I know Adeolu Akande  by Festus Adedayo

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When Adeolu Akande was rounding off his doctoral thesis at the University of Ibadan in 1995, Wale Adebanwi, Remi Aiyede, myself and other academic kindred spirits were battling the rigour of a Master’s degree in same political science department. We were all under the umbrella of an ecumenical academic figure, Prof Adigun Agbaje, who later supervised Adeolu’s, mine and Adebanwi’s doctoral theses. Akande thereafter became a professor at the Igbinedion University, Okada, studied for an LLB and was called to the Nigerian Bar.

The charge against academic-minded persons like Akande, for which some of us became recipients, being guilty as charged, is that we are married to theory and isolated, in a mis-matrimony, from praxis. By leaving politics in the hands of the flotsam and jetsam of society – apologies to Chief Obafemi Awolowo – they say, we have left our plates unwashed and cannot complain when they are marooned with flies. Akande later heeded this clarion call, became the Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and is today desirous of serving his people as Senator representing Oyo North constituency. Unlike Akande, some of us are yet to be purged of that distancing of selves from the murky waters of Nigerian politics.

Brilliant, clear-minded, purposeful-thinking, Akande, who hails from Otu in Oyo State, is the kind that a people desirous of development should have as their legislator. Dangerous it may seem for anyone to vouch for a Nigerian politician, I can vouch for Professor Akande as capable of bringing a difference to the politics and development of his Oyo North District. A beacon of intellect, he embodies wisdom in service. His vision transcends classrooms, reaching the heartbeat of his people. With courage and clarity, he stands ready to transform his constituency’s aspirations into lasting progress.