On arrival in London, President Muhammadu Buhari was pretty cool at the impromptu world press conference which he gave at the airport. The paparazzi had turned up in full force. He agreed to answer only two questions because he had a pretty tight schedule ahead of him.
Question number one: “How come you have not engaged the services of the retired partners of KPMG ?”
Question number two: We are fascinated to learn that you have an identical twin brother who is a professor of surgery. Would you care to tell us more especially as you declared at your swearing-in on May 29, 2015 that: “Having just a few minutes ago sworn on the Holy Book, I intend to keep my oath and serve as President to all Nigerians. I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody. A few people have privately voiced fears that on coming back to office I shall go after them. These fears are groundless. There will be no paying off old scores. The past is prologue.
Those who are anxious to hear the response of the President will have to exercise patience. For now it is sufficient to avail ourselves of the secret dossier on the two identical twins – courtesy of Edward Snowden, the ex-CIA consultant who has been enjoying his visit to London instead of rotting away in Moscow:
“The two brothers are taciturn and stoical. Their neck size; sleeve length and shoe size are exactly the same. It is all a closely guarded secret. However, both of them have a grave legacy issue to contend with.”
What Snowden was hinting at is what the Professor of Surgery has painstakingly and meticulously spelt out as his legacy in his book:
He always did very well. That was his simple routine but whenever examinations came, he would breeze through the questions easily. He is one of the people I have identified as having 50 per cent or more inspiration and 50 per cent or less perspiration. Ayo Awojobi would sometimes be about half an hour late to the examination hall, for a three-and-a-half hour paper. Yet he would answer all the questions and leave the hall before the time was up. He was a genius yet never appeared like your typical first-class scholar. He was very accomplished and also a controversial figure at the University of Lagos. He got a doctorate degree in Engineering. Ayodele was a very resilient man and such people are rare to come by. Unfortunately, he died when he was barely forty years old.”
- “Professor Sabiu Biobaku (a historian) spoke on the origin of the Yorubas; how they came from Egypt and settled somewhere in Oyo area and later sprung up in the diaspora.”
- “I remember when Wole Soyinka joined us then. He hasn’t changed much fundamentally. He had always been serious with a strong will. He had a fixation on drama. He directed and acted in plays such as the Lion and the Jewel. He would write and share scripts. His play, Kongi’s Harvest, was written with the Nigerian Independence in mind and the output was phenomenal. It would surprise anyone to know that he wrote The Trial of Brother Jero on a singular weekend. His literary powers are simply profound. Additionally, many do not know that Wole Soyinka is also a musician. He had a guitar he played in those days and he wrote a lot of songs.”
- “Student unionism was vibrant and exciting in those days. There was remarkable president of the Student Union by the name of Dapo Falase. He was a smallish, charismatic young man, who attended St. Gregory’s School before his admission into the University College, Ibadan. As president of the Student Union, Dapo took his responsibilities seriously. He and his executives were really effective as they made use of notice boards, exchange of memos and so on, to keep the communication line open. Their offices were provided by the university authorities because students were much respected then.
During the Independence Day ceremonies in 1960, some undergraduates were employed as ushers and other service providers. We were housed in Wayfarers Hotel on Campbell Street, in downtown Lagos, not far from Tafawa Balewa Square. As the D-Day approached, excitement heightened. But a major issue arose. The British wanted to have a defence pact with Nigeria so that they could have their bases here. The fledging government was going to allow it but students were vehemently opposed to it. The opposition was spearheaded by students in our institution, University College, Ibadan, led particularly by Dapo Falase. The massive protest was taken from Ibadan to the Ministry of External Affairs, which was based at the round-about near Tafawa Balewa Square and the Supreme Court in Lagos.
The government eventually backed out of the decision and the defence pact was never signed. It was a big success for Nigeria and the Students Union in particular. Shortly after that, Tafawa Balewa, who was the Prime Minister then, visited our university to deliver a lecture. After he was introduced and led to the podium to speak, he walked up to Dapo Falase and said, “I suppose this is the Comrade Dapo Falase?” A huge applause broke out. People were stunned that he could recognize Dapo Falase. Student unionism in those days was effective because it was purposeful, well-directed and honestly done but things seem to have changed a lot today.” With the benefit of hindsight, if the Defence Pact had been signed perhaps Nigerian would have been spared from endless coup d’etats.
- “Some colleagues, who later became very distinguished physicians and surgeons had fainted at the first sight of blood. I recollect clearly one of my colleagues, who is
now a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, passed
out the first time he sighted blood during our
clinical training.”
- “There is nothing like the feeling one gets at the end
of a successful operation. It bestows on one the
greatest sense of humility and awe at the awareness of
what great works God can achieve through human hands.”
- “It was Dr. Moses Adekoye Majekodunmi, the Minister
of Health at that time, who did some smart thinking
and prescribed that we needed to train more doctors.
He took over the hospital and annexed the school
next to it and so, suddenly we had a medical school.
Thus, we had two hospitals that were completed –
Lagos State Teaching Hospital and the medical school.
J.K. Randle
