseech both tutors and students alike in all our Universities to take their individual assignments most seriously. It is from them—from the university teachers to the university students, and from the latter to all the lower institutions of learning—that the eternal light of knowledge, and hence of intellectual and spiritual freedom, will beam, with powerful and inextinguishable radiance, to the lowest place of learning—even the nursery school.
The responsibility which thus devolves upon them is a grave one. It obliges them to intellectual honesty and detachment; so that the light which they shed may be brilliant, all- pervasive in its illumination, and unerringly guide men’s feet on the path of truth.
The cardinal aim of every academic discipline is to develop the power to think – clearly, correctly, and scientifically.
According to Haddock –
“The power to think, consecutively and deeply and clearly, is an avowed and deadly enemy to mistakes and blunders, superstitions, unscientific theories, irrational beliefs, unbridled enthusiasm, fanaticism.”
It will be seen, therefore, that the power to think clearly, correctly, and scientifically, is the greatest of all the powers that a man can possess.
If they are to discharge, creditably, the responsibility laid upon them, by the very nature of their calling, the University teachers must develop this power in themselves, in full measure, and sedulously help the students in their charge to cultivate it.
For exactly SIXTEEN months now, we have been making a strenuous and earnest search for peace, and a new Constitution. So far, the results which have attended our efforts have not been as we would wish them to be.


On this auspicious and felicitous occasion, and in the presence of this august and mixed congregation, I will endeavour to make only such remarks on the present situation in the country as appear to me to be non-critical and non-controversial.
There is an urgent and crying need to recognize certain factors which, in my view, have not hitherto been given the due recognition, emphasis, and weight that they deserve. I consider six of such factors to be very important, and I enumerate them.
ONE: Because of the nature of its political evolution since 1900, Nigeria had only had, all told, a lease of two years, for discovering and forging new cohesive materials, in place of the British ones, to keep it going as a united and harmonious entity.
Neither the discovering, nor the forging had been well under way before the prolonged crisis, which now threatens to engulf us, began in 1962. To be sure, since 1962, the fifty-one odd national groups in Nigeria have been moving farther and farther apart from one another, not closer and closer together. Indeed, as a result of the supervening and aggravating events of the past sixteen months, mutual suspicion and hostility have been deepening and ossifying with alarming speed.
In this connection, it must be borne in mind that the basis for any union among any communities, especially amongst diverse national groups such as we have in Nigeria, is the utmost mutual trust and understanding. The greater the trust and understanding, the stronger and more harmonious the union. The converse, of course, is also true.


TWO: Because of its youth as an independent sovereign State—Nigeria was only a little over five years of age when the coup of January 1966 took place; because of its youth, and because of the strains and stresses inherent in it as a multi-national State, Nigeria cannot afford an unduly protracted political and economic illness. The pressing danger involved in the present illness of our country is that it might kill more by its sheer protraction than by its severity.
THREE: Our military Administration must be recognized for what it was originally intended and proclaimed to be: an essentially corrective regime, and not a reconstructing Administration with ready and lasting answers to all our political and economic ills.
In my view, the main task of the military regime is to perform a quick and successful surgical operation for the purpose of removing, from our body politic, a malignant and debilitating morbid growth. It was never expected, and it would be too much of a risk for it to attempt to undertake the massive and never-ending task of rebuilding or reconstructing our body politic. It would be too much of a risk, because the Army would then be embarking on a venture for which it is not by tradition and training equipped, and which by its very nature is an ever-recurring phenomenon in any healthy progressive State.

FOUR: As there are good soldiers, so there are good politicians. Not all soldiers are saints, and not all politicians are devils or social lepers.
I have no doubt in my mind that if the corrective measures, which our Military leaders have in mind, are prosecuted with fearlessness, impartiality, and despatch, a new breed of politicians would emerge which would make the welfare of the people the sole object of their public career and pursuit.
FIVE: One of the stark and naked facts which stare us in the face is that, during the past five years, we have inflicted deep and grievous wounds oh one another; so much so that emotions, bitterness and deep-seated suspicions, far more than reason, charity, and trustfulness, now rule our hearts.

It is my candid and honest opinion that what we need very badly, in the present circumstances, is a palliative that will tide us over the present critical stage. Thereafter a curative must be sought and applied. I must warn, however, that an inflexible insistence on a curative, when there is so much sharp disagreement among all the doctors in attendance, may prove fatal to the patient.
SIX: All the great religions and ideologies of the world teach one and only one supreme and imperishable lesson, namely: that LOVE is the touchstone of all human activities. Any human activity that does not stand the test of LOVE is evil. As a practical guide to the practice of LOVE Jesus Christ gave us the Golden Rule in the following words:


“Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the Law and the prophets.”
In closing, I wholeheartedly thank all of you—distinguished men and women in practically all walks of life, from far and near in and outside Nigeria—for responding to the invitation of the Provisional Council by gracing this occasion with your presence. Apart from the colourfulness and impressiveness of this ceremony which I hope we have all enjoyed, a visit to Ile-Ife must be a rewarding adventure to anyone- no matter from what part of the world he hails.
It is not generally known that Ife is more than the cradle of the Yoruba people. It is from here in Ile-Ife, so our worthy legend goes, that the solid earth first arose from the midst of the all-pervading ocean, and was then spread, by one of our gods, to all the other parts of the world, to form the six continents of Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America and South America.

Awo!! An epitome of intelligence, political sagacity, deep understanding, great insight, incredible foresight and true discipline. This was a man who saw tomorrow. He was truly ahead of his time. Continue to rest in peace Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo, GCFR.

10 Notable Facts About Chief Obafemi Awolowo | Verity Awala | March 7, 2016 |

1). He is most notable as the outstanding first premier of the Western Region, but was also a successful federal commissioner for finance and vice president of the Federal Executive Council in the Civil War and was thrice a major contender for his country’s highest office.

2). He was the first Leader of Government Business and Minister of Local Government and Finance, apart from being the first Premier of the Western Region under Nigeria’s parliamentary system, from 1952 to 1959.

3). He was also the official Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament to the Balewa government from 1959 to 1963. In recognition of all these, Awolowo was the first individual in the modern era to be named Leader of the Yorubas (Yoruba: Asiwaju Awon Yoruba or Asiwaju Omo Oodua).

4). Awolowo pioneered free primary education in Nigeria in the Western Region and also free health care. Although Awolowo failed to win the 1979 and 1983 presidential elections of the Second Republic, he polled the second highest number of votes and his policies of free education and limited free health were carried out throughout all the states controlled by his party, the Unity Party of Nigeria.

5). Awolowo is best remembered for his remarkable integrity, ardent nationalism, principled and virile opposition, and dogged federalistic convictions. His party was the first to move the motion for Nigeria’s independence in the federal parliament and he obtained internal self-government for the Western Region.

6). He is credited with coining the name “naira” for the Nigerian standard monetary unit and helped to finance the Civil War and preserve the federation without borrowing.

7). He built the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, the first of its kind in Africa.

8.). He also established the WNTV (Western Nigeria television), the first television station in Africa.

9). He equally erected the first skyscraper in tropical Africa: the Cocoa House (still the tallest in Ibadan) and ran a widely respected civil service in the Western Region.

10). He was also among the first to be conferred with the highest national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a rank and a title that have ordinarily should have been bestowed upon the country’s president. http://www.informationng.com/2016/03/10-notable-facts-about-chief-obafemi-awolowo-you-should-know.html

Correct! He also attained the highest rank in law practice. He was a senior advocate of Nigeria equivalent to a King or Queen Counsel.

He was the second person to be conferred with the rank in Nigeria, after FRA Williams.

I doff my hat - To the late brave who gave us light(education) to see better.

Thank you.[i][/i]

Oselu baba ikenne

When I read Awo's speeches and see the tangible evidence of his sojourn as a political leader, sadness envelopes me because we've not being blessed with a leader like that again in Western Nigeria and I doubt we'll get one of his hue again.

Its so sad. Even the military governors like Fajuyi, Adebayo etc tried their best unlike the current generation of politicians that jostle for office only to line their pockets and sustain their hedonistic madness.

RIP Awo and thanks for all you did in your service to Yoruba land.

Chief obafemi awolowo(GCFR) remains and will always be my role model.

Please who can confirm this,I also read it on the article up there,but I still need to confirm...it's it true he is the first man to be conferred with the highest honour in Nigeria called the Grand Commander Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria (GCFR)

I saw 'Awo speech' and was wondering how Awo can speak not knowing that it is Awolowo the man that drank rat poison.



Awo means Frog in Igbo language.

walemoney007:
Chief obafemi awolowo(GCFR) remains and will always be my role model.

Please who can confirm this,I also read it on the article up there,but I still need to confirm...it's it true he is the first man to be conferred with the highest honour in Nigeria called the Grand CRIMINAL Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria (GCFR)

Yes!

walemoney007:
Chief obafemi awolowo(GCFR) remains and will always be my role model.

Please who can confirm this,I also read it on the article up there,but I still need to confirm...it's it true he is the first man to be conferred with the highest honour in Nigeria called the Grand Commander Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria (GCFR)

No. Awo was conferred with GCON, not GCFR.

sekundosekundo:
I saw 'Awo speech' and was wondering how Awo can speak not knowing that it is Awolowo the man that drank rat poison.



Awo means Frog in Igbo language.

Yeah same Awolowo, the one that masterminded the shameful defeat of Biafra with unusual brilliance.

You guys said he murdered three million Igbo's yet he never shot a gun, yeah same awo, the night terrors of the Igbo's. Yeah same Awo.

sekundosekundo:
I saw 'Awo speech' and was wondering how Awo can speak not knowing that it is Awolowo the man that drank rat poison.



Awo means Frog in Igbo language.

You mean how your OJukwu drank Hypo and died as a senile with a foaming mouth at the same age, 78yrs old.

shukuokukobambi:
No. Awo was conferred with GCON, not GCFR.

Are you sure? The Tribune Newspaper has a different perspective.

Chief Awolowo provided the needed template for regional development and national cohesion when he held sway as Premier of Nigeria’s South West Region. Today, the region chiefly occupies a pacesetter platform compared to other regions of the federation.

No other Nigerian, dead or alive, has received the national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) without serving as president or Head of State, save Chief Awolowo.

Nothing else could have qualified the peerless Chief Awolowo but his saintly sense of integrity, his populist, largely anti-elitist nationalistic orientation, an unrivalled, positively infectious commitment to the ideals of democracy and rule of law. An ideologue, he adhered to the strictest avowals of true federalism which are still widely celebrated within and outside the realms of Nigeria till date. http://tribuneonlineng.com/obafemi-awolowo-leadership-model/

laudate:


Are you sure? The Tribune Newspaper has a different perspective.

Really??

I always thought only the Presidents get it. Thanks for the knowledge sharing bro

Kagawa10:


You mean how your OJukwu drank Hypo and died as a senile with a foaming mouth at the same age, 78yrs old.

GoldNiagara:



Yeah same Awolowo, the one that masterminded the shameful defeat of Biafra with unusual brilliance.

You guys said he murdered three million Igbo's yet he never shot a gun, yeah same awo, the night terrors of the Igbo's. Yeah same Awo.

Don't waste your time on this particular specie you quoted. He's one of the dumber ones in the horde. Even hate should have some modicum of intelligence but he lacks even the smallest quantity

GoldNiagara:



Yeah same Awolowo, the one that masterminded the shameful defeat of Biafra with unusual brilliance.

You guys said he murdered three million Igbo's yet he never shot a gun, yeah same awo, the night terrors of the Igbo's. Yeah same Awo.

Please my brother, you people should ignore anyone who comes in to derail the thread. They aren't worth the tiniest bit of one's attention. Starve them if it and watch them fade away like mist after sunrise.

May the great sage continue to rest in peace.

shukuokukobambi:


Don't waste your time on this particular specie you quoted. He's one of the dumber ones in the horde. Even hate should have some modicum of intelligence but he lacks even the smallest quantity

Exactly. "It" should be ignored.

To me he is arguably the greatest African leader of the modern era. He gets a nod over Mandela because of his vision and intelligence.

I adore this man! A man of undiluted intelligence. A rare breed; a man born in the wrong generation, on the wrong continent.

Awo was well versed in philosophy: it's quite obvious from his speech. But why are our current political leaders bereft of any political ideology? Everything about politics now is, "jeun soke!"

Rest in peace, Great One!

Volksfuhrer:
I adore this man! A man of undiluted intelligence. A rare breed; a man born in the wrong generation, on the wrong continent.

Awo was well versed in philosophy: it's quite obvious from his speech. But why are our current political leaders bereft of any political ideology? Everything about politics now is, "jeun soke!"

Rest in peace, Great One!

You are right.

Obafemi awolowo: The father of Yoruba people.

omenka:
Please my brother, you people should ignore anyone who comes in to derail the thread. They aren't worth the tiniest bit of one's attention. Starve them if it and watch them fade away like mist after sunrise.

May the great sage continue to rest in peace.

I agree!

hmmm only the deep can call to the deep indeed.

GoldNiagara:
An Address Delivered By Chief Obafemi Awolowo On The Occasion Of His Installation As The First Chancellor Of The University Of Ife At Ile-Ife On Monday 15 May 1967
YOUR EXCELLENCIES, YOUR HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
“When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.”
Today, my heart overflows with profound gratitude to God Who has made it possible for me to be in this gathering, and to play in it the historic role of the first Chancellor of this most promising University.
By ordinary human calculations, I was not due to regain my freedom until 11 May 1969 – that is, two calendar years minus four days from today, or a little less than three calendar years from the date of my release from prison on August 3, last year. But by the Grace of God, and the divine agency of Lt. Col. Yakubu Go won, Head of the Federal Military Government, here stand I, in the midst of you, as the principal figure of this memorable occasion.

My thanks, therefore, go very deep to Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, the late Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, Col. Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, Military Governor of Western Nigeria, the Chairman and Members of the Provisional Council of the University of Ife, for the parts which they have severally played in making the early restoration of my personal liberty and my installation here this morning as the titular head of this reputable seat of learning, the accomplished facts of which all of you are undoubted witnesses. It is not generally known that, apart from labouring for my release up to the time of his death, and apart from gallantly and heroically laying down his life for his military superior and friend, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi became, in his death, an unpremeditated ransom for my redemption.

Who was the clown who said that Awolowo was released from prison by Ojukwu? See the man saying it in black & white, that it was Gowon who released him from jail, o! Abi, will a man not know who signed the order for his release again? And his tribute to Fajuyi is so touching.... May the souls of both great men, rest in peace.

GoldNiagara:
I will go further and say that, after she shall have survived her present paroxysm, Nigeria has need to make a leap over a quarter-of-a-century, if she is to satisfy the legitimate yearnings of her teeming peoples. After very careful consideration, I have no doubt in my mind that this feat of social rocketry is feasible, provided that Science is the booster and the Humanities the controllers. It is for this reason that I regard as enlightened and farsighted the University’s plan to reverse, within the next five years or so, the present approximate ratio of 2 : 3, in respect of students doing science and non-science subjects.

Sadly, Nigerian authorities did not take his advice to make this quantum leap. Many of his political successors became content with mediocrity. But a few listened to the latter part of his words, when the intake of science students to the arts in most public universities, was doubled in the '80s. But too little of it was done, a little too late.

GoldNiagara:
It is my ambition that the University of Ife – and indeed every other University in Nigeria for that matter – should be reasonably independent financially. It is incompatible with and subversive of the academic independence of a University for its Council and Vice-Chancellor, now and again, to go cap-in-hand to beg for funds from the Government, especially when such Government is controlled by a political party.

Again, Awo was right. But till today, very few public universities have been able to achieve this status of financial independence. Most of them still depend on govt for every little thing. And the day the govt withholds their subventions, their academic and financial obligations & goals, are crippled. When will our public universities be able to surmount these challenges, to some extent?

GoldNiagara:
Whether we are conscious of or acknowledge it or not, the fact remains stubborn and indestructible that poverty, disease, social unrest and instability, and all kinds of international conflict, have their origins in the minds of men. Unless we tackle and remove, or at the very least minimize, these evils at their source, all our efforts in Nigeria to bring about happier circumstances for our peoples, and all the endeavours of mankind to evolve a better world, would be completely in vain. It is only when the minds of men have been properly and rigorously cultivated and garnished, that they can be safely entrusted with public affairs with a certainty and assuredness that they will make the best of their unique opportunity and assignment....

The cardinal aim of every academic discipline is to develop the power to think – clearly, correctly, and scientifically.
According to Haddock –
“The power to think, consecutively and deeply and clearly, is an avowed and deadly enemy to mistakes and blunders, superstitions, unscientific theories, irrational beliefs, unbridled enthusiasm, fanaticism.”
It will be seen, therefore, that the power to think clearly, correctly, and scientifically, is the greatest of all the powers that a man can possess.

Again, Awo was so very correct. It is still so sad to see that more than 40 years after he made this proclamation, a lot of people in this country, still cannot think clearly and constructively, despite the abundance of degrees they possess, and the different kinds of education they have received. Many have gone to school, but the school has not gone through them. Many have sat within the 4 walls of a classroom but have imbibed nothing of value. We see so many examples on NL today. Awo was prophetic. It is sad to note that many of his political disciples have failed to heed his prophecy.

Awo surely came before his time, I know he would be turning in his grave whenever he sees our polluted political scape and Wat has become of a country that once had a very beautiful prospect ...It's painful Nigeria couldn't tap from his fountain of knowledge, we lost it and this is y we keep moving in a circle.

This was a man that was dying to lead the country because he knew Wat it took to lead a country like ours bt the northern oligarchs frustrated him using their foot soldier in the person of Matthew Obasanjo and instead opted for a Shaghari who as a TC 2 certificate holder was contended with going to the Senate,they successfully foisted him on Nigerians and like they say the rest became history.

This was a man who introduced 'free education " and without which a lot of the elderly educated ones and professors wouldn't ve been. His model of governance was a model to other regions then.

Nobody in the history of democracy in Nigeria has had the dying ambition of being president and actually did perhaps with just the exception of Buhari, the others had always been unwilling bt who were forced down the throats of Nigerians all the same.

As far as politics is concerned, nobody comes close to AWO in having so much grip and impact on the people he represented, wat now ve re " Asiwajus and awoist" wannabes who don't really care bt pretend to when in actual sense that re proponents of "jeun soke and lootocracy ".


Regionalism is just the way out of this logjam and confusion, let each region move at her pace and this would create room for competition ,healthy rivalry and a model to other regions that re not getting it done the right way.

Babacele:
hmmm only the deep can call to the deep indeed.

Abyssus abyssum invocat in voce cataractarum tuarum; omnes gurgites tui et fluctus tui super me transierunt.

Deep calls to deep in the voice of your waterfalls: all your whirlpools and waves have passed over me.

laudate:


Who was the clown who said that Awolowo was released from prison by Ojukwu? See the man saying it in black & white, that it was Gowon who released him from jail, o! Abi, will a man not know who signed the order for his release again? And his tribute to Fajuyi is so touching.... May the souls of both great men, rest in peace.


Sadly, Nigerian authorities did not take his advice to make this quantum leap. Many of his political successors became content with mediocrity. But a few listened to the latter part of his words, when the intake of science students to the arts in most public universities, was doubled in the '80s. But too little of it was done, a little too late.



Again, Awo was right. But till today, very few public universities have been able to achieve this status of financial independence. Most of them still depend on govt for every little thing. And the day the govt withholds their subventions, their academic and financial obligations are crippled. When will our public universities be able to surmount these challenges, to some extent?


Again, Awo was so very correct. It is still so sad to see that more than 40 years after he made this proclamation, a lot of people in this country, still cannot think clearly and constructively, despite the abundance of degrees they possess, and the different kinds of education they have received. Many have gone to school, but the school has not gone through them. Many have sat within the 4 walls of a classroom but have imbibed nothing of value. We see so many examples on NL today. Awo was prophetic. It is sad to note that many of his political disciples have failed to heed his prophecy.

Inciteful analysis!

GoldNiagara:



Abyssus abyssum invocat in voce cataractarum tuarum; omnes gurgites tui et fluctus tui super me transierunt.

Deep calls to deep in the voice of your waterfalls: all your whirlpools and waves have passed over me.

hmmm the wizard is just too awesome.

Dollyak:
To me he is arguably the greatest African leader of the modern era. He gets a nod over Mandela because of his vision and intelligence.

how?