Associates and former students of poet and Professor of English, Tony Afejuku, recently feted him in Sapele, Delta State, following his retirement after 40 years of academic excellence.
THE expansive country home of businessman and politician, Chief Charles Obule, was the place to be for members of the Safi Boys Club (SBC) in Sapele, Delta State, on Sunday, July 9, 2023.
The event was a reception for one of their illustrious members, the poet and academic, Prof. Tony Esijolomi Afejuku, who recently retired from the University of Benin, Benin City, after 40 years of academic excellence.
It was a convivial atmosphere where associates and former students heaped praises on the retired don, who canvassed unity among those living in multi-ethnic communities nationwide for development to thrive.
Afejuku said, “We are one and must remain one. We must all embrace one another and talk to ourselves. We must use our club to unite Sapele, Delta, Niger Delta and Nigeria.”
Afejuku’s childhood friend, Mr Atseneyin Kofi Teye, a retiree from Chevron, recalled growing up with the retired Professor of English and Literature.
He said, “I knew Tony Afejuku over 60 years ago. We were just boys at Oguanja. We never knew the paths we would take, me in Shell and he in academia. I was always going to see Tony in the evenings. When I got there, I would see Tony lying down on a little bed reading. In those days, we used to call him Tony-kporo; he used to be a good athlete.”
Teye added that he was motivated to return to school to study English because of Afejuku’s influence at 60 years of age. He praised Afejuku for becoming a professor from their part of Sapele, known for producing academic heroes.
The Eson of Warri Kingdom, Chief Solomon Arenyeka, said he was there to honour “an erudite professor of English and Literature. My coming here is no coincidence because Brother Tony is my cousin. Afejuku and Arenyeka were born to the same father. Brother Tony was my mentor at St. Peter Claver’s College, Aghalokpe, Sapele.”
Arenyeka, a politician, continued, “Today is not a day for speech-making, but to give thanks to God Almighty for the life of Tony. Our brother started a career in studying and teaching the English language to a logical conclusion. He rose to the peak as a professor of English. It is not easy to study English, a foreign language. As a young man, I always wanted to be like Tony Afejuku. He would hand me novels to read, and because I wanted to be like him, I studied English for my first degree like him. However, whether it was for political reasons, I couldn’t quite continue to the professorial level. And I want to say that whatever I missed in academia and have gained in politics, I ascribe all of it Today to Prof. Tony Afejuku, who motivated me by giving me books to read!”
Politician, former student of Afejuku and Erhi of Okpe Kingdom, Chief Charles Obule, who hosted his club mates, said although he was not Afejuku’s friend but his student, he took valuable lessons from the tough way Afejuku handled his courses and students.
Obule said he had an eye for making money and couldn’t contemplate further degrees. He veered off to Law instead and has since been in business and politics.
Obule said Afejuku, like all retirees from the academia, who Nigeria’s poor university remuneration system has badly treated, needs all the assistance he could get from his Sapele Boys Club (SBC) mates to have a liveable retirement period.
Responding, the retired professor was philosophical “Let me begin by saying that this is one occasion where I would like to be silent because there’s oratory in silence. Silence can speak more volumes than words. But based on what has been said so far, I would like to be silent without being silenced. I wanted to leave UNIBEN not with a bang but with a whimper. But my friends and colleagues said ‘no’; they would not allow me to leave just like that. For 43 years plus as a lecturer, I never went on leave one day! I was there working continuously. I’d go abroad, come back and continue with my work.”
Afejuku said he was a demanding lecturer who wanted to get the best from his students. He disclosed that he, too, grew up in tough times that shaped his life of toughness. He said his toughness didn’t give room for favouritism even to his relatives.
“I was tough and rightly tough. I grew up in Oguanja City. And we were meant to be tough because we went to an excellent but tough school, which was part of a tough Sapele environment. I wanted the best for my students. A tough general (lecturer) cannot but produce successful students. I treated everybody equally.”
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