Remembering Professor S. T. Bajah (1934 – 2008)
He attended the famous Hussey College, Warri where records show he had a very distinguished academic career and was the only one to have obtained a grade one in the 1954 Cambridge School Certificate Examination in the College for which he was appointed the school prefect while in class five and Head of Dore House […]
He attended the famous Hussey College, Warri where records show he had a very distinguished academic career and was the only one to have obtained a grade one in the 1954 Cambridge School Certificate Examination in the College for which he was appointed the school prefect while in class five and Head of Dore House in his final year. Professor Bajah attended the University of Ibadan (Greatest Uite) for his university degree program. Following his sterling brilliance and performance, he won a scholarship to attend the prestigious Oxford University for a Post- Graduate Diploma in Education.
As a good ambassador and thorough bred of Hussey College, S.T returned to the college to take up a teaching appointment thus beginning his teaching career. After that remarkable stint where he left footprints, he proceeded to teach at the International School of the University of Ibadan and from there he left the shores of the country to the University of South Dakota in the United States for his doctorate program in science education.
Again, Prof returned to his alma mater where he continued to do what he loved best – teaching, writing and publishing science. One of his most outstanding works remains Chemistry: A new certificate approach which he co-authored with A Godman.
To trace the career roadmap this man embarked upon in his life time for the purpose of keeping his memory alive is tantamount to writing a voluminous doctorate degree thesis. However, I am sure that someday in the future, the ideas, principles and the person of Professor Bajah will not only be researched and studied, but will engage scholars of science.
Professor Bajah was a former Dean of Faculty of Education, a two-time Director of the Institute of Education, University of Ibadan, and a former President of Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN). He was at the Commonwealth Secretariat London between 1991 and 1994 where he was further exposed to civil service procedure
After an excellent and meritorious service to his fatherland, S.T finally retired from active service of the University of Ibadan in 1999. He was certainly not tired but decided to take science education to the foundational level. Professor Bajah developed a series called the Early Learning Science Series for Africa (ELSSA). This wonderful creation and the publications that followed focused on developing an interest in science in children at a very early age. He successfully published several titles and volumes of this wonderful series and was working on a new set on teaching science the ELSSA way before he passed on to glory on the 23rd of February, 2008 at the age of 74 years.
It is difficult to begin to recall or articulate in one piece, all the good this God-fearing Professor did or represented in his life time. However, I must confess that my encounter with this science education guru changed my life. I had my first working experience as clerical officer in the Examination section of the Institute of Education under his able directorship in the same institute. I had just completed my WASC back home in the village when I got to Ibadan, encountered him just at the right time to receive that privileged offer. It was also whilst there that I got to know that this man was a God-sent to many indigent students, most of whom were brilliant, admitted to read medicine but had nobody to sponsor their academic pursuit.
A first caller to the Faculty of Education of the university, will identify Professor Bajah’s office by the busy traffic caused by those waiting to receive some form of good will. They are either there to collect cheques for school fees or pocket money or other forms of upkeep allowances. Prof knew how to give the right attention to all levels of visitors who flocked his office without discrimination. He would rather keep his senior colleagues waiting and attend to the urgent needs of helpless students. I once encountered a brilliant medical student who confessed he was on Prof’s bills and owed his life and existence as a student to him for the opportunity to pursue his career. He was sure there were many more like him who were benefiting from this quiet benefactor.
S.T was a fashionable and powerful dresser who valued good looks. He worked very hard not to have enough so as to show off or embark on self-aggrandisement, or spoil his immediate family. He worked harder simply to accommodate many others who directly or indirectly benefitted from his largesse or relied on him to find direction. He evidently loved good things but was always reluctant to spend on material things because he believed that any money spent imprudently would have helped an indigent student or a helpless widow somehow.
I still remember that S.T was among the very first in UI and perhaps in the whole of Ibadan to acquire the then newly-released innovation – Mercedes V-Boot. He brought this German machine from UK after his stint at the Commonwealth secretariat, London. However, S.T was never the type who would attach much importance to material acquisition so much as to want to go out of his way. I realised this much when the Nigerian Ports Authority then charged a huge sum to get the car cleared. Prof felt the cost of clearing the car was enough to assist a student actualize his/her career and was prepared to sell it off. However, miraculously, it was a former student of his who happened to be a senior personnel at the organization that assisted in clearing the car eventually at minimal cost
This experience underscores S.T’s value system disposition. He was content with what he had; he had a lot of goodwill and had great value for education. He was never appointed to serve under any government leadership or agency. His interest was on the field of education where he laid his life in pursuit of excellence for the sector. He was however a member of the technical committee constituted by the former Chair of the National Universities Commission, Professor Okebukola to assess and reposition federal universities.
It’s been five uneventful years now since this great icon left us on the 23rd of February, 2008. He was interred on the 14th of March, 2008. The encomiums that greeted his glorious exit and the celebrations witnessed even in death particularly the presence of people from all walks of life, were resounding testimonies of the life and times of this great man. To say we miss him is an understatement. The academic and science community still mourn him as if he died only yesterday. As a great family man, he was married to a wonderful woman of substance, Mrs Agatha Ebun Bajah, who was undoubtedly his pillar of support throughout the thick and thin of his career which took them all over the globe. He was a father to seven lovely and well-nurtured children (all of whom are very successful; a pilot, engineers, lawyers, etc in the family to sustain his most priced legacies) and grandfather to a lot more lovely kids. To say that his family has not yet come to terms with his demise, is to be economical with the truth. We all are still guessing, but we have to take solace in the fact that he lived a fulfilled life worthy of emulation; served God and humanity to the fullest even as his legacy continually lives on.
As we remember Professor Samuel Tunde Bajah this 23rd day of february, may god grant his gentle soul eternal repose, Amen.
Chibuike Mgbeahuruike is the Ag. National Coordinator of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), an Abuja-based civil society coalition on governance and election monitoring. He is currently with the Project Swift Count, Abuja. He can be reached on [email protected]