Gbenga Adeogun, the grandson of the Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo has revealed how his grandfather died, saying the deceased died in his sleep in the morning of Friday, May 24, 2024, at the age of 90.
Gbenga made this revelation while receiving a team of Principal Officers of the University of Ibadan (UI), led by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, Professor Aderonke M. Baiyeroju who paid a condolence visit to the Bodija home of late Banjo over the demise of the University’s longest-serving Vice-Chancellor.
The grandson stated that he was happy to have been with his grandfather the previous night.
Speaking, Baiyeroju said the visit was on behalf of the Council, Senate, Congregation, staff, and students of the University of Ibadan.
Baiyeroju explained that the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kayode O. Adebowale, and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration, Professor Peter O. Olapegba, were away on official assignments, adding that the management would repeat the visit when all the Principal Officers were on the ground.
The DVC said though Banjo lived a worthy life and reached the ripe age of 90 years, his death still came as a shock because the deceased was not only a former VC of UI but a beloved uncle to many on campus.
She said Banjo led a fruitful long life and was able to leave legacies of hard work and goodwill, saying that many are proud to be associated with Professor Banjo.
Other members of the team were: Professor Oluyemisi A. Bamgbose, SAN, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research Innovation and Strategic Partnerships; Ganiu Oke Saliu, Registrar; Dr. Mercy A. Iroaganachi, University Librarian; and Adejoke O. Akinpelu, the University’s Public Relations Officer.
Also reacting, the Head of the Department of English of the nation’s Premier University, Prof Nelson Fashina, described the demised of Banjo as a shock.
Fashina’s statement reads in parts:
“The Department of English and the entire University of Ibadan stand in grandiloquent ovations of praise, honour and reverence for our departed academic great-grandfather who joined the ancestors today at the age of 90 years.
“Our own Department of English where he served and made a giant name in the sun, remains in uneasy but expected shock which none of us can resist. Until his last breath a few hours ago, we were his immediate grandchildren’s colleagues. We knew him. We felt him. We savoured his high-styled system of academic and administrative leadership and mentorship.
“Apart from those of us in the class of age and rank distance colleagues, some of his living compeer colleagues would miss Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo the more, because they were scholars of his cohort of the golden age academic generations, not just of the Department of English, but also of the entire premier University of Ibadan, First and Best, and his other national, continental and global colleagues and his subsets of students for many generations.
“No words or sentences of aphoristic encomiums may be an exaggeration of the description in the late Professor Ayo Banjo. He was one of the finest gentlemen and scholar Professors of English Grammar. He is, unarguably, Nigeria’s longest-serving university administrator, motivational speaker, father, husband and an incredibly nice and compassionate icon of esteemed value.
“With his transition, the scriptures of his life, times and height of achievements as a towering scholar, and his niches as a public and private/family figure, have just begun. The Nigerian and international news magazines, newspapers, and social media will be replete with the history and pictures of his life journeys through the sequestrated valleys, plain grounds and high mountain cliffs of his relatively long life passage through the earth planet.”
