My Friend, The Professor Of Political Science -By Festus Adedayo

The Council of the University of Ibadan, during the week, announced as professor, Emmanuel Remi Aiyede. Professor Aiyede is of the Department of Political Science of the university. He and I were classmates in the Master’s class of the department, graduating in 1995. In our class, he was decidedly the best, demonstrating a mastery and grasp of the course that baffled all. 

Some of us who had our first degrees in Philosophy were very proud of him as those whose first degree was in Political Science marveled at how, in the one year of the Master’s programme, Aiyede colonized the whole class with an amazing finish. His first degree in philosophy was from same University of Ibadan. With our mutual friend and classmate, Wale Adebanwi, who is also a professor at the Oxford University, United Kingdom with a PhD in Political Science from Ibadan and another in Anthropology from Cambridge, we constituted a tripod. He and Adebanwi were however more academics-inclined. Aiyede scored 68 per cent in the final computation of our results and later began his PhD immediately, which he finished in record time. 

Our teachers – Adigun Agbaje, Eghosa Osaghae, Rotimi Suberu and the like saw academy in Aiyede right from the start. He was profound and deep in his analyses of issues. I remember an Osaghae class where he taught us Feminist Epistemology. While I sought to delete the course because of the difficulty it posed, Aiyede was atop the class. In the last 20 years or so of his completing his doctorate degree, he has given academy an undiluted dedication which makes this academic laurel not surprising. Like me, aside his Philosophy background, he also had a stint in a newspaper house in Edo State which further cemented our bond. Aiyede has over the years been a delight to his friends. His areas of research are Political Institutions, Governance and Public Administration, while his major works have focused on Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations, Representation and Electoral Systems and State Politics and Policy. His current project is Social Protection and State Formation in in Africa.

He and Adebanwi have turned out to be world-class scholars whom I am proud to be their friend. Here is wishing yet another of my professor friends big congratulations.