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Samuel Ajayi Crowther has become a legendary name in the annals of the spread of Christianity in Nigeria and beyond. one of the greatest evangelists to come out of the African continent, especially Nigeria, who held the flag as the first bishop in West Africa was Samuel Ajayi Crowther. He was one the foremost evangelists and preachers of the gospel that emanated from the African continent. He was a young man who fell victim to slave trade. He was a linguist, clergyman and first African Anglican Bishop in West Africa. He and his family were captured by slave traders when he was about twelve years old. This reportedly took place during the Yoruba civil wars, notably the Owu wars of 1821-1829, where his village Osogun in present day Oyo State, was ransacked in March, 1821. Ajayi was later sold to slave traders, said to be Portuguese who put him on board to be transported though the Atlantic. He has a long history which space and focus debar us from telling here but the critical thing is that he was freed from slavery by the Royal Navy’s West African Squadron, which was enforcing the British ban against Atlantic slave trade.
The liberated people were resettled in Sierra Leone. While in Sierra Leone, he was cared for by the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) and was taught English. He was said to be exceptionally brilliant. There, he adopted the name Samuel and became a Christian. He worked as an Evangelist and was later ordained a priest after training. The rest, as they say, is history. Suffice it so say that he was such a great evangelist that when he returned to Nigeria, he translated the bible to many languages. He took the gospel to many parts of Nigeria. The Church of England later betrayed this great man. As recently as 2015, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Leader of Church of England, Justin Welby, apologized for the treatment meted out to Crowther in a service to mark the 150th anniversary of Crowther’s ordination. He put it thus: ‘ we in the Church of England need to say sorry that someone properly and rightly consecrated Bishop and then betrayed and let down and undermined. It was wrong. This is a service of thanksgiving and repentance’. The church of England thus rendered an unreserved apology for the way its forebears treated the betrayed the evangelist whose work has been indelible.
But the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, has not forgotten the great preacher. One of the ways the church has remembered the man is to site its School of missions in Osoogun, Crowther’s village. Perhaps his greatest memoriam would be the University named Ajay Crowther University, in Oyo, which opened its doors for academic activities twenty years ago. The University came from the transformation of the great St. Andrew’s College Oyo.
The University has etched its name indelibly in the annals of Universities in Nigeria. It was founded by Supra West Diocese of Church of Nigeria. Four Vice- Chancellors have gone through the University on a tour of duty. Some of them laid the foundation, and others have built on it. The University began with just three Faculties but now has 12 and counting. Professor Timothy Abiodun Adebayo, whose tenure would lapse on the last day of September 2025 has set the University several notches higher than he met it. He is the fourth Vice- Chancellor. His era has seen a spread of infrastructure. Right from the gate his imprint begins to manifest. He built the Welcome Centre and followed it with a befitting accommodation for Principal Officers of the University, namely Registrar and Bursar. Stepping from the gate a visitor to the University would see the Wole Olanipekun Lecture Building, an ultra-modern storey building. It is the first of the ultra-modern story buildings constructed under his watch to mitigate shortage of class rooms, a challenge the University faced before he came on board. It is one of the many classrooms he built in various campuses of the University. In addition to the befitting accommodation for Principal Officers of the University, Adebayo also built a Professorial Complex to serve as befitting office for professors in the University. He addressed the issue of hostel accommodation for students by constructing the Premium Hostel, named after Melville and Frances jones, a couple who are missionaries that worked as pioneers in the Old St Andrew’s College. They both passed away in Oyo, and their graves lie in the premises of the St. Andrew’s Chapel today. The Melville and Frances Jones hostel, also known as Premium Hostel stand as one of the numerous testimonies of Adebayo’s imprint in the University. In his time, the University was accredited to offer Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science and other health related programmes.
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It would be an uphill task to list the numerous imprints of the Adebayo era in the University. His impact is not limited to the St. Andre’s Campus given that the University has four campuses. Three of the Campuses are within the Oyo environs, namely Offa Meta, Kieseni-Awe, all within Oyo. But the University has another Campus at Osoogun, Ajayi Crowther;s village, from where he was taken away and sold into slavery before God’s favour found him, and he worked for the God that found him. That Campus, which space was donated by the Community to the University, has also felt Adebayo’s positive impact.
But Adebayo’s tenure has come to an end. He will hand the leadership baton to the first female Vice- Chancellor of the University, namely Professor Ebuoluwa O. Oduwole, a former Deputy Vice- Chancellor at Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. She is coming with a wealth of experience to build on the foundation laid by her predecessors. Professor Oduwole would also enjoy the monumental support of Chairman of the Governing Council, Dr. Olutoyin Okeowo, whose tenure as chairman has seen the University growing in leaps and bound. The magnificent Senate Building of the University stands today as a testimony of his generosity and indelible contributions to the University.
Professor Oduwole would take charge of the University’s affairs, and take the institution to the next level that would include establishing the School of Medicine. As the baton changes hands at the University, the legacy of the inimitable Samuel Ajayi Crowther would continue to blossom.
