UNDERGRADUATE DAYS WITH PROFESSOR OKPEH OCHAYI OKPEH , JNR
Tobias Hangeior Utsaha
I first met Professor Okpeh Okpeh back in February 2004, as a First Year (100 Level) undergraduate student of the Department of History, Benue State University (BSU), Makudi. He was assigned as the lecturer for HIS 107 titled “Europe in the Age of Revolution.” On the first day of his lectures with us, he simply introduced himself as “Okpeh Ochayi Okpeh, Jnr.” Before commencing his lectures, Professor Okpeh stated that he was aware of the fact that, a good number of us didn’t apply to study History, but however assured us that History was indeed an interesting Course. He reiterated similar remarks at our welcome party that took place some weeks later, where he also shared his experience about his desire to study Law at University Jos, but ended up studying History.
As an undergraduate student, I admired Professor Okpeh for a number of reasons, notable among such were; the passion he had for his job and then his choice of diction. Despite being a great fan of his, I chose not to draw close to him for a number of reasons. One of such was the fact that I never wanted to be a Historian, and as such, I wanted to have nothing to do with any of my lecturers. Secondly, I always felt intimidated by his choice of diction. These few reasons influenced me to distance myself from Professor Okpeh.
Throughout my second year at BSU, I was not privileged to have Professor Okpeh as my lecturer. However, a year later as a 300 Level undergraduate student, Professor Okpeh was assigned as my lecturer for HIS 307: Field Research Methods and HIS 306: Field Research Methods II, for the first and second semesters respectively, during the 2005/2006 academic session. During this period, he came up with an innovation, whereby we received our assignment questions via email. Those who had no email addresses, were asked to create one for that purpose. This practice was also applied to 400 Level studies, who were offering Prof’s course, HIS 419: Major World Revolutions. One 400 Level student created this email address: his419forreal@yahoo.com. The questions came with various instructions, which were as follows; referencing style, font type, font size, line spacing, minimum and maximum number of pages, as well as the date of submission.
In addition to creating email addresses, Professor Okpeh encouraged us to access sources from the internet. In his words, “take advantage of the internet, you can’t get everything you need from the university library.”
On 3 May, 2006, Professor Okpeh made a statement that I can never forget. My friends Joseph Ukpanya, Jillah Terngu James, Mver Hanmaikyur , Solomon Mbabov , Terfa Alagh and I, had just arrived Jorotel, Jos Plateau state, the venue for the Cocktail of the 51st Annual Conference of the Historical Society of Nigeria. Upon noticing that Professor Okpeh and other lecturers were behind us, James said to us” wait, let the masters go in.” Professor Okpeh then replied, ” go in, if you are not masters today, you are masters tomorrow.” Those words were really encouraging. Professor Okpeh indeed wanted us to attain greater heights.
Although Professor Okpeh is no longer with BSU, his name will always ring bells, wherever it’s heard within the University and beyond. His products are spread across various universities within and outside Nigeria. Some of them are now Professors. So you will be correct, if you refer to Professor Okpeh as a “Professor of Professors.” It will interest you to know that Professor Okpeh was my External Examiner, when I defended my Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation in 2019, at the Nigerian Defence Academy. Prof will always be remembered for his contribution to national development, during his days at BSU and beyond.
It is with a happy heart, that I celebrate with Professor Okpeh, as he adds a year to his age today. Happy Birthday and many more happy returns Prof. May God continue to bless you. Amen.
