Ajimobi commiserates with family, associates of Professor Ade-Ajayi
The governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has commiserated with the family of the late former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos and Emeritus Professor of African History, Professor J. F. Ade-Ajayi.
He made this known in a release issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Dr. Festus Adedayo.
According to Ajimobi, the late Professor Emeritus would be sorely missed by the academia, the intellectual community in general and the Nigerian nation at large whom he contributed his “seminal thoughts” to its growth while alive.
The governor said Ade-Ajayi’s death was a personal loss to the people of Oyo State because the late Professor of History, for decades until his death, found solace in the ancient city of Ibadan.
“We can rightly claim that Professor Ade-Ajayi was our son because he lived a great chunk of his life right here on the soil of Ibadan. Many of those profound theses of his in history were conceived right here and he found the peace and tranquility which contributed to his long life and peace of mind on the soil of Ibadan. At his passing therefore, Oyo State could be said to have lost a great son,” said the governor.
Ajimobi noted the giant strides of the Professor in African history and said that while alive, he put the name of the country on the world map, as well as gave the black man impetus in a world where Eurocentric historians posited that the Black man had no history.
The governor commiserated with Ade-Ajayi’s family members, students, associates, the academic community and his intellectual children, many of whom he acknowledged had become great contributors to the body of knowledge in the world.
He urged the late professor’s long list of associates and family members not to mourn him but take solace in the fact that while alive, he had succeeded in making himself immortal.
“Professor Ade-Ajayi does not belong to the realm of those who can die or who have died. Whenever or wherever African history is going to be discussed, the Emeritus Professor would live. Wherever his seminal thoughts are being cited for the enrichment of the body of knowledge, he would appear to them. So he cannot be said to have died,” said the Governor.