By Ademola Adedoyin

After five years of tour of duty as a Vice Chancellor, Professor Noah Yusuf bows out gracefully after a resoundingly successful headship of the fast growing Islamic faith-based citadel of learning,Al-Hikmah University.

Peaceful Disposition. Intellection. Calmness. The academic icon that we celebrate on this page for safe and peaceful landing after a successful tour of duty at the fast growing Islamic faith-based Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, shares those attributes with the Dove, the bird with ancient records of significant positive reputation and importance both in Islamic and Christian religions.

Professor Noah Yusuf’s meritorious service and safe landing after an uninterrupted five years flight as the Chief Pilot of this centre of faith and learning definitely evokes the image of a dove landing peacefully, eliciting feelings of calmness, serenity and accomplishments.

Like the Dove, Professor Yusuf epitomises a harbinger of the divine tidings, bringing messages of peace, intellection, love, and spiritual evolvement.

As an Islamic faith-based institution, we may never know if the pragmatic and exemplary founder of this great institution, our Baba, Alhaji (Chief), Dr AbdulRaheem Oladimeji, OFR, FNEAP, fspsp, Asiwaju and Jagunmolu of Igbomina land, Arogundade of Lagos and Baba Oba of Offa, went all out to search for a scholar with dovish disposition when he wanted to recruit a Vice Chancellor a little over five years ago.

What we know, however, with the appointment of Prof Yusuf as the head of the Institution is that Baba got a scholar who shared the Dove’s qualities of intellectual depth, peaceful disposition and spiritual essence most suitable for a faith-based institution of learning.

The Dove that arrived Al-Hikmah University five years ago to lead that institution to greater accomplishments definitely shares the same attributes with dove, the bird of peace who is reverred in Islamic Religion for its association with the Holy Prophet Mohammed (SAW). For aiding the Holy Prophet during the migration (Hijra) by distracting his enemies outside the Cave of Thawn, the Dove, in Islam, has come to symbolise peace, love and assistance

And it was the first known Noah, that is Prophet Noah, according to Biblical account, who possessed the Dove who returned from its flight with an olive branch in its beak, symbolising the end of the flood, a new beginning and reconnection with God. And now, the Noah of Al-Hikmah University. Truly, there is so much to a name.

On his appointment to lead this reputable university community five years ago, yours sincerely wrote a tribute, eulogising the don for his strides and commending the founder for the choice. That piece, with some editing and some additions to give an update, is deserving of a second read.

Without being immodest, this writer will, perhaps, pride himself as one of the most qualified to do a character sketch on the gentleman who, from modest beginnings, through diligence, untiring pursuits of excellence and, above all, grace of God, has climbed the academic ladder to the top, in a career that has spanned a little over three decades.

In a brotherly relationship that has spanned 50 unbroken years, and that does not include the primary school years, one has come to appreciate the essence and attributes of this academic gentle giant whose life is a lesson in God’s grace and man’s tenacity to climb the success ladder to the top.

The year was 1975. Precisely Friday, 5th September of that year.That was the day yours truly left his beloved Okeya-Ipo for Omupo Grammar School to commence his secondary school education. A year earlier, 1974 that is, Professor Noah Yusuf had arrived at the same institution and had already adjusted to life in a boarding school by the time one got in a year after.

I arrived Omupo Grammar School to the welcoming arms of three senior students: Alhaji Ganiyu Akande of blessed memory, final year student, who magnanimously immediately became my college father and later a lead geologist at NNPC, my caring, beloved sister, Sikirat Ronke Amolegbe also of blessed memory, a form 2 student, and, of course, Noah Yusuf, also a form 2 student.

With these three, settling down to boarding school life and class works was made seamless and stress free.

At that early stage of our lives, Noah’s caring attitude, peaceful disposition, and genuine concern for the plight of others stood out. While yours sincerely was on the lively, sociable, brilliant but restless side, Noah was reserved, contemplative, and studious. Even at that early stage, he was a sort of restraint factor who tried to rein in the restless spirit in the newcomer who appeared to be too much at home than his ‘hosts.’

Throughout our remarkable and exciting sojourn at OGS, I am sure there was no one who could suggest, let alone allude to any infraction against the school’s rules and regulations by Noah. Not just that he was studious and focused, he was obedient and law abiding.

Noah was too serene, quiet, and affable to cause any upset. One would not be surprised if some students who were in school with us didn’t know him or couldn’t recall who he was. He was just a man at peace with himself and who wanted to just excel in his chosen path without causing a stir.

When he left OGS in 1979, it was only a matter of short time for us to reunite again. He gained admission to the School of Basic Studies, SBS, Kwara State College of Technology, Ilorin, in 1979 for his Higher School Certificate, HSC studies. Yours sincerely joined him in 1980.

If Noah’s protective disposition at OGS made one’s academic odyssey at OGS high yielding, his brotherly guidance and love at Ilorin was no less so. We got even closer at Ilorin as we were roommates and had to share a lot of our items together. A gentle and organized soul who is a stickler for all the rules, he had to endure the carefree and, at times, disorganized temperament of his brother. His lecture notes were handy to make up for lectures that were missed.

In spite of his organized, quiet nature, he tolerated Mola and his crowd, who could even make studying in the room unbearable for him once in a while. And when we were out of pocket for reasons not too valid to disclose, Noah’s meal tickets came handy.

Even after parting ways in further pursuit of our academic, professional, and work careers, we never lost touch. Prof possesses lofty and noble ideals and can be tenacious in the pursuit of them. It may not be wrong to say that he probably has found a similar trait in this writer, hence his love for running ideas by him for his inputs, especially when they relate to our community and the issues of our nation.

I still recall the two young idealists sitting over a portable typewriter at his elder brother’s clock/wrist watch shop at Oyingbo, fashioning out how we will form a club that will be a reference point in our community. That was how Dynamic Club (which later transformed to Dynamic People’s Club) Okeya-Ipo came into being. That was the club that drew up the proposal that was used to organize the first Okeya Day in 1994. The club and its members have continued to make themselves available for valuable community service.

Professor Yusuf’s style reflects his personality. He’s meticulous, serene, and gentle. He does not seek to force his view on you but to logically win you over to his position. But beneath that gentle mien is a man of steely resolve. Once he is convinced about his cause of action, I pity he who thinks he can persuade him to the contrary. It is not just that he will not engage you further, he will execute his conviction to the last letter.

It is this great sociology scholar, a man of ideas and erudition that was called upon to mount the saddle as the Vice-Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University five years ago.

As he rounds off in the next few days, it will not be out of place to put on record for posterity his accomplishments and the heights the University attained under his watch, even though the academic gentle giant would have loved to have a quiet, peaceful exit devoid of chest beating and praise singing.

To state that Al Hikmah University witnessed tremendous transformation during the tenure of Prof. Yusuf is saying it exactly the way it is. With a tireless and highly visionary founder and father figure behind him, the sky was not even the limits for the Prof. while on this academic flight. Within a space of five years, Al Hikmah International School has been birthed, Centre for Peace and Security Studies became a fulfilled dream, and Computer based tests facilities inaugurated. A key accomplishment of his era, which posterity will remember him for, is the commencement of MBBS, with a Teaching Hospital in the 2024/25 academic year.

To position Al Hikmah University as an academic institution of global reckoning, the Prof Noah Yusuf era took some outstanding steps to achieve the feat. These include the commencement of the Inaugural Lecture, publication of an Annual Report, the fashioning of a University Strategic Plan (2022-2026), Full NUC accreditation for all 55 academic programmes, construction of Gymnasium and 5-Aside football field, Secondly School Mentoring programme, Al-Hikmah University Road Marshal, robust Staff Development programme amongst others.

No doubts, it’s been five years of purposeful and visionary leadership, and the litany of accomplishments bears testimony to this submission. To the erudite, serene Sociologist and, indeed, Al Hikmah University, the parting statement is indeed more than just a positive one:

Al -Hikmah University is today a university in the eye of time and with an assured bright future.

Congratulations on your strides !
Congratulations on your accomplishments !
Congratulations on safe landing.

Ademola Adedoyin, Communication Strategist and Media Consultant, is the Otunba Onigegewura of Esieland.