Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti on Friday described Prof. Afolabi Ojo, the late pioneer Vice-Chancellor (V-C) of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) as one of Nigeria’s finest and iconic scholars.
Fayemi stated this at the burial Mass held at St. Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti for the deceased.
It was reported that the late Professor of Geography and an indigene of Ado Ekiti, died recently at the age of 90.
Fayemi described the deceased as a chief promoter of scholarship during his lifetime.
According to him, Ojo’s sterling qualities and unrivaled academic attainments coupled with his unassailable integrity earned him the NOUN’s V-C during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Fayemi also described the late scholar as a vanguard of anti corruption who was unwaveringly committed to his faith and stood for everything that Ekiti man represented in values and education.
He said the people of the state, particularly Ado Ekiti community, would miss the deceased’s patriotic zeal and sense of industry.
He said that such qualities were largely responsible for the national and global respects he commanded as an academic.
“Prof Ojo remained one of the best academics Ekiti ever produced. He was so patriotic not only as a scholar, but also as a community man.
“He was in the first generation of Ekiti academics, which earned him reputation worldwide”, Gov. Fayemi said.
Also, Most Rev. Michael Fagun, Bishop Emeritus, Catholic Diocese of Ekiti, in his admonition said : ” The late Prof. Ojo was a man of faith, who loved the people, a generous man who is alive in the hearts of his students and the academic world.
“I still see him very much alive, as we are not here to mourn Professor. We are here to celebrate a man of authentic faith, who eminently contributed to the birth and growth of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti.
“A statesman, he lived forever, a catalyst and a great motivator, famous in Nigeria and worldwide and was recognised by the Holy Father, the Pope.
“Prof. Ojo was an ideal Christian family man, faithful to one wife, the family and his people as a generous man; who had a very good moral and spiritual upbringing.”
He said that the late academic forfeited his landed property for use in Ekiti State as a church, school and for the laity in the state as a mark of his philanthropic gesture.
The Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Most Rev. Felix Ajakaye, in a tribute commended the family members for supporting the late scholar to donate generously to the church.
He disclosed that that the late Prof. Ojo’s name would be immortalised with an ICT building at the Holy Child School, in Ado-Ekiti, an Electronic Library and others for his kind gesture to the church and humanity.
His Eminence, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, the immediate past Archbishop of Abuja, who sent a text and was read by Bishop Ajakaye, described the late Prof. Ojo as “a great man, a sincere Christian and a strong academic.”
The burial mass was attended by the Ekiti Deputy Governor, Chief Bisi Egbeyemi, a former Ekiti Deputy Governor, Prof. Modupe Adelabu, delegations from the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), the Laity Council of Nigeria, the Ekiti State University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Eddy Olanipekun and many other dignitaries.