The University of Ilorin says it will organise a candlelight procession for one of its alumni, Prof. Pius Adesanmi, who died aboard the Boeing 737 Max-8 that crashed on Sunday.
A statement signed by Kunle Akogun, Director, Corporate Affairs of the University, on Saturday in Ilorin said the candlelight procession would be organised by the Faculty of Arts on March 19.
The University has described the death of Adesanmi as a colossal loss to the country and humanity in general.
Akogun said the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Sulyman Abdulkareem, also described the late Professor of Literature and African Studies as “a true nationalist and a rare patriot”.
He said Adesanmi graduated from the University of Ilorin in 1992 with a First Class honours degree in French.
The vice-chancellor described the deceased as a humanist and an embodiment of all the ideals that Unilorin represents.
Abdulkareem lamented that Adesanmi’s death came at a time when the nation needed his robust intellectual and incisive contribution to its development the most.
He said: “The country had benefitted immensely from the late Professor’s dispassionate interventions through well-researched social commentaries on national issues at critical points of its socio-political and economic development.
“Being a committed nationalist, the late Adesanmi was never happy at the state of rot in critical sectors of the nation.
“He never kept quiet nor indulged in complacency, as many of his colleagues who had found comfortable solace abroad.”
Akogun quoted Abdulkareem as saying that less than 24 hours before his demise, the patriotic zeal in the late social critic was evident on his Twitter handle, where he was still discussing the then ongoing Governorship and State House of Assembly elections in the country.
He said: “While commiserating with the entire nation, especially the immediate family that the late don left behind, the Vice-Chancellor urged Nigerians not to allow Prof. Adesanmi die in vain.
“Nigerians should emulate his patriotic zeal toward taking the country to greater heights.”
Adesanmi, an indigene of Isanlu in Kogi State, was a staff of Unilorin.
He was a lecturer at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada before his death in a plane crash on March 10, 2019 at 47.