In Tribute to Professor Adebowale Adefuye - 'The Good Guy'

At that moment, eking out a living in London as a British Civil Servant, toiling away within the offices of the Inland Revenue in the leafy suburbs of Surrey the name Ade Adefuye leaped out.  Ten years had rolled by since the passing away of my father Dr. Olasupo Ojedokun.  In commemoration, a memorial lecture was organised and Professor Ade Adefuye, then the Nigerian Deputy High Commissioner to the UK had graciously agreed to be the guest speaker at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. The lecture was titled ‘The Commonwealth and Nigeria in a New World Order’ and held on 24^th April 1992.  Regrettably due to work commitments I was constrained to remain in the UK and unable to travel to Nigeria to attend the event.

The thread linking my father to the Professor went beyond the role of a memorial guest speaker.  He was connected to him in other ways, as a junior colleague at the University of Lagos in the Department of History before he was seconded to the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs and through his wife Aunty Shola who is my mother’s cousin.

The Professor was one of the many lecturers who paid me attention when as a young schoolboy I took to the habit of roaming the grounds of the campus of University of Lagos in search of close affinity to my father’s memory.  The Professor was the one who paid me attention and cleared his schedule to meet with me in his London office when I required consular assistance in the 1990s.

It was through my good friend Dr. Ayowale Ogunye, in the midst of the crises that engulfed the University of Lagos, claiming his father and 6 other professors' positions, I came to realise even in the 1980s that Professor Adefuye was one of the good guys.  In the past few hours, in far away America, we have lost an intellectual colossus, an indefatigable diplomat, a beautiful soul, a man of dignity and above all a father and husband.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Aunty Shola and the family at this time.