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The Beauty of Inaugurals

It was a friend in 400 Level who first ushered me into the quiet grandeur of inaugural lectures when I was in 200 Level. Until then, I had no idea such a thing existed. I still remember the first one I attended, the atmosphere, the audience of minds sharpened by years of scholarship, and the professor at the podium weaving research into revelation.

From that day, I was hooked. I never missed a single inaugural lecture held at the University of Ilorin until the day I graduated. Those gatherings became my private festivals of learning, occasions where knowledge danced freely, unburdened by the anxiety of note-taking or examinations. The topics were often poetic, sometimes cryptic, but always magnetic. They spoke not just to the intellect but to the imagination.

My fondness for them grew so deep that, in 2019, I travelled beyond Ilorin to the University of Ibadan to listen to Professor Ayobami Ojebode deliver his own inaugural lecture. It was, to put it mildly, an intellectual banquet. The kind that fills you without weighing you down.

To me, inaugural lectures are a rare space where brevity meets brilliance; where a scholar, now a professor, condenses decades of research into one memorable hour. It is where knowledge sheds its lab coat and speaks plainly, yet powerfully. The lecturer, in that moment, becomes both philosopher and storyteller, chronicling struggles, successes, and the strange poetry of discovery.

I had the privilege of attending many such lectures at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. From Professor (Mrs) Folorunso Salman to Professors Balogun, Abioje, Ande, AbdulRasheed Abiodun Adeoye, Jeleel Ojuade, and S. T. Babatunde, among others. Each one left a mark. Yet, the most memorable for me remains that of Professor Taiwo Adeolu Ande, Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, titled “Consider the Ways of Ants and Be Wise.” It was the 169th in the series of the Inaugural lectures held in UNILORIN.

That lecture wasn’t merely rich, it was radiant. Professor Ande taught with the ease of one born to teach. He could make the most complex concepts feel like simple truths told to a child. His wit, like fine spice, seasoned the session. At one point, he made a playful jab at the then Vice-Chancellor, Professor AbdulGaniyu Ambali (OON), a Veterinary Doctor. “Zoologists,” he said, smiling, “As the parents of these animals. We shouldn’t leave them entirely to the care of house helps, the Vet Docs, lest the animals be maltreated. They still need parental care.”

When the microphone returned to the VC, he chuckled and said, “Professor Ande has abused me. He knows I’m a Vet Doc!” The hall erupted in laughter. It was learning at its liveliest, a blend of scholarship and humour, intellect and humanity.

By the time the programme ended, I reached a quiet conclusion: some people are simply born to teach, and Professor Ande belongs to that rare fold. If I, a student of the arts and humanities, could grasp every idea he so effortlessly explained from the sciences, then his gift needs no further proof.
What made his lecture even more unforgettable was not just its wit, but its wisdom. Drawing from the disciplined world of ants, the selflessness of bees, and the resilience of mosquitoes, Professor Ande turned zoology into a parable of life. He taught that wisdom is not always found in the clouds of abstraction but often crawls, buzzes, and stings in the ordinary world around us. His message, complementing the spirit of Proverbs 6:6, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise”, was a reminder that nature itself is a university, and humility is its first degree.

Inaugural lectures remain one of the noblest traditions Nigerian academia inherited from the Western world, and, interestingly, one of the few we have kept alive even as some Western universities quietly let it fade. It is a tradition worth preserving. For in those moments, when a professor distils a lifetime into an hour, academia reclaims its soul, the joy of knowing, the grace of sharing, and the beauty of wisdom spoken aloud.

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By: Folorunso, Fatai Adisa
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