One of the foremost professors of History and former vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Tekena Tamuno, penultimate weekend in Ibadan exited the Nigerian academic space, leaving a vacuum that may be difficult to fill. He was aged 83. The passage of the erudite scholar came to many as a shock because he was said to have recovered and was looking healthy after returning from the United States where he was reportedly treated for prostate cancer last month.
Reacting to the historian’s death, the secretary of Nigerian Academic of Letters (NAL) and fellow historian, Prof. Olutayo Charles Adesina, said the Nigerian academic community and indeed the nation had lost “an extremely cerebral historian and foremost scholar of the humanities, who combined both the rigour and flexibility needed for a better understanding of his field.”
Another colleague and erudite linguist, Prof. Francis Egbokhare, echoed Adesina’s remark, saying: “For a man of his kind of stature, an intellectual and administrator, he was unbelievably accessible to the younger ones, unlike others who would strut like emperors.
“If you were with him, you may forget you were not with your age mate. But more importantly, he was a man who had great faith in God.”
Besides, Egbokhare said the late Tamuno, a prolific author of many books and articles in journals, would be missed for his numerous and quality intellectual contributions.
Also in his tribute, the vice chancellor of University of Ilorin, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, described Tamuno’s death as a colossal loss to the academic community especially the University of Ilorin. He said his vision and pioneering role in laying a solid foundation for the institution which started as University College, Ilorin, between 1975 and 1976, upon which his successors built on will be remembered.
Tamuno served as chancellor, Redeemer’s University; chairman of the presidential panel on National Security from October 2001 to December 2002 and panel on Policing Nigeria Project from 2002 to 2003.
As a poet and historian, Tamuno, was a fellow of both the Nigerian Academy of Letters and Rockefeller Foundation and a member of the National Universities Commission (NUC).
Born on January 28, 1932, in Okrika, Rivers state, he attended St. Peter’s School, Okrika from 1938 to 1946; Okrika Grammar School, Okrika from 1947 to 1951; University College, Ibadan from 1953 to 1958; Birkbeck College,
University of London from 1960 to 1962; and Columbia University, New York City, United States from 1965 to 1966.
His career trajectory began at the University College, Ibadan, as an assistant lecturer in History in 1962, and he was promoted lecturer in 1963. In 1967, he was appointed senior lecturer and became professor of History four years later.
Between 1972 and 1975, he headed the Department of History. He was appointed the dean of Faculty of Arts, 1973-1975; chairman, Committee of Deans, University of Ibadan, 1974-1975; principal, University College, Ilorin, 1975; Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, 1975-1979; pro-chancellor and chairman of Governing Council, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt between 1981 and 1988; visiting professor in History, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna from 1989 to 1990; research professor in History and distinguished fellow, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, from 1990 to 1994.
He was a recipient of the award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR).
Among his seminal publications are: Nigeria and Elective Representation, 1923 -1947; The evolution of the Nigerian state: The Southern Phase, 1898 -1914; Abebe: Portrait of a Nigerian leader; Herbert Macaulay, Nigerian Patriot; Nigeria: Its people and its problems; Nigerian Universities, their Students and their Society: Factors of Leadership, Time, and Circumstance; and The Police in Modern Nigeria, 1861 -1965.
By his demise, Nigeria has been robbed of another intellectual avatar especially at the time that deliberate attempts are being made to rekindle the interest of Nigerian students in History as a subject.
We pray God to grant his family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
