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Why I’m a polygamist— Prof. Wande Abimbola Most Read Recent Comments Most Commented

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Like 156 Boko Haram writes school, plots

fresh abductions
Eighty-one-year-old former Vice Chancellor
of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Jonathan’s tenure extension memo
Awolowo University), Prof. Wande floods confab
Abimbola, shares his experiences of life
West African leaders, France declare
with KAYODE FALADE
war on Boko Haram

When and where were you born? B’Haram kills 29 in Borno, kidnaps 10
in Cameroon
I was born in Oyo town but not exactly in
the town. It was in a village called Aba
Onisa. It is about seven miles away from
Oyo. It is on the road to another village
called Iware. But our house in Oyo is this

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 called Iware. But our house in Oyo is this
same one where I am sitting down now. My
father’s house was located just at the
Abimbola with one of his wives entrance. I pulled it down in 1966 to build
the front house. All the houses you see
surrounding this one within the radius of 10 hectares are my family’s property. So, I can say that I am living in
the same place where I was born.

When were you born?

It took a long time before I found out the actual date of my birth. At the first two weeks of my first year at 20 things you don’t know about the late Justice
secondary school, Baptist Boys High School, Oyo, now called Olivet Baptist High School, each of the new Chukwudifu Oputa
entrants was asked their date of birth; but I didn’t know mine. My parents were at the village then. They only
came to town on important occasions: the annual egungun festival, funeral, marriage and so. That was the
Oputa: Quotable quotes
practice then. So, I went to the village to ask them. They said, they were sorry, they didn’t know. But I said
they should know. There must be an event or something at the time or around the time. But they said, “You
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know you are an abiku child. So, we don’t know.” After my elder brother who died recently, my mother had four
other children who died in a row before having me. The Yoruba would say such a woman is having abik u
children. These are believed to be children who knew that they would not live long. They just came to trouble Columnists
the family. So, when I got back to school and the following Monday the teacher asked again and everybody
Fashola’s WEF Takeaways
was giving theirs. I told him I didn’t know mine. But before the following Monday when he would ask again, I
decided to frame up something. I gave him June 26, 1936. So that explained many newspapers congratulating A few days ago, I read
me on that day for my birthday. However, in 1985, my elder sister and my mother were sitting in my living something written by BRF,
room. Without asking any one of them, my sister said: “Wande, you were born on a Saturday. And the published in some
Saturday was a Christmas eve. I said but you know I have been asking for my date of birth since and you didn’t newspapers, representing his
tell me. She said, “But you never asked me.”My mother passed on in 2007 at the age of 107 but my sister is thoughts on the just…
still alive. Read More

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I thought I could do something with this information. I went back to the university and I was a vice chancellor at
the time. I called on Mr Dipeolu, the librarian, who is also a friend of mine. I told him, “I was born on a Saturday laugh last

which was also a Christmas eve. I started schooling in 1945 and I know I was not less than 10 years old then. I
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asked him to check calendars of the 1930’s and see which Saturday was a Christmas eve. He returned shortly
to tell me that one was in 1932 and the other 1938. I remember that at my time at the NA Town School, Oyo, I >> Constructive trusts
would leave our village around 2:30am to make the school. A six or seven-year-old boy could not do that. So I
chose 1932. My true date of birth is December 24, 1932. But I didn’t change it immediately. I changed it I >> The importance of a moral compass
retired. But, I didn’t retire at 60. I decided to quit after my second term as a vice chancellor.
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Which schools did you attend?
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 Which schools did you attend?
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I attended NA Town School from 1945 to 1948. It was a lower primary school. In those days, primary school
was eight years. For the senior primary, I attended NA Durbar School, Oyo. From there, I proceeded to Baptist Countdown to Brazil 2014 World Cup
Boys High School, Oyo. We were 26 or so in my class and we only had one arm. I spent six years in that
school. In the year I was going to graduate, some education authority visited us to ascertain whether or not we
were ripe for a five-year programme. So the students who were in Form five, a year below us, were allowed to
sit for the examination with us. We spent six years while they spent five. Then, it was not automatic for
students of secondary school to graduate after five years. It was subject to the availability of facilities and
quality of personnel. I entered that school in January 1953 and graduated in December 1958. Also then, the
calendar of the university was different from that of the secondary school. The university would resume in
September whereas other schools would resume in January.
25
days
01
hours
27
minutes
39
sec onds
Did you work after secondary school?
40
I worked as a teacher at Methodist Modern School, Ogbomosho. It was on the way to Ejigbo. I taught there for
eight months and then sat for the entrance exams into the University of Ibadan, which was then the only
university in the country. I graduated in June 1963 with a BA Honours in History.

When did you start work?

Shortly before my graduation in 1963, there was a job vacancy in the Federal Government gazette for a Junior
Research Fellow for Yoruba Studies in the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan. The
requirement was a master’s degree. The trouble was I had not finished my first degree, let alone a masters but
I applied anyway and I was invited for interview. Prof Armstrong who was the director of the Institute called for
an interview in his office to determine whether he should shortlist me for the interview or not. Eventually he
invited me for interview along with 10 other people who all had master’s degree but I was offered the job. I
started working at the Institute of African Studies about four months before my final exams. They must have
seen something which they thought was so promising in me. I got my letter of appointment towards the end of
March like a week after the interview. And then the estate officer of the university took me round to select an
apartment. I started living in the house like every other member of the faculty about four months before
graduation. I was at the institute from 1963 to 1965. I was Junior Research Fellow in Yoruba Studies which was
on the same level as an assistant lecturer. It was a very nice job, a lot of allowances, plenty of money but I
quickly sensed that if I remained on the job, I would just be a subordinate to the professors or people with PhD
who would be using the information I gathered. So I started looking for a place to do a master’s degree. With
the help of some of my teachers, especially Prof JF Ade-Ajayi, I was able to apply to North Western University,

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 Illinois in the United States.

Did you go there to study Yoruba?

No. There was nowhere you could study Yoruba anywhere in the world then. I applied to study Linguistics. I
was made a teaching assistant and they paid for my transportation from Nigeria to the US and I also received
monthly salaries. I was lodged in the graduate students’ dormitory. The course of study was one year of class
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work. But if you wanted to do your master’s degree by exam, then you would spend one more summer but if
you wanted to do it by dissertation, you spend at least one more year. I opted to do my own via examination. I
finished the programme after one year and one summer. I then decided to return to Nigeria. I was offered two Select Category
appointments. I was offered the post of a research fellow in the University of Ife and a post of a lecturer at the
Institute of African and Asian Studies in the University of Lagos where Prof Ademoye Babalola was a senior
lecturer. I took the offer of the University of Lagos. Then, we started a BA programme in Yoruba. It was the
second of such programme in the country. Prof Ayo Bamgbose had started BA Yoruba programme in the
University of Ibadan in 1965. We started our own in Lagos in 1966. I worked in the University of Lagos in the
same institute for six years. And I started doing my PhD on part time basis in the same department and I was
supervised by Prof Babalola. I got my PhD from the University of Lagos in 1970. It was the first PhD of that
university. There was another man who did his PhD work on Zoology. He too was awarded a PhD that year.
After that, I was promoted as senior lecturer in 1972. Then I decided to transfer my services to the Institute of
African Studies, University of Ife, where I had been offered the post of a senior research fellow. The university
had started a programme in Yoruba studies which was going to the second year then. I was there until our
department was created by the National Universities Commission. I was the first acting head of the
department. Our department was created under the name, Department of African Languages and Literatures.

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 department. Our department was created under the name, Department of African Languages and Literatures.
And I was the first acting head of the department. Then in 1977, I was voted in by my colleagues as Dean,
Faculty of Arts. That was 1977 to 79. And in 1982, I became the vice chancellor.

How did you emerge vice chancellor?

At that time, the method of making someone a vice chancellor was very interesting; unlike now. Then,the
university’s newsletterwould inform the academic world that the post of a vice chancellor was vacant asking
anybody who knew a professor of high calibre to nominate him. You do not apply yourself like they do now. It
was your colleagues that would nominate you. A committee made of three members of the senate and three
members of the council with the pro chancellor and chairman of council as chairman, would prune down the
long list of people who had been nominated by any member of the academic community who could be a
teacher or an alumnus. That pruned list would be sent to the council of the university for approval. The
committee of senate and council would have categorised the names in the order they deemed. This list would
then be sent to the Visitor. The visitor of every federal university is the Head of State or President while that of
the state is the governor.

What made you cross from history to linguistics? Information Technology

I saw the need to develop our languages in Nigeria so that people could take bachelors, masters and PhD Glo takes mobile
degrees in those languages. At that time there were courses in French, German and others. Why not our own
money to
languages too?
pharmacists

When did you get married?

I got married in 1961.

When you were still a student?

Yes, when I was still an undergraduate. Remember I was 12 or thereabout when I started school. Now add 12
years to eight in the primary school. Then add six years to that, making 26. Then add another year when I had
to wait before entering the university. So I was around 29 when I got married.

How did you cope: combining marriage with studentship?

There were many married students at that time with their wives working somewhere else or in the city of
Ibadan. My first wife was a midwife and she was working at a Baptist Hospital in what is now Delta State.

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 When we got married, she moved to Ibadan briefly looking for a job but she couldn’t get any. She came to Oyo
and got a job at a maternity centre of Oyo Local Government at Ikoyi. Ikoyi is about 70 miles away from Oyo.
She was working and I was in the university.

Did you have any child then?

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Yes, we did. Our first child was born in 1962, followed by another one in 1963. When I secured appointment,
my wife moved into the university with me where I already had a house as a junior research fellow. itt-tech.edu

Which student organisation did you belong to as an undergraduate?

Tech-Oriented Degree Programs.
Education for the Future.
I didn’t have interest in any student organisation. I don’t remember that I was a member of any.

What student organisations did you have on campus then?

I think there were all these ones that call themselves fraternities.

As a former university administrator, how would you compare the university system and education then
with what obtains now?

I think things were in a better shape then because everybody was dedicated.It was like we had a sense of
mission. We wanted to do well for ourselves, children, institution and our country. But there is a certain
depression that has fallen over everybody these days. I don’t know why. People are not so dedicated anymore.
I don’t know what has come upon the citizens of this country. There is an air of unseriousness which pervades
the country

Why is this so?

I think the major problem of this country is that we have almost lost our culture. We don’t speak our languages Any Make
anymore particularly the younger folks; even the older ones too. That is where the unseriousness started. We Any Model
have almost lost our culture.These days, I hear a lot about cults in the university. They have always been there. MIN ₦ MAX ₦ Search
But I just marvel at why the authorities have not been able to control them. In my seven years as a vice
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chancellor, we rusticated more than 50 students. In fact, we had a standing committee for discipline for people
Lagos, ₦ 1,150,000/- Neg.
who did anything they were not supposed to do. If you attacked somebody, even when you didn’t belong to a
cult, you raped another student, stabbed someone and all those sort of things, the committee would meet the
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same day the person was apprehended. The committee would investigate, write to you and give verdict. We Lagos, ₦ 1,100,000/-
had a counsel or legal adviser in the committee. I don’t know why university authorities cannot control them.

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 We had regular meetingswith the leadership of the students union. There is an air of unseriousness
everywhere. Everybody is looking for money.

Why did you go into politics?

I did not count it as a mistake. My beliefs and ideas are as such that I feel so much concerned about what is
going on around me. That time, I thought I could make a change or a difference if I was in the senate. I did not
go to politics to make money. My intention was to help and also serve. But on the two occasions I was there, I
was disappointed.

What were your achievements as a Special Adviser to the president?

I don’t know if there was any real achievement except the proclamation of Ifa as a masterpiece of the oral and
intangible heritage of humanity by the Director-General of UNESCO. I wrote the paper that we submitted to
UNESCO. I also prepared two films of three hours and 10 minutes respectively. UNESCO selected 1,016
entries. After that, they took 20 of them which they would support and which also the governments of their
different countries would support.

You attended a Baptist mission school and also worked in one, yet you didn’t change your religion like
it was fashionable to do then. Why?

I did not change because I didn’t see the need for change. If you look around, even now, if you encounter
anyone worshipping Ifa, Sango, Oya or any of those divinities, they don’t steal, they don’t tell lies and they
don’t do any bad things. I prefer to move with such people because I think if there is a high God somewhere
looking at us and He wants us to lead a moral life and a life of caring for our neighbours, they are perhaps the
kind of people Olodumare will regard as good example. That is why up till today, I still feel that we lost
something by thinking that our traditional belief and value system was a failure. It wasn’t. It was and is still
superior. The other reason is just a matter of good luck. Both my father and mother were traditional
worshippers. My father was a veteran of the WWI. He was the Ashipade of Oyo. He was steadfast. One of the
Health
taboos of Ogun is that you must not tell an untruth. So if my father told you something, it was the truth. And
my mother was a worshipper of Sango. Sango does not like ek e. Ek e is if someone says something and it is
Rich women prefer
discovered that it is not like that. Also, Sango does not like thieves. Even in recent times, sango punishes
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them with thunder and lightening. That is the sort of family I was born and raised. And remember I was 12
— Expert
years old before going to school, I had started studying Ifa. They made a lot of efforts to convert me when I was
in the secondary school. I was even baptised. But I did not take it to heart. And I think if a nation as big as
ours and an ethnic group as big as the Yoruba who are about 50 million cannot sustain its own belief and value
system; there is something wrong. If people want to be Christians, let them be; if they want to be Muslims, let
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 them be. But there should be some people upholding our own traditional religion, beliefs and practices too.

What is your favourite food?

Eba. Eba with any type of soup. I have been a vegetarian for almost 30 years, so, I don’t eat meat.
Sometimes, I eat fish; but I don’t eat meat. So also is my wife here.

Why did you embrace polygamy?

It is not by choice but I can’t tell you all the details. It was not by choice. It just happened to be like that
because I didn’t want to go through divorce. Our culture allows me to have more than one wife.

Would you advise your kids to be polygamists?

They can do whatever pleases them. Let me say this. If a man is not a drunkard or insane, if he marries one
wife and the two are very friendly, do things together, why would he marry a second wife? Does he want to
scatter his family?

What is the secret of your agility even at over 80?

If I want to boast, I will say it’s because of this or that. But I think it is just the grace of Olodumare. Again, I live
a simple life. This is where I live. I don’t have another house besides this and the one I live in the US. Also, I
don’t allow any bad thought to linger on my mind for long. If I offend you and I know I did, I would come to you
and ask for forgiveness. Ifa has summed it. Live gently. If you would just try to be honest, faithful and
straightforward, your problems are gone.

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Join the discussion…

Satyr • 4 hours ago

What a Man! I am inspired more than ever to be true to "my own". People like him should run Nigeria! May
Eledumare strengthen you more.
2 • Reply • Share ›

Adetunji Oladipo • 12 hours ago

Sir ojo yin adale o,e tun bo pe fun iran yoruba,eledumare ko se agba yin agba osi.
1 • Reply • Share ›

oluwole Adetunji Oladipo • 8 hours ago

Extraordinary convictions and principled life. Too bad we have so few of such in TODAY'S Nigeria. May
Edumare continue to bless you sir.
3 • Reply • Share ›

Omooba oluwole • 5 hours ago

We still have them, they are here in Nigeria.
• Reply • Share ›

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