Professor Oladimeji Aborisade passed on today October 23, 2018 at the age of 86, surrounded by his wife, children, and grandchildren. He was born in the bustling city of Ibadan to Aborisade Aremu of Morodun-Adetola family and Asande Bolaji of Oguntope-Abina family, both in Ibadan. Growing up, he often shuttled between the city and the nearby villages where his father worked most of the year as a cocoa farmer and his mother as a poultry trader. He had his elementary school education in both the city and those villages, especially in Ataari and Adewumi-Araromi.
In 1954, Aborisade began his work experience as a Post and Telegraph Linesman responsible for the construction of the First Control Telephone lines from Ibadan to Jebba, under Engineer J.B. Marquis. At the completion of the project, he was deployed to Osogbo, the regional headquarter of Nigeria's Post and Telegraph Department, for another assignment. This took him to Ilesa and Ile-Ife for the conversion of overhead telephone lines into cable, to pave way for the electrification of these two towns. This assignment was completed in December 1955.
In 1956, he joined the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Mission as an elementary school teacher at Alugbo, Ibadan for a pay of 52 pounds per annum. In 1957, he was admitted into the Teacher Training College at Otun-Ekiti. Upon graduation as a qualified teacher in early 1959, he started teaching at the SDA School, Ikun-Ekiti on a salary of 120 pounds per annum. The burning desire to further his education made him to leave for Bekwai, Ghana in June 1959 where he enrolled in a general education program. He stayed in Ghana till 1961. In September 1962, he left for North America for his university education.
In the next fifteen years, Aborisade earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from California State University, San Bernardino; Master of Public Health (Health Services Administration) from Loma Linda, California; Master of Administration in Business, from the University of Carlifornia, Riverside; and Ph.D. in Government from Claremont Graduate University, California (1977). He also did post-doctoral training in Public Policy at Indiana University, Bloomington; and in Organizational Theory/Control at Jouy En Josas in France.
On September 7, 1977, Aborisade returned to Nigeria and joined the Department of Public Administration, University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University - OAU) as Lecturer Grade Two. He climbed the academic ladder to become Professor of Local Government Studies in 1991. He received many grants for his research on Local Government Studies, Health Care Policy, and Democratization in Nigeria. Among his publications are Traditional Rulers in Nigeria; On Being in Charge at the Grassroots Level; Local Government Accounting Methods; Public Administration in Nigeria; State and Local Government in Nigeria; and with Robert Mundt, Politics in Nigeria and The Discretionary Powers of Local Government. Among many academic honors and awards, he was a fellow of the United States Information Service (USIS), grantee of the Ford Foundation; and a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the North Carolina State University at Raleigh, 1996-1997.
For most of his career, Professor Oladimeji Aborisade was a scholar-teacher-administrator. At Obafemi Awolowo University, he was the Chair of the Department of Public Administration, 1979-1984; Founding Chair, Department of Local Government Studies, 1984-1988; and Dean, Faculty of Administration, 1989-1996. He also served as Provost ad interim of the College of Administration, Law and Social Sciences. In addition, Professor Aborisade served on many national commissions in Nigeria, including: National University Commission on Academic Minimum Standard; Federal Government Commission on the Creation of Additional Local Governments; and Governing Board of the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria.
In 1993, he capped his academic journey at Obafemi Awolowo University with the Inaugural Address titled "That All Politics is Local". He retired from the university in 1999 and relocated to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as Visiting Professor in the Departments of Political Science and Africana Studies. Professor Aborisade taught a wide range of courses at UNC Charlotte, from politics and international affairs, to culture, history, sociology of family, literature, language, and social science methods and theory. He was a caring and nurturing teacher; the one who would call students to ask why they missed class or a test.
In recognition of his accomplishments in public service and grassroots development, the Olubadan of Ibadan and his council of chiefs honored him with the chieftaincy title of "Balogun Onigege Wura of Ibadan-land" (Commander of The Golden Pen of Ibadan) in 1996. In 2012, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, several celebrations were held in his honor in Charlotte, Ibadan, and Ile-Ife, including a conference and two festschriften --- Local Government in Nigeria: Essays for Professor Oladimeji Aborisade , edited by Isiaka Aransi, and– Community Engagement and Citizen Empowerment in Africa and the African Diaspora, a special issue of ỌFỌ: Journal of Transatlantic Studies 2013 (edited by Akin Ogundiran and Oscar de la Torre).
I was an ordinary student at Ife in the mid-eighties when Baba Aborisade had already reached the pinnacle of his career. I saw him from afar and I had no reason to get close to him. It is here in Charlotte that our paths really crossed. It is here that I learnt that we spent our youth in the same neighborhood in Ibadan---Ojagbo---though at different times. We frequently swapped stories of what Ojagbo was like in the 1940s, what it was in the 1960-70s, and what it is today. He often bemoaned the little improvement that Ibadan and its suburbs have experienced over the past 80 years in terms of public amenities and quality of life.
In my role as department chair, I often asked Baba Aborisade for advice and guidance on some of the difficult challenges that occasionally cropped up. He was generous with his time and I benefited a lot from his wisdom. I also learnt something important from him: "satisfaction is the true measure of success."
Professor Oladimeji Aborisade passed on as a very satisfied man, survived by his wife of close to 60 years, Mama Felicia from Oree, Kwara State, children and many grandchildren, including two sets of twins. Baba lives on.
The homegoing celebration for Baba Aborisade will soon be announced by the family.
Akin Ogundiran
UNC Charlotte
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