If I had been interested in being a lecturer and had gone for postgraduate studies for master’s and Ph.D. degrees in either history, political science or international relations, I have no doubt that I too would have ended up as a professor. Like my classmates who did so in our 1957 – 61 West African School Certificate set at Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, the 1963 – 64 Higher School Certificate set at Ibadan Grammar School and the 1965 – 68 undergraduate set at the University of Ibadan. I make this assertion given my academic ability, exceptional interest in doing research, proclivity and love for writing and commitment to being among the best and reaching the peak in whatever I do.
My performance at the University of Ibadan was such that five months to my final degree examination in May 1968, the Head of the Department of History (my major subject) invited me for postgraduate studies. This was by a letter dated December 14, 1967, signed by the Secretary to the Department, F. A. Bamgbelu. Titled: Statement of Research Project, the letter read: “The Dean of Arts would like to have from you urgently some idea of what you want to do postgraduate work on and the future career you envisage. You may have to discuss this with Professor J.F.A. Ajayi or some other senior member of the Department. Please send a copy of your statement to Professor Ajayi.”
My guess was that one of my lecturers and tutorial class master, British-born Professor R. J. Gavin, might have recommended me for the programme as one of the three most outstanding students of his in history. But I wouldn’t know if he or any other professor or lecturer in the Department of History did so for any of the colleagues in our set.
I did not honour the invitation because of my health situation. As a matter of fact, I received the letter on Monday, December 18, 1967, on my sickbed at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, four days after I underwent surgery for breast cancer. I had three months earlier, in October, had a biopsy at the hospital after which the tissue extracted was sent to the United Kingdom for diagnosis. It was the outcome of the exercise that necessitated my having full operation, known as mastectomy, which is the surgical removal of a breast. In my case, the left one.
As those familiar with the disease know, a malignant tumour can recur after removal. In the circumstance, I did not give myself more than three to four years to live and, therefore, considered it unnecessary to go for postgraduate studies. The two operations I had in the last three months of 1967 and the traumatic situation I was in until February 1968 were the reasons for my ending up in having a B.A. Second Class Lower Division pass instead of the Second Class Upper or First Class Honours certificate I had aimed at.
I had another invitation in 1976 for Master’s and doctoral studies, but also did not honour it. This followed my making a Distinction Pass in the 1975 – 76 Postgraduate International Relations Diploma Class at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, which was renamed Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in 1987. I was the only one in the set who made the grade and as a result was invited by the Head of the Department, the late Dr. Olajide Aluko (later a professor), to do a Master’s degree course and ultimately the Ph.D. programme.
When I did not show up in September 1976 when the institution resumed, Dr. Aluko the following month came to meet me in my office in the Current Affairs Unit of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to find out why I had not come. I told him I was no more interested in the course and preferred to continue with my job and do the Master’s course as an external student. But my real reason was the bad blood among the staff in his department.
Eighty per cent of the lecturers there were against Aluko, whose chief opponent was Dr. Adeniyi Adedeji, my course mate in the political science class of the 1965 – 68 undergraduate set at the University of Ibadan. I liked studying and working in peaceful environment and could, therefore, not see myself honouring Dr. Aluko’s invitation. This was more so, as he wanted me to do the programme and function as an assistant lecturer in the Department of International Relations.
So, the Akwa Ibom State – born professor who flaunted his academic status to me four Wednesdays ago, on October 25, can see that I am not in the professoriate class, not because I did not have the ability and opportunity for postgraduate studies for a Ph.D. degree. As he can now see I was invited twice by two universities, and not that I applied, and that circumstances made me not to honour the invitations extended to me in 1968 and 1976.
Next week I will deal with the issue of integrity in my position as a journalist, political appointee and servant of God.