Olajide Aluko: Remembering an Intellectual Giant

By Abiodun Alao

Having been born on 3^rd June 1942, today would have marked the 80^th birthday anniversary of Olajide Iyiola Aluko, sub-Saharan Africa’s first Professor of International Relations. But he died on 5^th March 1991, when he was just 49 years old.  At the time of his death, even though I was asked to do so by few people, and even though I was known to have had the privilege of his friendship, I made a blunt refusal to make any contribution to the obituary chorus for two reasons: first, my standing in the intellectual world did not qualify me writing him a testimonial; but second, and perhaps more importantly, was the extent of my shock at his death. We both had few plans laid out for the future, with neither of us making the slightest provision for the possibility of death. Anyway, now more than three decades since his demise, I think it is time for me to make few comments about one of the most brilliant, most electrifying, and most intelligent persons I have been privileged to meet on the conveyor belt of life.

Olajide Aluko’s birth did not offer him any significant take-off advantage in life, but he ended up a global scholar. Drawing parallel from the oft-quoted Shakespearean phraseology: “He was not born great, but he achieved greatness, and had greatness thrust upon his biological and non-biological children”.

His parents were ordinary village people who had in integrity, what they lacked in material wealth. They were, however, part of the foundation members of St Stephen’s Church Erinwa, Ise Ekiti, offering them a measure of exposure that made them send their little son to school to obtain education. The young Olajide had his primary education at St Mark’s Primary School, Ise-Ekiti, where, from a very young age, the exceptional brilliance that was to be his hallmark started showing. From there, he proceeded, in 1959, to Ekiti Parapo College, Ido Ekiti, which had been established in 1954 by the renowned (and recently deceased) Chief Adepoju Akomolafe. For his undergraduate degree, he studied History at the University of Ibadan, where he graduated top of his class in 1965. At the Ibadan School of History, he was a beneficiary of some of the geniuses that changed African Historiography, including the late Professors Ade Ajayi and Tekena Tamuno. On the completion of his undergraduate studies, he immediately proceeded on scholarship to the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) for his doctorate in International Relations, which he obtained in 1968 for his thesis on Ghana’s foreign relations.

His outstanding brilliance again showed at the LSE, as it was attested to me by his supervisor, Professor James Mayall. At the time he arrived at the LSE, there was another Nigerian who had earlier registered for his doctorate in International Relations, and was working on Anglo-Nigerian Relations. The person, who too graduated in History also from the University of Ibadan two years before Aluko, was Olasupo Ojedokun. Ojedokun was later to become the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs before his tragic death in May 1972. Both Aluko and Ojedokun thus became inseparable during their LSE days.

Aluko came back to Nigeria and joined the staff of the University of Ife’s Institute of Administration, then under the headship of the legendary Professor Adebayo Adedeji of the ECA fame. He became a Senior Lecturer in 1974 and in October 1977, he became the first professor of International Relations in Sub-Saharan Africa, an achievement that one of his former Professors at the London School of Economics, described as a “rare distinction”. It was while he was at the Institute he founded the first Department of International Relations in Sub-Saharan Africa, which he headed from inception in 1976 to 1981, when he became the Dean of Faculty, a position that he again held for the maximum 4 years. With a string of other colleagues that he recruited, including Ralph Onwuka, Adeleye Ojo, Layi Abegunrin, Emeka Nwokedi, Amadu Sesay, Sola Ojo, Julius Ihonvbere and others, he built a department that was to be a source of pride to all those who have been privileged to pass through its gates.

Aluko contributed significantly to the study of International Relations in Africa, sole authoring four books of international acclaim and co-editing seven, not to talk of numerous journal articles and book chapters. The quality and quantity of his publication show a prolific and highly engaged scholar. Without any shadow of doubt, he was the professor who pioneered (and dare I say popularised) the study of International Relations in Africa. In his inaugural lecture, which he delivered on the 17th of March 1981, titled, “Necessity and Freedom in Nigerian Foreign Policy”, Aluko, with the fury of an Old Testament prophet, liberated the study of International Relations from the clutches of History or Political Science.

Now to the personality of Olajide Aluko.

Perhaps the first thing that comes out clearly to everyone who interacted with him was his brilliance. Academically, Olajide Aluko was distinction personified, such that even the worst of his enemies, would grant this concession. As a lecturer, he would come to the class with his handkerchief and would dictate up to 10 pages of lecture without notes, citing authorities and giving references sometimes with specific page numbers! He was confident and deeply knowledgeable. His knowledge on the Nigerian Foreign Policy was encyclopaedic, and he had personal contacts with virtually all the people that mattered in the Nigerian foreign policy sector. But behind sparkling brilliance was an Aluko that not many people knew! Unknown to many people, Aluko was, in fact, a shy and somewhat reserved individual! This made him to appear to some as being aloof. But it is the type of shyness that guides privacy and conceals emotion. He was ever so willing to assist young colleagues. Through his influence, a string of staff went outside Nigeria for their doctorate: Professors Emeka Nwokedi, Tale Omole and Soji Akomolafe all went to Bordeaux University in France, Professor Alade Fawole to George Washington University in the US, Remi Ajibewa to Lancaster, and yours sincerely to King’s College London.

He taught my class two courses: Nigerian Foreign Policy and International Politics, and these were among the most interesting courses I had during my Ife Post-graduate days! As an examiner, Aluko’s exam questions were somewhat predictable. Going through past questions, it was possible to guess, with a measure of accuracy, where his questions would come from, and I and my classmates did what we students called “perming”. For my set, however, Aluko possibly woke up on the wrong side of his bed! He changed his predictable pattern and came up with completely new set of questions! For the first time in my exam life, I knew I was in trouble. Most of us read the questions from top to bottom and again from bottom to top, as if that sequence of reading would change the content! Profuse sweating followed blank looks of bewilderments, and shouts like “Aluko actually went on a killing mission”, rented the air as we came out of the exam hall! Indeed, many of my classmates never forgave him for that. We refused to consider it our own strategic miscalculation. “Why should the traffic light turn red when it came to our turn”? We pondered.

The history and contents of my personal relationship with him are worth recording: Apart from the regular teaching in class, I had no direct interaction with Professor Aluko, until another lecturer in the department and now a member of the Federal House of Representative, Professor (then Dr) Julius Ihonvbere, suggested that I should write my Masters’ degree dissertation on Zimbabwe. Oga Julius, (as he was affectionately called then) sweet-tongued me into it, and I agreed, especially in the hope that he would supervise the dissertation – having suggested the title. Strangely, he allocated me to Professor Aluko! My inaugural meeting to discuss the dissertation was my first time of entering Aluko’s office. The awe with which we held him in class would give apprehension to any student going into his office for any one-to-one interaction. But quite unexpectedly, he was warm to me! He asked why I chose to work on Zimbabwe, and I was honest enough to confess that it was a country affectionately imposed on me by Dr Ihonvbere. From that time, the supervision went on very well, and for me, this marked the origin of a life-long relationship with Zimbabwe. I later wrote my Ph.D. thesis for the University of London and published two further books on the country. I also lived there for 9 months and can speak a bit of Shona language (albeit in a dangerous way!) For my interest in Zimbabwe, I have “Oga” Julius and Professor Aluko to thank!

Personally, Professor Aluko intervened decisively in my life on at least three occasions, some of which completely altered the course of my life. First, he, it was, who invited me to join the staff of the Department of International Relations. Unknown to me, there were vacancies on the staff meant for those who did well in the Postgraduate Master’s class. Since, by accident, I led the class, Aluko, against opposition from some members of staff of the department, saw to my joining the staff of the Department in November 1985. The second time was when he single-handedly obtained admission forms for me to both the LSE and King’s College London for the Doctorate programme. Professor Aluko actually wanted me to go to the LSE and do the doctorate in International Relations, specialising in Strategic Studies. I however preferred King’s College London for a direct doctorate in War Studies. After few arguments, he conceded, and even gave me the N25 I used to send my completed application form to King’s by courier. Interestingly, he was the first person to tell me about the rivalry between the LSE and King’s, a rivalry whose intensity I was to see more when I became a “King’s-man” in 1987, but much more when later I became a Professor at King’s. The third intervention, which for me was the most profound, was when there were fierce oppositions, again from some colleagues in the department, to my travelling abroad for my PhD. It was Professor Aluko that made the then Vice Chancellor, Professor Wande Abimbola, to give my travel Executive Approval, such that while people were still arguing at the department, I was already on board the flight to London!

When I was coming to England, Professor Aluko gave me a host family, the Ogunrinade family in East London, who hosted me for the first four months of my stay in England. Again, anytime Professor Aluko visited, I was sure of regular supply of gari and other Nigerian foodstuff from Mama Mrs Aluko.  I later learnt that this was a gesture that had been extended to previous students who had come to England on scholarship from the department! God bless her.

]Professor Olajide Aluko, as I mentioned earlier, died on 5^th of March 1991, at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, with his beloved wife by his side. Since his death, his former students have been trying to immortalize his name. For example, Olusoji Akomolafe, along with one of Aluko’s junior colleagues, late Olayiwola Abegunrin, brought together a string of his former students to write “Nigeria in the Global Politics; Twentieth Century and Beyond” in his honour, Tale Omole publicly acknowledged him in his Inaugural lecture, “Nigeria, France and the Francophone States”, delivered in May 2010, while your sincerely dedicated the book “Mugabe and the Politics of Security in Zimbabwe” to his memory. Some of students have also joined the family in establishing a Foundation in his memory. Such were the fondest affections with which he was held by his students.

Overall, Professor Aluko left many students, and most of them are doing good in various walks of life. His former students include at least a State Governor, Special Advisers to Presidents, traditional rulers, Company Directors, Senior Military Officers, top diplomats, international civil servants, former Vice Chancellors, Present Pro-Chancellors, former University Registrars, etc. If, however, they are very unsuccessful in life, they end up as Professors at King’s College London!Abiodun Alao is Professor of African Studies at King’s College London