One of the foremost evangelists and preachers of the gospel that emanated from the African continent was Ajayi Crowther, a young man who fell victim to the slave trade. He was a linguist, clergyman and the first African Anglican bishop in West Africa. He and his family were captured by slave traders when he was about 12 years old. This reportedly took place during the Yoruba civil wars, notably the Owu wars of 1821-1829. His village, Osoogun, in present-day Oyo State, was ransacked in March 1821 and Ajayi was taken away. He was sold to slave traders said to be Portuguese who put him on board to be transported across 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, Ajayi 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. The rest, as they say, is history. Suffice it to say that he was such a great evangelist, on his return to Nigeria, that he translated the Bible into many Nigerian languages. He took the gospel to diverse parts of Nigeria. The Church of England later betrayed this great evangelist in an unbecoming way. According to reports compiled by historians, prejudiced fellow Anglican missionaries wrongly questioned the moral values and competence of Bishop Crowther and his staff and systematically dismantled his mission and undermined his work. In the end, Crowther resigned. He was said to have died a sad and heart-broken man.
As recently as 2015, Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the Church of England, Justin Welby, apologized for the treatment meted out to the late Samuel Ajayi Crowther in a service to mark the 150th anniversary of the ordination of Bishop Crowther. In that service, Welby said, “We in the Church of England need to say sorry that someone was 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 rendered an unreserved apology for the way its forbears treated the great evangelist whose work has remained indelible.
But the Church of Nigeria has not neglected or treated Ajayi Crowther with disdain. It has done many things to acknowledge that the great evangelist acquitted himself creditably when he lived. Churches have been named after him, books and creative works have been written on him and his legacies. Perhaps the church ought to consider doing a well-researched movie on the man. It could, in fact, adapt the play written by Femi Osofisan on Ajayi Crowther with the same title into a movie.
One of the lasting legacies of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther is the university named after him. The university, located in Oyo town, Oyo State, came from the background of the great St. Andrew’s College, the oldest tertiary institution in Nigeria.
Ajayi Crowther University opened its gates for academic endeavours in January 2005. it has become, perhaps, one of the best legacies to immortalize the name. The university has largely been blessed with good and selfless leaders; be they chairmen, board of trustees, pro-chancellor and chairman of governing council and vice-chancellors. The university has had four substantive VCs. They have all contributed their quota in placing the university at an enviable height. The current VC, Professor Timothy Abiodun Adebayo, is number four on the line, and he has acquitted himself creditably in the discharge of his duties. He took over from Rt. Rev. Professor Dapo Asaju in October 2020. Asaju did well in running the university, expanding its frontiers by opening other campuses and building infrastructure. On his exit, there was anxiety as to who would step into his shoes, given that he had done a lot in difficult times.
God, whose project the university is, who Ajayi Crowther spent his life propagating his gospel, made it possible for the current VC to mount the saddle. It has become evident that God had a hand in it and ordered his steps to the university. Under his leadership and the support of the governing council, led by Dr. Toyin Okeowo, the university has grown in leaps and bounds. The pro-chancellor and chairman of the governing council took over from Chief Dr. Wole Olanipekun, SAN, in January 2023. Dr. Toyin Okeowo has been at the starting blocks of the university, given that he has been in the council from inception. Now at the helm, he knows where the shoes pinch. He has given maximum support to Professor Timothy Adebyayo, leading to near-unprecedented development in the university. Three years in the saddle, Adebayo has set new records in development. His regime has built more than 15 giant structures, some of which are two-deck buildings. All the buildings were funded with internally generated funds, a sign of prudent management. In academic development, he has set up new faculties, namely, Faculties of Basic Medical Science, Nursing and Agriculture. He is driving the university towards setting up the College of Medicine.
In order to make principal officers of the university to operate under a conducive environment, he built duplexes as official quarters for the registrar and bursar. He has built two state-of-the-art high-rise classroom blocks, one of which was named after Olanipekun. He has bults a Welcome Centre, no less than three new laboratories, a state-of-the-art block of offices for professors, and many others. His imprint on the university has become indelible. Space will deny one the opportunity to make a comprehensive listing of what he has done in the university in three years. His regime has got the Faculty of Agriculture up and running. The university’s farm is up and thriving, having sundry products: honey, fish, cassava, pineapples, mini ranch, watermelons and so on. He has established ACU Seeds, probably the first seed company in the South-West. At the rate he is going, Prof. Adebayo and his team may set records in the university that may be hard for those coming after him to beat. The truth is that his tenure is contributing in no small measure to keep the legacy of Samuel Ajayi Crowther going. At the 15th convocation of the university, which climaxed penultimate Wednesday and Thursday, many of these projects were inaugurated for use. The chancellor, Chief Dr. J. Tunde Afolabi, whose Josephus Foundation pays the fees of no fewer than 80 students in the university, pledged a development fund of N1 billion to be paid in five instalments within a five-year period. He was supported by Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, one of the honorary degree awardees, and Mrs. Kate Isa, another awardee, whose husband pledged N50 million for the same period. The university is blessed with people and leadership to keep Ajayi Crowther’s legacy aloft.