A former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has lauded the brilliance and contributions of the late Dr Omololu Olunloyo, to Nigeria’s political development and unity.
Obasanjo, who was Chairman at the Requiem Symposium held in honour of the late Olunloyo, a former governor of Oyo State, in Ibadan on Wednesday, eulogised the legacies of the deceased.
“We are here to celebrate a life worthy of celebration and not to mourn.
“We are celebrating more than scholarship, we are celebrating more than brilliance, we are celebrating more than books he has authored, he was about to author, or he has written about and they may even write about him.
“He was a genius and what does being a genius mean? An exceptionally intelligent human being and that was Omololu,” Obasanjo said.
According to him, Olunloyo was an all-round person, who may seem unserious in his approach to things, but yet handle everything very seriously.
He said: “His ability to analyse and put it on paper and you will find it extremely interesting and instructive was brilliant.”
Obasanjo recalled the role of the late Olunloyo during the rise of Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, the late Alaafin of Oyo, when crisis ensued, and resolution of the Agbekoya issue, during his regime as the military head of state.
In his tribute, the National President, Government College Ibadan (GCI) Old Boys Association, Dr Wale Babalakin, spoke highly of the late mathematical genius whom he said the school would strive to replicate.
Babalakin acknowledged the giant strides students of the school have made and still do, adding that about 11 students have been awarded the National Merit Award, the highest award in Nigeria.
He said that the demise of Olunloyo had challenged the GCI alumni to resolve to assist the school to produce more geniuses like the deceased, who would make significant contributions to Nigeria’s development and growth in all spheres.
One of the panelists, Prof. Toyin Falola, a professor of Cultural History, University of Texas, Austin, United States of America, who spoke on ‘Mythologies and History’ lauded the performative humour of the deceased.
Falola said that the late Olunloyo used humour to convey political statements and drive change during his time.
According to him, jokes made by Olunloyo expressed his history as being an Ibadan son and also showed his perspective about issues without necessarily using plain language.
Falola stated that though some digital platforms have turned some jokes about Ibadan into a negative feedback, but there were so many successful Ibadan indigenes, the likes of Sade Adu.
He said that these people portrayed successful social lifestyles revealing engagement between people and the city, adding that Olunloyo was a master of making jokes.
“You cannot separate myths and history whenever you talk about Ibadan,” Falola said.
Another panelist, a renowned journalist, Dr Lasisi Olagunju, spoke on Olunloyo’s “mathematical journalism” and how he predicted the tragedy that befell the nation between 1993 and 1998.
Olagunju said that the deceased in one of his Monday Think Tank column with the Nigerian Tribune gave a tragedy puzzle that served more or less like a prophecy about the elitist rule in Nigeria and the impending danger.
According to him, Olunloyo’s tragedy puzzle, a coded political message, was fulfilled in 1998.
He feared that the nation was in a tragedy of recurrent events that have stagnated the nation.
Olagunju enjoined Nigerians not to stop asking relevant questions from their leaders to stir the ship of the nation forward outside the ‘barber’s chair’.
Earlier in his opening address, Dr Kolade Mosuro, a member of the local organising committee of the symposium, spoke on his last encounters with the deceased.
According to him, it was in a quest to document Olunloyo’s knowledge for the benefit of humanity through a 200-paged book for publication.
