Celebrating a Man of Principles and Integrity
Olu Akanmu
Prof. Fola Tayo has written a very interesting autobiography. The book, His Wondrous Grace, reveals Prof. Tayo as not only a distinguished academician and university administrator but also a master storyteller. He takes you through a chronology of his distinguished, blessed, and adventurous life. Even as a chronology, the twists and turns that make a life story interesting flowed through the book.
The book starts from his early life and even before, giving us the interesting foundations and stories of his forebears, his ancestry from Ndakolo village near Bida, the migration of his great-grandfatheras cattle traders through several cities in the South West, and his great-grandfather’s marriage to a Yoruba woman, the continuation of the same marriage tradition by his grandfather and father, which saw his dad brought up by his mother’s family at Imota in Lagos State, where young Fola Tayo was born.It is a story about how we are commonly one people in Nigeria, which reminds us how many bona fide Lagosians of Tapa origin, like the Oshodi, or Oshodi Tapa, and many more, are core to the history of Lagos.
Young Fola Tayo has been gifted with brilliance. It showed through his early school years at Imota and Ikosi, toping his classes consistently even in the midst of typical taciturn as a young pupil. He is blessed with good parents who instilled in him strong moral virtues. Young Fola Tayo was also emotionally more mature than his age. He was a young friend of his female class teacher and even got involved in the communication of affection between his male teacher, who wanted to date his friend, his female class teacher, and Aunty.
Young Fola Tayo was brilliant at Oriwu College, Ikorodu, a top student in the art subjects, including Latin. His dream of a solid education was, however, nearly cut short when he had to leave school in Class 4 because his parents could no longer afford his school fees. It was sad, but young Fola Tayo showed his dogged determination, started work, and self-studied. He worked, saved money, and went to the UK. In a curious twist, when he learned that sciences were tougher than arts, he decided to take the challenge and add science to his arts subjects—chemistry, physics, and biology—as he self-studied for his GCE O level. He passed. He continued self-study in science for GCE A level, passed brilliantly, and got admission to the Portsmouth School of Pharmacy. What is interesting here is that, without doing science in secondary school, he self-studied and passed his GCE A level.
Young Fola Tayo was a radical. He detests injustice. This has been a defining characteristic of his adventurous life, even in old age. He protested his score in the pharmacy school, saying that he was racially discriminated against. He was vindicated in his later years in the school when he won several prizes and did very well in his viva, where he impressed the famous Prof. Bowman of the famous Bowman and Rand Classic text book in pharmacology, who was the external examiner. Prof. Bowman invited him to come to Glasgow‘s Strathclyde for his doctoral programme, which he took and cleared in record 24 months instead of the 33-month calendar.
The young radical Fola Tayo, who detests injustice, naturally gravitated to leftist and socialist politics, with Fidel Castro and Che Guevera of Cuba and Latin America and Angela Davis of the socialist movement in the US as his political heroes. Left politics, a revolt against the conservative status quo that represents injustice, was where young people found meaning and explanation about the exploitative nature of capitalism, its alliance with white oppressors in colonial Africa like Ian Smith of Zimbabwe, and the need for a social justice movement that fights for a more inclusive and fairer society. That was the political consciousness of young Fola Tayo. We will see this radicalism against injustice much later in his life, which he also defined as unrighteousness from a moral Christian doctrine when he gave his life to Christ. And all through his adventurous life, he fought different forms of social and academic oppression, social and academic unrighteousness, and injustice.
The book tells of Prof.’s sojourn across four universities: ABU, Ibadan, OSU, and UNILAG, interspersed with several sabbaticals for research in the US. This part of the book is like an auto-ethnographic account of Nigerian university systems, their strengths, weaknesses, politics, successes, failures, and challenges. Prof. Tayo then presented the case for the establishment of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Ibadan, which today has produced several generations of pharmacists. He fought as Dean of Pharmacy, what he described as PHARMACOPHOBIA at the College of Medicine UNILAG, to get more autonomy and resources for UNILAG Pharmacy, which was virtually being asphyxiated by negative interprofessional rivalry and politics. He was critical to establishing the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacy and its implied consultant status—a struggle against professional unrighteousness to asphyxiate pharmacy. He served as president of the college. I will return to Prof. Tayo’s radicalism later.
Prof. Tayo met the Lord Jesus Christ when he was on Sabbatical in the US, when the LORD revealed Himself to him in a dream. By divine orchestration and arrangement, when he was coming back to Nigeria after Sabbatical, he went to OSU, not to the bigger UI. He has been appointed a professor to establish the pharmacy programme at OSU.It was at OSU in Sagamu that Baba was schooled in Christianity by close Christian brethren, who were his staff, and he became a fiery evangelist and, along with others, established the Church, the Chapel of Victory, International, which is growing by leaps and bounds today.
There is a conceptual and spiritual nexus among social justice, fairness, morality, and righteousness. For the LORD Almighty is a fair and just God who says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one (a synonym for equal) in Christ Jesus, Galatian 3:28.. His word also says, “Do not rob the poor because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate.” Proverb 22:22. . It is therefore not surprising that Prof. Tayo’s sense of social justice and fairness from his early leftist politics translated into a quest for righteousness, fairness, and justice at the workplace and in larger society as a Christian leader. Prof. Tayo was a member of the G11 Professor Group that fought decadence, unprofessionalism, and unethical administration at the University of Lagos to a standstill in the days of Abacha and the early years of Obasanjo. He did so along with others at a huge personal risk and career cost, which you will find in the book. He even wrote an open letter of challenge to former President Obasanjo in the newspapers, protesting the situation at the University of Lagos. In all these, he also remained the fiery evangelist and Christian leader and was ordained a Reverend by Four Square Church. He carried his standard of high professionalism and ethics into his role as Pro Chancellor of Caleb University.
In conclusion, a way to summarise Baba Prof. Tayo’s life is that a righteous man may face adversities, but the LORD sees them through it all, for the Lord said in his word in Psalm 37:25, “I was young, and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken.” Indeed, the Lord truly stands by His own. Mummy Tayo testifies of the grace concerning righteousness on Prof. Tayo in her write-up in the book on Prof. Tayo when she writes, “It is instructive that when he stands up for righteousness, God honours him.” The LORD has indeed honoured Prof. Tayo with a good and purposeful life. In his tribute to his granddad in the book, Temiloluwa Tayo describes his granddad as “a man of God.” There is no greater tribute to man than to be so described as a man of God, for in those words are the summary of the best virtues of man.
Prof. Fola Tayo is blessed. We rejoice with you on this occasion, sir, and we celebrate you for a life of good impact. Happy birthday, and I wish you a much longer life in good health and prosperity.
•Akanmu, FNAPharm, FPSN, FNIMN, is a former president and co-CEO, OPay Nigeria.
