This is the first time I will have as many as four do so with a series, and all of them professors of twenty to forty years standing and academics of national and international recognition.
Sina Adedipe
Nothing thrills a columnist more than having his or her articles appreciated by most readers and in my case by an overwhelming majority. Especially as I treated such a controversial issue as polygamy and went against the position of most Christian priests in the country who claim Almighty God is against it and which the majority of their members accept to be true.
READ ALSO: Bible proofs God is not against polygamy
I published the reactions to my four – month – long polygamy series on July 4, 11 and 18 with about 75 per cent of the respondents supporting my stand that the Heavenly Father is not against multiple marriage based on the fact that He has no law against it nor punished anybody for it in the Old Testament. While Jesus Christ did not condemn polygamy in the New Testament. The situation of the reactions since then has remained the same.
As a matter of fact, what the critics came out to oppose in the last two weeks was not my stand on multiple – marriage, but the mistakes I made, real or perceived. Last week, it was the inexplicable error I made that the name of the first born of Rachel is not in the Bible. Contrary to the fact that the name of Joseph is in Genesis 30:24.
Two weeks ago, the criticism was my statement that as a polygamist Abraham had two wives – Sarah and Hagar while Esau had three and Jacob four. Some readers claimed I was wrong as Abraham married a third wife called Keturah in Genesis 25:1 – 4. But they missed the point. I was not writing on the number of wives Abraham married, but those he had when he was a polygamist. He divorced Hagar in Genesis 21:9 – 21, while Sarah died in Genesis 23:1 – 2. So, at the time he married Keturah in Genesis 25:1 – 4 he had no wife. Consequently, he was not a polygamist at that stage of his life.
READ ALSO: Sins anti–polygamy preachers commit (4) – restitution
My joy is not only that an overwhelming majority of readers saw eye to eye with me on my polygamy series, but also in the caliber of those who did so. I had one or two professors support an article I had written in the last eleven years. But this is the first time I will have as many as four do so with a series, and all of them professors of twenty to forty years standing and academics of national and international recognition.
The last time Professor Tam David West, a former Minister of Petroleum in the administration of General Muhammadu Buhari (1984 – 85) and that of General Ibrahim Babangida (1985 – 87) reacted to my article was about ten years ago when I wrote the piece that Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings of Ghana was the first Military Head of State to hand over power to an elected civilian leader when he did so in September 1979. Not General Olusegun Obasanjo who did so on October 1, 1979. Most commentators in the newspapers and electronic media at that time gave it to Obasanjo. Professor David West commended me for being the only one who got it right.
READ ALSO: Sins anti-polygamy preachers commit (3)
The second high-ranking academic who appreciated my polygamy series was Professor Victor Olu Adedipe, Deputy Vice – Chancellor, National Open University, Abuja and a cousin of mine. The third person is Professor Tony U. Obayi, a Professor of Business Education who is the Head of the Department of Entrepreneurial Studies, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State.
The fourth one is Egbe Town, Ekiti State-born Professor Kayode Rufus Adeboye (Ph.D. Mathematics), a former Head of Department of Mathematics and one – time Dean of the Faculty of Science, Federal University of Technology, Minna. A member of the university’s council, Professor Adeboye described me as a journalist of integrity and his favourite Nigerian columnist.
To be continued next week with commendation from a Nigerian Engineer who has been based in London since 1989 and another in the United States.
___________________________________
Phenomenal Matriarch of the Adedipes, Falaes, Ade–Ojos & others (20)
I know of many a family in Akure town or community producing a professor. Such as Professor E. A. Fayose, the Bobare of Akure, Professor Adebisi Adebowale, Professor Abiodun Ayodele, Professor Patrick Olutiola, Profesor Kola Omotoso and Professors S. O. Alasoadura and Oladipo Adamolekun, both of Iju town.
But it is only the Elemo Adedipe descendants that I know have up to six professors. Three of them are my dad’s daughters. They are Professor (Mrs.) Adefunke Oyemade, the first female medical doctor from Akure; Professor (Mrs.) Adeola Abaelu, a professor of Biochemistry and former Deputy Provost, College of Medicine, University of Lagos. She was the first Nigerian woman to serve in the position in any university in the country and the first female to obtain a B.sc (Hon) degree in Agriculture in Nigeria, when she did so at the University of Ibadan in 1964.
The third one is Professor (Mrs.) Adenike Osofisan, the first woman to graduate with a B.sc, M.sc and Ph.D. in Computer Science in Nigeria and the pioneer female professor in the subject in the country. A former Head of Department, Computer Science, University of Ibadan and first female President and Chairman of Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, she is also a Fellow of both Nigeria Computer Society and the Nigeria Institute of Management.
Additionally, she is a patroness, Nigeria Association of Computer Science Students and an External Examiner in Computer Science to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile – Ife as well as the Universities of Lagos, Ilorin, Ambrose Alli, Ekpoma, Edo State and Njala University, Sierra Leone.
The three male professors in the family are late Professor Arifalo Adedipe, of the Department of History, Ondo State University, Akungba Akoko; Professor Victor Olu Adedipe, current Deputy Vice – Chancellor, National Open University, Abuja and Professor Olu Agbi, a former Deputy Vice – Chancellor, Ondo State University, Ado – Ekiti and a one – time Secretary to the Ondo State Government (1992 – 93).
More to come next week
___________________________________
My 74th birthday (2)
MY gratitude also goes to retired Colonel Ayo Bababunmi, Colonel Peter Clark (rtd), Mr. Peter Thomas Ekpeyong and Mrs. Oyinade Akinrinade – Tomori, Assistant Director, Library Psychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, a younger person, who like me was born on a September 4 and was also a former staff of Concord Press of Nigeria (CPN).