ADEDIMEJI: Gong of Recurring Beats — Our Prof has been Prodded to Stardom -By Hussein Adegoke

There’s a particular junction in Ibadan that we do often branch off to in order to hire workmen who would be helping us with the manual labour on site. There is one of them who has almost become an employee with us for his calm mien, doggedness and half literacy.

The norm used to be that one stops over and demand for an available “labour”. Well, we have toed this line for awhile but not after we discovered Ibrahim. Ibrahim’s colleagues have come to know us and understand our inclination towards their friend in particular. There would be no need for anyone to race towards us or give any vivid description about his “karfi” (or strength) to us amidst them; there would be no need for auction after we have made our sales.

The point to note here is that most of those whom we engage in this manual work are Hausas, by tribe. And their disposition towards life and their unalloyed simplicity with it are the worthy traits I have come to appraise. These envious qualities are quite missing in some (?) tribesmen. When one goes around as we do to make a choice of the same person every time, what one has done compares to having upset the natural balance of the world in this clime.

There’s the “Ibrahim” who would be prone by your actions to see himself indispensable. And for this porous thought, he would hike his charges, for a sure thing. In some other climes, “Ibrahim” would become full of himself so much as to despise friends and disparage them. This latter attribute is a prominent one within the human race, after all.

Now, the biggest deal and crust of this matter is about those who, if it were to be from the part of this world, would most obviously have thought they were jinxed. For them, beefing Ibrahim would morph into taking him for a voodoo vendor (or patronage).

“Ẹ má da lóùn jàre, orí yín ló nlò” one of Ibrahim’s friends would have, by one day, echoed, out of uncourteousness and needless rivalry. It may be on one of those mornings that we had pulled over, beckoning on Ibrahim to ride with us, that another individual from his inner circle would suggest that the former is a “bad company” and should in fact be shunned from sight, always.

If you were ever saved from an impending carnage in this clime and just for your crime of being the choice of the heavens to be smiled upon, you should be borne shoulder high.

But indeed, there is whom the heavens have smiled upon — and have so been — that we should bear “all body” high. Just today, I learnt that one of our very noble teachers back at the University, a fulbright and astute scholar of the Department of English, University of Ilorin, Professor Mahfouz Adebola Adedimeji, has become a new—and even the pioneer—Vice Chancellor of Ahman Pategi University, Pategi, Kwara State. When you think Mahfouz, you think, beyond ingenuity, a multidimensional human being. He has been all things of wisdom, integrity, support, outspokenness, universality, doggedness, and the most of all, humility. His candour is unmistakable. Except you have been duly informed about his mouthwatering credentials and staggering excellence, you would never have identified this Don, ordinarily, in a crowd of people. His simple carriage betrays, always, his mileage in the academic profession.

Like my new friend, Ibrahim, Professor Mahfouz is down to the earth. And aside a calm mien, this Don has a unique trait that characterises just his individuality. His penchant for celebrating friends and acquaintances who have become successful at an endeavour knows no bound. It would most probably have been in one of Mafouz’s column you firstly read that Prof. Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede, had become the Jamb Registrar when he did. It would be from him you knew that his colleague and teacher, Prof Olu Obafemi, had bowed out (of service).

Prof has, amongst many other things, affected many lives positively. For me, I think he serves and stands uniquely as a bridge between his own x generation, the millennials and the z generation. Many great students of the University of Ilorin — Alumni or current schooler— look up to him as a mentor and as a role model. His religiosity is unflinching, too, and if understand what this means, you would appreciate the trait of honesty and have astute credulity.

Just last year, this Don was donned anew. He became a Professor of Pragmatics and Applied English Linguistics in 2020. When he did, we knew it that that blessing would be replicated going by what his name, “Adedimeji,” implies. Expectedly, the man of “double joy” has had the post of Vice-Chancellor follow his Professorship title; two crowns won within one year. Sir, consider it that this act of felicity from this author was from you to you; it is the norm you do to people that has come back to you. May joys like this be successive and unceasing in your household.