EXIT OF AN ACADEMIC TITAN: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PROFESSOR TYOHDZUAH AKOSU
By Maik Ortserga –
Prof. Tyohdzuah Akosu will be buried on the 3rd of September 2022. His life and career provides us with the example of the rich and most fruitful academic career of any man’s in our time or perhaps in the entire history of Tiv land.
Tyohdzuah Akosu was born in 1951 to the family of Pa Akosu Deede from Mbaduku in Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State and Mama Nyinyayo Akosu from Mbanor, in Konshisha Local Government Area of Benue State. Both his parents were, basically peasant farmers. Tyohdzuah started his iconic sojourn on earth through the path of education when he attended St. Augustine’ Primary School, Ihugh, St. Joseph’s Primary School Korinya and Christ the King Primary School, Agbo,Vandeikya. Having lived with his uncle who was a teacher, and was always moving on transfer, the young Tyohdzuah had to tag along. After his elementary education, he competed with many others for the few admission slots and got admitted into the first set of St. Andrew’s Secondary School Adikpo (SASSA), where he finished in 1971. He obtained his Higher School Certificate (HSC) at St. Louis College Jos, and spent one year working to earn some money before moving to Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in 1974 to study English and French, during which time he attended a 3-months certificate course in French at Universite Du Benin, Lome Togo.
Akosu graduated from ABU, Zaria in 1977 with Second Class Upper Division. After his NYSC, the Kunav born avid and maverick scholar returned to his Alma Mater ABU, Zaria in 1978 to start his journey as a scholar, academic, mentor and administrator. It was during this time that he met a rich culture of rigorous academic scholarship spearheaded by professors like Patrick Wilmot, Wang Mutugbe, Okello Oculi, Kolawole Ogungbesan, Sam Uyovbaire, Bjorn Beckman, Mahmoud Tukur, Femi Odekunle, Yakubu Nasidi, Mbulelo Mzemane and a host of others.
Tyohdzuah Akosu took his education in the arts and humanities to the top of his academic craving when he obtained his M.A and Ph.D in1983 and 1989 respectively. His M.A dissertation was on the poetry of Dennis Brutus while his Ph.D. was on the works of Ezekiel Mphahlele, both prominent South African writers. He later went to the University of Madison, United States of America as a Fulbright scholar.
Akosu got married to Scholastica Ashicivir Ortese in 1980, two years after beginning his lecturing career at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and they have many children. He returned home when Benue state University was established in 1992 and became a founding staff of the new university. With a lot of determination and energy, he and his colleagues overcame the challenges of been the pioneering staff. He had served the university in several capacities as Acting Head of Department, Head of Department, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Deputy Vice-chancellor Academics and so forth. Despite his busy schedules in lecturing and administration, Akosu, found time to translate the Tiv classic novel, “Adan Wade Kohol Ga” originally written by Senator Suemo Chia to a wide literary acclaim.
As a teacher of literature and other culture art forms, Akosu was interested in the historical interaction between Africa and the West and the development of that relationship up to the point when the African writer began to reject the White man’s image of him. He became fascinated with protest literature and could see what role literature played in the political struggles of a dehumanized society. He emphasized the need for idealism and activism as qualities required for humanity to survive the complexities of our world.
Akosu, like other great men and women in history throughout the world, had his problems, experienced vicissitudes and changing fortunes in the course of his life. However, Professor Tyohdzuah Akosu was, no doubt, a consummate scholar. He was a consumer of knowledge, producer of knowledge, defender of knowledge and server of knowledge.
I, therefore, say farewell to the humanist, socialite, mentor, accomplished cultural critic, astute university administrator, nationalist, sportsman and above all, I salute the beauty of his committed intellectual labour while he lived among us.
Adieu Professor Tyohdzuah Paulinus Akosu, we shall meet some day, for sure, to part no more.
