Dr. Segun Osoba: The man who declined professorship but saw tomorrow

By Nehru Odeh

He has been described as uncompromising in his fight against social injustice and tyranny. He has been acclaimed as a historian of international repute. He has also been hailed as an unrepentant Marxist scholar. He has been universally acknowledged as a teacher of teachers, father of many fathers, mentor of mentors and a teacher of professors. Yet his intellect, everyone agrees, is ‘as enormous as his frame and size.’

His intellect is as enormous as his frame and size? Certainly. Still, when he was asked to submit his papers in order to be considered for professorship, which he was due for at the Obafemi Awolowo University, he refused to do so in protest against the system at the time and instead chose to be addressed simply as ‘Doctor’, a title he proudly wears to this day.

This is the fascinating story of Dr. Segun Osoba the intellectual (not to be confused with the politician) who, after a brief teaching stint, armed with the knowledge that the masses and their betterment is his constituency, did his doctorate in Moscow in the then Soviet Union, knowing full well the contradictions inherent in capitalism, its ravaging impact in Africa and what his mission in life really was.

This is the story of a man  who though a product of the famous Ibadan History School broke new grounds as a lecturer at the then University of Ife and together with Professor Isaac Adeagbo  Akinjogbin laid the intellectual framework for the establishment of the Ife History School, the products of which have not only been leading lights in their fields but also held their own globally.

This is the story of a man who, as I have aforementioned, showed so much self-confidence, contentment and humility as a university lecturer when he refused to apply for professorship in protest against the system and instead was content with being addressed simply as Doctor, even when his colleagues and students knew he was deserving of a professorship.

This is the story of a radical lecturer who at 84 in 2019 had his most recent public engagement at the public presentation of the Minority Report and Draft Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1976 at which he presented “A Minimum Agenda for Change”. Yet Osoba who will be 89 on 9 January 2023, had not relented in his fight against social injustice and tyranny and for a better society.

It was for these reasons and many other endearing qualities of his, such as his altruism,his love for country and scholarship, his mentorship, his fatherly figure, his attention to details and excellence, his painstaking devotion to duty and hard work and love for his hometown Ijebu Ode, and even little things such as the unforgettable way he stroked his beards while teaching his students that his former students and mentees as well as six collaborating institutions within and outside Africa held a two-day conference in his honour more than 30 years after his retirement as a university lecturer on 30 September, 1991.

The conference, at which scholars and former students from across the globe presented academic  papers held on 18 and 19 December 2023 at the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu Ode. It was two days of paper presentations, panel discussions, networking and  reminiscences in which glowing tributes were paid to Osoba and issues of national and global importance were discussed. The theme of the conference was : “History  and the Persistent Struggle: Social Change, Nation Building and Constitution-Making in Post-Independence Africa.”

Though Osoba himself was not present at the conference due to ill health, the robust discussions around his life, works and sundry issues enlivened the atmosphere and made everyone feel his presence. And he was ably represented by his children and grandchildren who came all the way from the United States and United Kingdom to grace the event. The children, who are all successful in their various fields of endeavour are: Dr. Oluleke Osoba (Consultant Gynaecologist), Dr Olubukola Osoba (Pharmacist), Arc. Olubunmi Osoba (Architect) and Engr. Olayinka Osoba (Chemical Engineer and IT  Specialist).

Still, it was a conference with a difference. Apart from the fact there were two phases, the opening sessions and the panel sessions, there was a third phase in which the children treated the participants to a sumptuous dinner at the veritably named Conference Hotel at Ijebu Ode on the first day.

Distinguished guests present at the opening ceremony included the Vice Chancellor of Tai Solarin University of Education, Professor Oluwole Banjo; Mr Kabiru Kayode Ogunneye, the university bursar: Mrs Faustina Oyesiku, the university librarian: and Professor Michael Adesina, Dean, College of Humanities, TASUED.

The two keynote speakers at the conference were Professor Siyan Oyeweso, Professor of History, Osun State University and Director, Centre for Black Culture and international Understanding (CBIU), Osogbo; and Professor Ebenezer Obadare, a distinguished scholar and Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), United States of America. The keynote speakers, who are distinguished in their respective careers, didn’t disappoint as they did justice to their respective topic.

Delivering the welcome address, Professor Rasheed Ajetunmobi, Chairman Local Organizing Committee of the conference, who is also one of Osoba’s former students at Ife, described him as a great teacher, an impeccable character, a man of high integrity, a mentor with a difference and an indisputable philosopher of note. “This man of honour has written his own history by impacting on human society and he has impacted on human society  to write his own history.

“This man has led an indelible mark not only on the minds of his friends, colleagues, students and the reading world but also on the sands of history. A Marxist. Yes an uncompromising one, who for decades critically analyzed the problems of underdevelopment and poverty of ideas in African societies, the evils of capitalism and the bourgeois scholarship. His publications are not only informative but highly educating,” Ajetunmobi maintained.

Declaring the conference open, the Vice-Chancellor of TASUED Professor Oluwole Banjo who described Osoba as a close friend and father, said it was his privilege and honour to be at the special conference. He also congratulated Osoba for being celebrated while alive, unlike the wont of many who celebrate their loved ones only after their demise

“A programme organized to celebrate an individual who has impacted  many lives with his enormous contribution to knowledge. I therefore  congratulate Dr Segun Osoba for this rare privilege and honour  that he is being celebrated while alive by the people whom he had made while in active service as a university teacher. Honestly, I would see it as a rare privilege because in this part of the world people used to celebrate the dead by spending a lot of money . But here, we are celebrating a living man. I am so happy about that,” Banjo noted.

When it was the turn of Professor Akanmu Adebayo, chief co-convener of the conference, and one of Osoba’s former students, to introduce the first keynote speaker, Professor Siyan Oyeweso, he said: “Today we celebrate this man of principle, who refused to give away his birthright for a bowl of porridge. We celebrate the teacher of professors , the uncrowned professor of professors who proudly wears his degree and chooses to be known simply as  Dr. Segun Osoba.”

Before Oyeweso started delivering his keynote, which he entitled “Segun Osoba: Encountering a Historian and Radical Ideologist in Modern Nigeria,”  he expressed his appreciation to Osoba’s children for keeping him safe and sound, in spite of the fact that he lost his wife in 2010 and voluntarily retired as a university teacher in 1991 on a very lean income.

“Everybody has to appreciate you (the children) for keeping Baba safe anr sound. For him to be alive today, he must have a supportive family.  The wife left in 2010. This is 2023. I am saying this because Baba retired voluntarily in 1991. The salary of a university professor hasn’t changed since 1999. So for a man who retired on a very lean income  and for him to stay alive, I want to extend my salutation to this family,” he maintained.

Oyeweso, who said the conference was well deserved, timely and also a mark of appreciation to Osoba,  described him as a living titan and one of the “Last Standing Men” of his generation.

“We thank God for sparing the life of Osoba to date. Osoba is an academic giant, renowned author, organic intellectual, historian of excellence, teacher, and a Nigeria patriot and nationalist. Osoba is a profound socialist thinker and radical ideologist of distinction. He has outlived many of his generation’s pioneers by God’s grace and lives a life of self-contentment. He has also carved a niche as the most efficient and trustworthy historian. He is one of the moral compasses of our nation, Nigeria. Osoba is a strong pillar, bridge builder, focused, conscientious, and result-oriented person, a good teacher and a man of high-quality leadership, a problem solver and a builder of talents.

“A go-getter and man with a solid vision and mission, a dependable person, a relationship builder and a man with a very keen sense of purpose, a man with organizational finesse. Osoba remained the leftwing radical historian and ideologist of Nigeria of the ’70s and ’80s when the university was “a true cauldron of scholarship.” Osoba’s intellect is as enormous as his size and frame.

“Osoba’s academic and intellectual pursuits are held with profound moral sincerity by him. At the same time, all his published and unpublished works have been undertaken to deepen our understanding of contemporary society and advance the cause of human progress. His devotion to true scholarship is unquestionable. He has served as a guide, mentor, and high moral standards for all those who have encountered him.

“While a number of historians reveled in the greatness of the works and activities of ‘great’ men in African history, Osoba provides an alternative perspective to these historic figures. For instance, he considers Mansa Musa as a profligate leader who exposed his country and others to economic ruin. His famous travel to Mecca for pilgrimage was not only wasteful but mindless of the larger socio-economic implications on the Malian Empire.

“For Osoba, Mansa Musa remains one of the ancestors of modern African dictators such as Mobutu Sese Seko and others who went on not only to capture their respective countries but ruined their economies to no end. A fresh perspective on African history using Marxian-Leninist interpretations became Osoba’s forte at Ife.

“Osoba’s contribution to the successful completion of his student thesis and dissertation and crop of historians who are making significant landmarks in historical field remain one of the lasting imprints of his career. Osoba’s contributions are evident in his supervisee’s acknowledgment during and after his supervisory role in their academic career.

“He introduced me to political thought, to political philosophy. You know we historians we deal more with empiricism , but his strength is in theory, methods and methodology. His strength is in philosophy of history. His strength is in historiography. And his strength is in the history of the oppressed and distressed people.

“When others were writing about Aminu Kano when they were writing their thesis Osoba told us ‘don’t write about Awolowo, don’t write about Azikiwe,  don’t write about all those people who want power at Independence. Look at other leaders who are theoreticians of the state, who expound ideology for the future of Africa, for the future of Nigeria. And that is the oppositional counter elites.

“Osoba can be aptly described as a foremost historian of the Nigerian left, a profound socialist thinker, an organic intellectual in the Antonio Gramsci sense, and a committed radical ideologist of our time. He has made profound contributions to Nigeria’s National Liberation Struggle and Radical political thought. The place of Segun Osoba in the left movement in Nigeria is an incontestable one as he spent his active service years actively involved in establishing cells around the university campuses leading to the establishment of several credible mass organizations with clear ideological focus round the country. Till date, we are encouraged and emboldened through his several publications and radical ideology to Nigeria’s struggle for freedom and social justice.

“Osoba leaves for us a legacy of eschewing acquisitiveness, materialism and primitive accumulation of capital which has become the bane of our politics and successive generations of leaders of Nigeria. Unlike many of his academic colleagues and contemporaries, Osoba was too discerning and perceptive to accept any public service appointment from successive democratic and military administration in Nigeria. It should be recalled that many of his generations became top government functionaries,” Oyeweso maintained.

Responding to Oyeweso’s keynote, the honoree’s son, Dr Oluleke Osoba who stood in for his father said it was a great honour to give a response on behalf of his dad, who unfortunately due to his advanced age and the state of his health was unable to join them at the conference. However, in a speech that was replete with appreciation and gratitude, he announced, on behalf of his sisters, that his family had decided to sponsor an annual Osoba Prize worth N200, 000 for the best PhD dissertation in history or the social sciences in Obafemi Awolowo University.

“Although he (my father) is not here today, he is highly appreciative of everything that has been done.  He has told me to extend his profound gratitude and thanks and also to commend you for putting together such a fantastic event. Now on behalf of the Osoba family, I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to everybody here. It is not very often that we see such a gathering of distinguished scholars and it is a very very impressive turn out.  But what is equally important is the large number of young students  and academics that are here. And I think in the present political climate in Nigeria,  its useful to have events like this that will definitely give young people some hope  and also inspiration.

“So I hope that they will take something away from this conference that would hopefully enhance them as human beings  and the academics of the future. I would also like to thank the conference organizers for organizing such a beautiful event. I must say right from my initial contact with Professor Akanmu Adebayo, I have been very, very impressed with the high level  and competence with which the conference has been organized. And it is a tremendous honour to work with him and his colleagues,” Oluleke maintained.

Take something away from the conference? Sure. Oluleke’s assertion that he hoped the youths were inspired by the proceedings at the conference wasn’t out of place, as the various panel discussions that followed his speech did not disappoint. Professor Olutayo Adesina of the Department of History, University of Ibadan gave the audience, especially the youths a lot to think about, during his session, when he presented his paper entitled “Reimaging Segun Osoba’s Ideological Critique  of State, Society and Bourgeois Politics in 20th Century Nigeria.”

In his paper, Adesina drew the audience’s attention to the way and manner socialist thinkers such as Osoba and the great works they have done have  not only receded from the consciousness of the masses but have also been unfortunately branded as anti state, anti progress and anti development, no thanks to the rampaging influence of neo-liberalism, the political class who filched and recruit scholars as well as the glaring visibility  of what he called the rump of Marxist states.  Still, Adesina did not conclude his presentation without proffering solutions.

“One,  there is already state capture. Two, they have succeeded in convincing the general masses of the people  that those who are trying to save them from the problems are trouble makers.  So the power elite has become an ossified structure. What do we do? Do we just fold our hands? Do we give up? And so the way we can also do it is to develop a viable ideology. And in some of his (Osoba’s) writings he even critiqued  the lack of ideology by some of the institutions not only of state but also of trans-nationalism,” Adesina averred.

The second day of the conference followed the same procedure as the first. Still, the high point of that day came when Ebenezer Ebenezer Obadare, Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for African Studies, Council for Foreign Relations (CFR), United States of America presented his keynote entitled “Rekindling the Scientific Spirit: Historical Criticism in the Age of Sacred Authority”. Many indeed had looked forward to that Intellectually-stimulating keynote, and he did not disappoint. Professor Akanmu Adebayo, chief co-convener of the conference attested to that when he said: “We brought him (Obadare) all the way from the United States and he did not disappoint. So please thank you so much.

In his thought-provoking keynote, Obadare laid out his points, building up  his case before finally getting to the meat of his presentation. He started out by first dedicating the lecture  to the late social critic Tai Solarin, a man who did not only champion the scientific spirit but also, like Osoba, led by unwavering example and remained steadfast in his commitment to the cause of humanity.  According to Obadare, Solarin was an embodiment of the spirit of skepticism, of scientific inquiry, of rationality that he tried to promote in his discourse as against the belief or faith in the divine or in unfathomable “truths”.

“It would be remiss of me not to remark right at the outset the interesting coincidence that this conference in honor of a distinguished scholar and humanist is being held at a university named in honor of another humanist, the late educator, newspaper columnist, social critic, and author, Tai Solarin. For many decades, Dr. Solarin was Nigeria’s most renowned and most passionate advocate of reason in the service of self-reliance, celebrated and respected in the places that mattered for his principled and unyielding campaign against religious superstition and political venality.

“He may not have believed in miraculously raising the dead, but such was his conviction in the inherent dignity of man (alive or dead) that Dr. Solarin led by example to clear the streets of corpses abandoned on Nigerian roads by an unresponsive Ministry of Health in the mid-1970s. One can scarcely imagine a better dedicatee of a keynote that champions the scientific spirit than a man who, just like today’s honouree, led by unwavering example and remained steadfast in his commitment to the cause of humanity.

Obadare went further to pay homage to Osoba the man he remains in awe of, the man who, based on his interaction with him in the classroom as his teacher at Ife, his intellectual exploits, “his bravery and adherence to principle that led him and his colleague, the late Dr. Yusufu Bala Usman to break ranks with the rump of the General Murtala Muhammed-empaneled Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) to co-author the 65-page Minority Report and Draft Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria,“ to him represents the spirit of scientific inquiry, the subject of his discourse.

“The import of all this is that, by the end of the term, though very few among us had developed any beard worth stroking, we had, almost to the last person, managed to imbibe Dr. Osoba’s attitude of healthy skepticism. When, afterwards, I came across the following statement by John Henry Cardinal Newman that “No conclusion is trustworthy which has not been tried by enemy as well as friend; no traditions have a claim upon us which shrink from criticism, and dare not look a rival in the face… How can you detect the sham, but by comparing it with the true? Your artificial flowers have the softness and brilliancy of nature, till you bring in the living article, fresh from the garden; you detect the counterfeit coin by ringing it with the genuine;”

“I grasped fully what it was that Dr. Osoba always meant to convey to us, for if anyone could be described as a skeptic by inclination, it is Dr. Osoba. Skepticism, I would argue, is the foundation of his (only the original German will do) Weltanschauung, which is unsurprising, since it is difficult to imagine any serious historian, let alone one so steeped in social and intellectual history, who can afford to take reality at face value,” Obadare maintained.

Having led the audience to understand what he meant by healthy skepticism and scientific inquiry by using Solarin’s and Osoba’s exemplary lives as perfect examples, he then said, sadly, that spirit of rationality, of asking questions, of putting everything to the test before accepting it wholeheartedly  has given way to the prevailing hegemonic influences of religiousity, of faith or what he calls sacred authority in contrast to rationality, in contemporary Nigeria, whereby whatever the clergy says is final and the unquestionable truth; whatever the sacred authority says in Nigeria is law. That, according to him, has taken over every facet of public life in Nigeria.

“The theme of my keynote was largely inspired by, and is a way of paying homage to, this attitude of skepticism, for no observant person, certainly no one of Dr. Osoba’s cast of mind, can fail to notice the prevailing mental atmosphere in contemporary Nigeria, especially as it relates to the ubiquity of a religiosity that, as I have shown in my work, has spread its logic-averse tentacles to every facet of public life and institution in Nigeria, including the bureaucracy, the armed forces, media, and crucially, our universities.

“This phenomenon is what the “age of sacred authority” in the title of my address is meant to evoke, and what I propose to do in the rest of my address is to cast a quick glance over the phenomenon, focusing on why, at least in my judgment, its ascendance is a problem for historical inquiry specifically and humanities and social science research and writing more broadly, and why what I am calling a rekindling of the scientific spirit is imperative.

“Accordingly, when I refer to the scientific spirit, I am guided by the understanding that, as the eminent science journal Nature declared back in March 1883, “science has no peculiar sphere… every field of human research is capable of scientific treatment.” For the nineteenth century American poet and critic James Russell Lowell, “the noblest definition of science is that breadth and impartiality of view which liberates the mind from specialties and enables it to organize whatever we learn so that it become real knowledge by being brought into true and helpful relation with the rest.”

“Thus conceived, the scientific ethos is antithetical to “sacred authority,” whereby belief in both the sacred and leaders whose authority is grounded in the supernatural is primary, widespread, and determinative. While pentecostalism, of which I have had a few things to say in my work over the past few years, is iconic of this spirit of surrender and is unarguably its main propeller, it by no means exhausts it. Whether, following political philosopher Olufemi Taiwo, you call it the spirit of occultocracy, or, as is my preference, rule by prodigy, the inerrant source of danger is the ascendance of a social regime whereby common belief in the ubiquity and efficacy of supernatural power results in the cultural valorization of agents who claim unique access to the source and methods of its mobilization.

“There is abundant evidence, as previously stated, of the increasing capture of the Nigerian academy by this mindset, and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has warned as to its unwholesome implications: ‘Any society that bases its code of reality, ethics, mores, racial or sexual interaction, apportionment of economic resources and other forms of social dealings on a received doctrine, one that is divinely transmitted to a select few, either textually or interpretively, is a slave society … The principles of governance within theocratic societies remain an affront to that basic assumption of the equal endowment of rational and creative gifts to all men and women.’ (Of Power and Freedom, Essays 2, 2022, p. 117).

However,  Obadare traced the rise of pentecostalism, a state of mind in which everything is attributed to the divine, to the supernatural, to the ravages of military rule in Nigeria and the assault by the military on the academy,  though according to him it is not the only cause.  Succinctly put, not only has the pastor replaced the professor in the imagination, if not the affection, of a cross section of Nigerians,Pastor Adeboye and the rest of the contemporary theocratic elite are directly descended from General Yakubu Gowon.

Still, not only did Obadare succeed in tracing the origins  of this surrender to sacred authority, alert us to its negative implications for historical and social research, he also underscored the need for a reawakening of the scientific ethos.

“At this juncture, we are obligated to ask: Whence the dominance of sacred authority in Nigeria, and what social and historical forces have enabled its seemingly irreversible supremacy?

“I have tackled this question elsewhere, but the following synopsis will suffice for this occasion.

Bearing in mind that monocausalism is the enemy of historical understanding, one may still prudently trace the mutual retrenchment of intellectualism and enthronement of mass supernaturalism, which is a precursor to the reign of scared authority, to the ravages of military rule in Nigeria, about which enough has already been written, and very perceptively at that by some of the people in this audience.

“One key takeaway from this copious literature is the realization that the assault by the military on the academy was far from adventitious, but as a matter of fact central to its ultimate goal of devitalizing civil society more broadly. The tactics involved are perhaps too familiar to recount, and included the systematic pauperization of the universities through a targeted denial of resources, the recruitment/appropriation of leading scholars into the political establishment via appointment into sinecures, and the delegitimizing of universities as centers of knowledge production.

“A faculty whose take home pay could not take it home, same as the one whose boss was a comedian because the wages he paid were a joke, was presently caught betwixt and between, undecided whether to moonlight in a string of undignified and undignifying jobs, as many in fact did, or to pack it in and seek opportunities outside the country, as many have continued to do. For those left with no choice but to ‘consult’ for the numerous NGOs that mushroomed in the wake of the spike in civil society funding in the 1990s, the paradox of providing intellectual service to entities many of which were established as institutional parallels to the universities cannot be overlooked.

“To be clear: I am not suggesting that the blame for the crisis of the Nigerian professoriate is to be placed exclusively at the doorstep of the military. As I have argued elsewhere, the origins of the crisis of the Nigerian academy are as deep as its dimensions and manifestations are layered. For instance, it is futile to deny the prevalence and persistence of a culture of nepotism, the main effect of which is to saturate the system with an ethos that is profoundly contradictory to the idea of a university.

“That this phenomenon tends to be swept under the carpet due to the otherwise legitimate focus on the role of external forces in shaping the destiny of the universities goes without saying. Additionally, I have suggested elsewhere that the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and with it, an undeniable blow to the status of Marxism as an ideological system, precipitated a crisis of identity among the Nigerian professoriate, especially insofar as the ideology was, for good or evil, its philosophical lodestar.

“At any rate, not only was the military’s gambit of humiliating the professoriate with the ultimate goal of subduing civil society effective, the ensuing decline in the prestige of academia and the effective collapse of the Nigerian university as an institution vested with the mandate of “sense-making” created an epistemic vacuum. In retrospect, it is this vacuum that the pentecostal movement, iconic of the anti-intellectual reaction, stepped into and currently occupies, and it is the primary reason, as I have argued elsewhere, why the pastor has replaced the professor in the imagination, if not the affection, of a cross section of Nigerians.

“Therefore, in the longue durée of Nigerian history- and the point is worth emphasizing if only because the genealogy tends to be forgotten- the age of sacred authority, championed and generally overseen by sundry contemporary vendors of the divine, is a product of the delegitimizing of the university, itself an effect of the military’s calculated assault on any semblance of independent intellectual life. By implication, Pastor Adeboye and the rest of the contemporary theocratic elite are directly descended from General Yakubu Gowon.

“I have maintained that the object of historical inquiry (to use facts and information available about the past to explain why human beings living within a chosen period acted the way they did) is such that the historian must perforce resist the temptation to see the hand of providence in the operations of human society. Considering the increasingly pervasive tendency among scholars and the lay public to adduce a supernatural explanation (sic) for questions and matters as profound as the origins of the Nigerian crisis, the outcome of elections, and why some people are rich while others are poor; and as ostensibly trivial as the causes of automobile accidents and why stable electricity supply has continued to elude the country, this would entail bravely going against the grain.

“We live in a time of surrender, one in which the authority of the elders or of the ancestors rightly declaimed by Dudley has gradually yielded to the authority of miscellaneous spiritual entrepreneurs, including pastors, prophets, seers, futurists, palm readers, clerics, evangelists, General Overseers, and Spiritual Directors. My goal in this keynote has been to trace the origins of this surrender, alert us to its negative implications for historical and social research, and underscore the need for a reawakening of the scientific ethos.

“We can do no worse than to hearken to Nietzsche’s warning, as delivered in Beyond Good and Evil as follows: “Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, and love or irony are signs of health; everything absolute belongs to pathology,”  Obadare concluded.

In her response to Obadare’s keynote, which also served as a vote of thanks, the honouree’s daughter, Olayinka Osoba said it was an honour to be at the conference and hear all the testimonies about her father. She also said growing up as the youngest child in the family, she knew her father was sort of different and saw things differently. She also used the opportunity to thank everyone present at the conference, saying she was proud of all what he has done and pleased to see all the people whom he had impacted through his works in the university. She also urged everyone to take the conference as a call to action

“I am the youngest of the family.  And growing up with my father as a child, it was kind of interesting because  we truly didn’t understand what his ideologies and things were about.  But as a kid you just knew that he was sort of different.  And the way my father saw things were different. But I am really pleased to hear about his impact and also to know about the impact that my father Dr Segun Osoba has made  with regards to Nigeria and post-independence Africa as a whole. I have to say that I am really proud of what he has done and I think that all that he has done has been articulated in the conference, in the theme, all the different keynote speeches, the different panel sessions, as well.

“My father has always been about the masses, nation building in Nigeria, social justice, equity, human freedom. I am really pleased to see all the people whom he has impacted  through his work at the university, and all the different works that he has published and all the people who have taken that and are running with it  as well. It is indeed a testament that 20 plus years after his retirement,  this conference has been convened in his honour. So I am calling everyone to action here  and saying that this conference  should not be the end of what has been started, that this should be a call to action for all the younger generation, students of this university and students far and wide and professionals as well to take this and continue the legacy that has been started.

“Once again, I would like to thank everyone for being here. And I wish you all safe journey back to where you have come from. And again ask that this should not be the end of what has been started. Let it be the beginning of greater things and greater impacts  not just for Nigeria but the whole of Africa.  Thank you so much,” she said

That indeed signaled the end of the two-day special conference in honour of Dr Segun Osoba that was not just heavy on paper presentations and panel discussions but was also lightened and spiced up with laughter, networking, tea breaks and lunch as well as a sumptuous dinner. And indeed the honouree’s daughter’s closing remarks, calling on everyone present to action wasn’t lost on them as they looked forward to the honouree clocking 89 on 9 January, 2024, which was just weeks away.