You could well describe it as a “smart campus” if we were to deploy a contemporary description, for an academic space which is packed so much within its moderate geographical land area.
The University of Ilorin when it was birthed in 1975, germinated from the facilities of the erstwhile Government Technical College, Ilorin. It equally appropriated adjoining parcels of land around and about it, where it sat between the thighs of Agbo-Oba and Adewole Estate, in the capital of Kwara State.
While a futuristically planned, idyllic, eyecatching campus spread across a land area of more than 10,000 hectares was gradually in the works elsewhere in Ilorin, academic activities began decisively in the primal mini campus of the institution. By the time I was admitted into the institution in 1982, the faculties of Arts, Social Sciences, Education and Clinical Medicine, were already domiciled in the fledgling school.
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So compact was that academe, which you could actually walk through the entire expanse in about an hour. Extracurricular activities flourished side by side with approved academic curriculums. I was always inclined towards performing and creative arts, including acting and creative writing.
Indeed, I acted the role of King Odewale in the classic play ‘The gods are not to blame’, written by the renowned Nigerian first generation playwright, Ola Rotimi. It was the convocation performance of the Kwara State College of Technology, (Kwaratech), Ilorin, just months before.
As a student in the School of Basic Studies (SBS) of the school where I wrote the Higher School Certificate Examination (HSC) moderated by the University of Cambridge, I was auditioned for the role and selected.
The University of Ilorin, which we abridged as Unilorin, was going to provide more opportunities for the blossoming of this flair. The Unilorin Creative Writers Group and the Ajon Players Drama Troupe were two extracurricular bodies which brought students together, outside the classroom space.
David Cook, the venerated British scholar who nurtured several East African writers including Ngugi wa Thiong’o during his stint in Makerere University, Uganda, re-enacted his baby project in Unilorin. He developed a creative writing course for final year students of English, in addition to the writers’ group.
The writers’ group drew enthusiasts predominantly from the Department of Modern European Languages, which prosecuted courses in English and French. The department has since been unbundled into separate departments for both pursuits. Notable members of the Unilorin Creative Writers Group included: Sola Babatunde, Tivlumun Nyitse, Blessing Wikina, Mopah Aileku, Sunnie Ododo, Wumi Raji, Rasheed Na’Allah, Hakeem Bello, Olufunmilayo Olusunle, (then Adedeji), among others.
Guided by Cook and some of our other teachers including Prayag Tripathi, (Indian); Russell Chambers, (American); Stephen Hesbon Lubega, (Ugandan), and Olu Obafemi, we met every week to discuss our teething efforts as cub writers. Some of us were concurrent members of Ajon Players which further cemented our friendships and relationships. It was from this background that Hakeem Babatunde Bello and I met and became good friends and brothers.
I was in my final year when he was in the first year, but this was no barrier between Hakeem and I. Indeed, I graduated in 1985, but returned two years later for a masters when he was in his final year. Once I completed my postgraduate work in 1989, my eyes were focused on a career in the media, where a number of my classmates were already cutting their teeth. I got a job in the ‘Daily Times’ of Nigeria in Lagos in 1990, when the revolutionary, charismatic Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi, was Managing Director.
Hakeem was rounding up his masters at the University of Ibadan at the time and he equally had an abiding interest in the media. A second class upper honours degree graduate in English, I was sure he could contribute to the Ogunbiyi rebuild project in the ‘Daily Times’.
In 1991, I was redeployed from the ‘Sunday Times’, my first stop in the newspaper octopus, to the ‘Daily Times’, the flagship of the organisation. My reassignment left a vacuum in the ‘Sunday Times’ and I was desirous that Hakeem replaced me.
I sure didn’t have the political or administrative leverage to bring him in at my level. But I had ideas which I believed we could explore. I tutored Hakeem to get referrals from any two of Ogunbiyi’s contemporaries who Ogunbiyi held in very high esteem. I told him to speak with Professors Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare and Olu Obafemi.