By Yinka Odumakin
HALF of students who went to the University (University of Ife and later Obafemi Awolowo University) in the late 70s up till the early part of this millennium would not forget the name Dr. Dipo Fashina, that legendary teacher of Logic in the philosophy department and a rare gift to humanity.

But nearly all would remember Jingo the more popular grand of this intellectual phenomenon who turned 70 last week Monday and emotions and recollections festival it was for his ex-students and colleagues reminiscing on the life of this giant as he clocked 70 years in a clime where life expectancy is around 54 years.

Shehu Sanni

As I read tributes and recollections from Owei Lakemfa, Lanre Arogundade, Adeola Soetan, Bayo Fabiyi, Bayo Adekeke (not of EFCC), Bayo Ajimuda, Tolulope Dawodu, Yemi Adebomi,  Diran Olojo, Olagunju Lasisi and other ex-Ife, too numerous to mention, my faith was reinforced that a life of service to the challenged country called Nigeria may not be a waste of time in the final analysis.

Tributes  to Jingo

Yes, there were no newspaper adverts or expensive parties with money spraying machines doing overtime, the outpouring of kind words for Jingo made nonsense of the Nigerian way of celebrating its notorious looters, drug kingpins,area fathers, itinerant criminals, veteran crooks, accomplished vagabonds and intellectual prostitues.

It was a day of deserved celebration for a man who diligently taught as he was paid to teach and with greater enthusiasm taught what he was not paid to do. That thought belongs to Professor Jubril Aminu, a former Nigerian education minister who launched the war against radical intellectual tradition in our universities which has now been conclusive with the docile, ineffective, irrelevant and disconnected universities that we have around us today.

Aminu particularly picked on our university which he called the “Ife fortress” that must be dismantled. Ife earned that sobriquet, we are proud for the activities of Fashina and his comrades like Biodun Jeyifo, Segun Osoba, Omotoye Olorode, Idowu Awopetu, Ropo Sekoni, GG Darah, Kayode Adetugbo to mention just a few.

Jingo wore Kampala shirts on jeans trousers with fine sandals made from tyre most of the time cruising in his Volkswagen Beetle. His priceless possession was his prodigious intellect which has impacted generations of students who will always remember him.

Indeed the entire university system in Nigeria owes him a debt of gratitude for the purposeful leadership he gave to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, negotiating the best possible deals in an uncompromising system with a system that places greater value on brawn than brain.

At  a personal level, I have my testimony of Jingo. It was in his house in Ife that I first  played nearly all Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s recorded works. That was at a period I was an “IDP” in his house when my “account officers” from the SSS were frantically looking for me for “deposit”.

I had told African Concord magazine as the spokesman for the students union through Dele Momodu that Ife students would not allow our citadel to be turned to a certificate printing company where every Tom, Dick and Harry can pick a certificate at the request of a dictator. This was sequel to our receipt of council paper to award a doctorate to pro-apartheid King Mosheshe of Lesotho who was visiting Nigeria at the request of military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida with a promise of some heavy financial rewards to the university. The event was eventually moved to UNIBEN.

The Sokolu affair: One cannot forget the Koshoni affair which Jingo humorously calked “Sokolu affair” in 1986. Rear Admiral Patrick Koshoni was sent out of Ife in a hail of pebbles as his security aides shot their way through protesting students who were asking that then NLC president, Pascal Bafyau and his colleagues detained by the military junta be set free. The leaders were detained for their opposition to the regime’s plan to hike the pump price of petrol from 42 kobo to 70k a litre.

Dipo Fashina

Twelve students,10 from the editorial board of PETALS magazine I edited were rusticated by the management. A Senate meeting was called on the matter where the vice-chancellor upbraided principal officials of the university whose children were part of the rebellious children. That was for the mother of Kola Odetola who was among the 12. She was a deputy registrar. Jingo took the floor to speak after the VC and said: “I do not dispute the powers of the VC to suspend students, you can even suspend their parents if you like. But have you determined the guilt of these students?”

Justice Adeniran of Ife High Court was to latter affirm the “ruling” of Jingo when he nullified our suspension and granted us a perpetual injunction because the university did not give us a hearing (fair or unfair) as stipulated by the university rule book. That was the potency of idea that Jingo represented for which he was celebrated last week.

Toast to  Shehu Sani

As an icing on the cake, my friend, brother and comrade, Senator Shehu Sani; a worthy ambassador of the generation Jingo tutored took the stage a day after Jingo turned 70 to teach some values to a country whose morals is in shambles.

Sani is the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North-East which zaccused the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, for corruption in the grass -cutting scandal in the IDP camp and recommended his sack.

The Presidency had in a letter, which was read during plenary by Senate President Bukola Saraki, accused the committee of failing to give the SGF a fair hearing, adding that the Senate report was signed by only three out of the nine committee members among other technicalities reminiscent of our Senior Advocates tricks when they want to waste the time of the court.

But Sani stood like a real distinguished Senator reminding me of the days of Senators Abraham Adesanyas of this world in the hallowed chambers and made the quote of the year: “When it comes to fighting corruption in the National Assembly and the Judiciary and in the larger Nigerian sectors, the President uses insecticide, but when it comes to fighting corruption within the Presidency, they use deodorants.”

He said: “It is shocking to me that such a letter can come from the Presidency with such misinformation and outright distortions. They lied by saying that the committee didn’t invite the SGF: the committee invited the SGF and the letter was acknowledged by the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the SGF.

“To make sure that we buttress our point, we made a paid advert in three or four national dailies: this one (Daily Trust) was published on December 2, 2016, and the SGF was clearly mentioned as one of those that were expected to come and appear before the National Assembly.

Pre-determined  conclusion

“If they have the intention of simply reaching a pre-determined conclusion by covering up on the issues raised by the committee, that is one thing. I have a copy of the interim report which was initially signed by seven members of the nine members of that committee and I am going to submit it to the Clerk of the Senate. Even if it (total number of members) is nine and, then, three people signed, we still have a quorum. But, here, I have seven people.”

Sani, who said corruption must be fought without bias, described the President’s letter as “a funeral service for the anti-corruption fight”, adding that it was unfortunate that “we have a political atmosphere where you have a saintly and angelic Presidency and a devilish and evil society.”

It has been reported that the National Chairman of APC, Mr. Odigie Oyegun is planning disciplinary action Sani. We eagerly wait for what the charges would be. In the meantime, we celebrate the Fashinas and Sanis around us who represent our forsaken path to greatness. This tiny minority of today must become our moral majority if there would be any chance to retrieve this country. For these gentlemen, I summon Susan O’Reilly:

My emotions you’ve stirred around you I’m never bored

Your certainly not a yes man if you were I wouldn’t be a fan

You challenge me constantly a better person I aim to be

Our differences are great healthy debates they create we often reach a stalemate

You and me, I celebrate