As Prof. Akosu Goes Home!
Jimmie Adzande
(One of his Students)
When I entered the University, my configuration as a grammarian, did not include writing tribute to fallen lecturers. I was mistaken.
It was late Bishop Athanasius Atule Usuh, Second Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, who echoed that “we must consider death in our agenda.”
I remembered Prof. Akosu at a time, though with change of cars preferred a particular bus. Some students would jokingly call him “Danfo Driver.” He got to know about this and would joke about it himself. He stayed at the University Staff Quarters, so it was easy to see him more frequent between his office, classes, house and the badminton court in the evenings.
What was more interesting about Akosu was his style of teaching. Wao! The first day I encountered him in class, he walked in quite majestically; simple as always and lamented on the infrastructure as regards hundreds of students in a small class. How he linked that to Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe was quite Professional. He spoke in clear terms and was unambiguous in his analysis of the text in relation to society. That is the kind of teacher Prof. Akosu was. He made you feel you were part of the story.
As a writer, I didn’t get to read much of his writings, but the quantum of literariness displayed in The Story of Adan Wade, translated from Suemo Chia’s Adan Wade Kohol Ga, is one too many. This is a text I read again and again because of its clarity. As a critic that I have become, it is quite an argument to replace a translated text with the original, but The Story of Adan Wade is an exception.
When I heard of the demise of Prof. Akosu, I consoled myself with the fact that good teachers never die. They just withered away! Like Asoo, like Ker, like Akosu etal, they live in thousands of graduates who passed through them.
Life is what it is; it ends. May God console the beareaved.
Rest in peace Prof. Akosu.You are fondly remembered!!!
