Adigun Agbaje: A Value So Rare

Professor Adigun Agbaje, an uncommon political scientist occupies a great place in the pantheon of Nigeria’s political scientists. As a scholar whose works brilliantly and lucidly storied the intersection of media and politics, Agbaje is one of Nigeria’s finest dons leaving their marks in interdisciplinary studies. For those who are familiar with his writings and publications, many of them would agree that the rarity of the likes of Agbaje is better illustrated by the fact that if we have a museum of political scholarship (not necessarily as large as Smithsonian), Agbaje should dot a place as an iconography.

Unfortunately, this is the man some villains took improperly and violently on Friday, October 28, 2022, while he was returning to his family at Ibadan, from Ago-Iwoye where he teaches and does research as a scholar on sabbatical at Olabisi Onabanjo University. He has been an amazing teacher and researcher at the University of Ibadan where is one of the ‘oracles’ at the Department of Political Science in the Faculty of the Social Sciences.

I met Agbaje in 2003 when I was a student at the University of Ibadan in MA Degree in Communication and Languages Arts programme. After the topic of my dissertation had been approved, I had done a great deal of work at Kenneth Dike Library (the University’s central library, where I met my wife) and of course at my residence, Tafawa Balewa Hall. So, I thought I was sufficiently armed, and I approached my supervisor, Professor Beatrice Adeyinka Laninhun, for reviews. Everything seemed fine, and she was particular about the research design and of course so many other things.

Anyone who knows Prof. Laninhun will attest to her knack for details and perfection. My BA degree project supervisor at the University of Uyo, the late Professor Grace Nwagbara (may God rest her soul) was like that. She never allowed an error to escape her prying eyes too. So, Laninhun referred me to Agbaje, recommending with her courteous, charitable tonality, “Niyi, your work holds a great promise. Therefore, I need you to see Professor Adigun Agbaje in the Department of Political Science, for vetting before you go to the field.”

That is UI for you. Depending on your topic, you may be referred to up to five resident scholars in different faculties. So, I did not ask why because I understood how deeply my topic straddles communication and politics. The topic, “THE INFLUENCE OF INFORMAL INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION NETWORKS ON VOTING DECISION (A STUDY OF 2003 GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION IN OYO STATE), was so fashioned because I wanted to know the interpersonal communication correlative factor that caused the defeat of the Alliance for Democracy in the South West, and I believe Oyo could give a lead.

When I met Agbaje, he did not ask me to come back another day. He simply told me to take a seat. He asked for my mission, and I promptly explained. Apparently, Laninhun did not even remember to give Agbaje a heads up after she had referred me to him. Indeed, at the University of Ibadan, the climate was different, and it partly explains why UI has been Nigeria’s best by all objective ranking globally. When it is about scholarship, the rules and procedures are strict but there was no unnecessary protocol, no bottleneck, so no corruption, because you need bottlenecks for corruption to start and fester. Agbaje represents the best of Ibadan tradition. He simply offered me a seat and as I sat, he stretched his right hand to take the paper I was holding which bears my topic.

Then he began to ask me questions. If my memory works with clinical precision, Agbaje must have asked me at least 20 questions in an hour. When he asked where I was taking my samples, I told him I had chosen three Local Councils, one in each senatorial district and I mentioned them. Then he asked: “I hope you have questionnaire designed in Yoruba Language, and a research assistant who speaks impeccable Yoruba.” And I answered in the affirmative and told him my supervisor had insisted I must have my questionnaire designed in English and Yoruba.

Though Agbaje had not discussed with Laninhun, they both had the same reason for strongly recommending a Yoruba version of the questionnaire. As I found out later, politics is largely local and majority of those who vote are the ‘local’ people, so it made sense to get information in the language the ‘locals’ are more comfortable with in expressing their views about politics, though so many of the targeted respondents spoke good Englishes.

So, Agbaje, like my supervisor, helped to enrich the quality of my MA Dissertation.

Naturally, when the news of Agbaje’s travails broke, I just switched on my laptop and revisited my MA project, and I could glean how much beauty his counsel and guidance enhanced the quality of that work. I remember him saying congratulations to me after asserting that the topic was researchable within the framework of its scope and research methodology, although he told me the topic was huge. Just the same way Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim was jocular about my doctoral thesis the other day.

I have been very lucky to have great scholars mentor me and my supervisor at North-West University in South Africa, Professor Abiodun Salawu, also impeccably stands out. I will always be in his debt. I remain eternally grateful to these amazing men who kept faith with Nigeria and Africa instead of going to North America and Europe to earn greater glory as scholars.

At Harvard, Oxford, Yale and Columbia, these patriotic Nigerian scholars may never need to witness an industrial action (on issues of institutional funding), they would have turned iconic pedagogic deities and deservedly worshipped. It is so saddening that Agbaje’s value in monetary terms is now estimated at 50 million naira (that is the ransom his abductors demand), and we can only hope and pray that such sum will be raised so he can return safely, hale and hearty to his family after this ordeal which no one knows how long it will last.

I remember meeting Prof. Agbaje again in 2006 while I was Special Media Advisor to Frank Nweke Jr (one of Nigeria’s most vibrant Minister of Information and Communication). Agbaje had visited Abuja for some official functions, and he stopped by to follow up on UI’s application for a Community (Campus) Radio (CR) license, after patriots and silent scholar-activists like Professor Ayobami Ojebode had done impeccable background works to justify why UI should be issued a CR license. A CR licence is certainly an imperative resource to underscore the communication studies enterprise at Ibadan (Nigeria’s best), and to refocus, qualitatively, the social life of UI geographical community and its environs. Agbaje was then UI’s Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs. I remember telling Honourable Nweke Jr as I ushered Prof. Agbaje into his office that I wouldn’t be with him as SA Media if Agbaje had not sharpened my skills. We all laughed, and rightly so.

A teacher’s teacher, Agbaje, going by what he has given to Nigeria and global political scholarship, is an eternal asset, a repository, a huge library. Anyone in doubt needs to visit Web of Science, Google Scholar, Researchgate, Academia, Heinemann, Sagepub, Openlibrary, Springer, Betterworldbooks, Googlebooks, and so on.

Convivial, egalitarian, freedom-loving, lover of campus journalism (Nigerian universities’ first social media), a great mentor and coach (and I am particularly glad to have been under his tutelage, even if momentarily), Agbaje was for a long time the only holder of first class degree in political science from the University of Ibadan. Yet, he is so humble, supportive, peace-loving, avuncular, and very ecumenical.

Therefore, I join many other public-spirited citizens to request all agencies in the security governance sector to act in alliance to secure the release of Professor Adigun Agbaje and others abducted with him. May the souls of those killed at the scene of his abduction rest in peace. May Nigeria find true peace.