Segun Osoba: Teacher, Scholar, Activist and a Rare Gift to the World by Akanmu Adebayo and Olutayo Adesina

How do you write the obituary of a man who achieved near immortality through his works and ideas? That is the question we, Dr Segun Osoba’s academic children and grandchildren, have ruminated on. Osoba, the Ijebu-Ode-born veritable Marxist scholar and one of the best-known radical historians of his generation, graduated from the University of Ibadan with a B.A. (History) in 1959. He also earned a Ph.D. in History from Moscow State University in the Soviet Union in 1967. He joined the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) in 1967 as Lecturer Grade II. He remained at the institution until 1991, when he formally retired. Dr Osoba had rare intellectual vigour and a predictive capacity that permeated his teaching career, many, if not all, of his published works, and his public engagements. He also became extremely well known as a clear-headed ideologue in the aftermath of the Minority Report [of the Constitution Drafting Committee], which he jointly authored with his soulmate, Dr Bala Usman of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Dr Osoba was among the ‘49 Wise Men’ assembled in 1975 by the Murtala/Obasanjo administration for membership of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC). As a patriotic Nigerian, he led an exceptionally courageous life of service to humanity. Despite his infirmity in his later years, he remained actively engaged with his family, friends, and colleagues. His last public engagements were in 2019 and 2024. The former was the public re-launch of the Minority Report and Draft Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1976; the latter was his 90th birthday ceremony in Ijebu-Ode, organised by his compatriots, family, and friends. On both occasions, despite diminished strength due to age, Osoba never gave up on Nigeria or on the necessity and possibility of radical change. His membership of associations and bodies that fought for equity, progress, and development underscored his commitment to human rights. During his time at the University of Ife, he helped make the Ife Collective a vibrant association of Marxist scholars and sympathisers, a veritable instrument of change. He also helped develop a younger generation of scholars who carried the light of Ife aloft in the global academe. He successfully supervised the Ph.D. theses of Professor Toyin Falola and Professor Akanmu Adebayo, both of whom went on to illustrious careers in the United States of America.

Following a distinguished intellectual career, Dr Osoba’s public writings, first published in newspapers, and his hitherto unpublished public lectures and addresses were compiled and edited by Akanmu Adebayo and Olutayo Adesina. The compilation, published by John Archers Publishers Limited in 2023, is entitled Selected Writings in Defence of Human Rights, Social Justice and Equity by Segun Osoba. Within a short time of its publication, it sold out in bookshops. It is a compendium of major issues and developments experienced in the 1980s and 1990s. It comprises Osoba’s critique of the ruling elites and their handling of governance and the economy of the period. The younger generation of Nigerians would do well to read the compilation to understand the tragedy of the country’s development.

Also, with his scholarly depth and intellectual engagements in mind, Osoba’s academic papers, originally published in journals and as book chapters, together with his previously unpublished academic writings, were compiled and edited by Akanmu Adebayo and Olutayo Adesina and published by Obafemi Awolowo University Press in 2024. The book is entitled Critical and Contentious Issues in the Modern and Contemporary History of Nigeria: Collected Writings of Samuel Olusegun Osoba. The depth, vigour and rigour that characterised his analysis and interpretations of diverse issues and experiences in Africa during the colonial and immediate post-colonial periods will make the book extremely important for understanding the ideological battles he fought over development, underdevelopment, neo-colonialism, accumulation, and the struggle for African emancipation. The book will serve present and future scholars and the general reader worldwide as a key source for understanding Nigerian and African issues.

Finally, his compatriots and mentees organised a conference in his honour at the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ogun State, in December 2023 to celebrate his 90th birthday. The conference’s theme was History and the Persistent Struggle: Social Change, Nation-Building, and Constitution-Making in Post-Independence Africa. Stellar papers selected from the conference presentations form the content of the festschrift, Nigeria: History, Society, and Social Change in the Twenty-first Century, edited by Akanmu Adebayo, Olutayo Adesina, and Rasheed Owoyele Ajetunmobi. The book is in the final stages of publication by Bloomsbury Publishing, U.S.A. The dedication page of the book reads: “This book is dedicated to, and in honour of Dr Olusegun Osoba, Teacher, Scholar, Activist.”

Segun Osoba departed this world on May 14, 2026, a day after we signed off on the carefully produced festschrift prepared in his honour, to make printed copies of the book after it had undergone rigorous proofreading. The chapters of the book were written by scholars from diverse generations in Nigeria, Liberia, and the United States. We are happy that he was honoured while he was alive. This book and others will serve as powerful testaments to the fact that he was a man of ideas, deep conviction and honour. But he is not going to be forgotten so soon. A palpable sense of loss and grief has been expressed by a wide range of people from around the globe, including some of his former colleagues and students. Two of our frontline professors at Ife who worked closely with Osoba gave testimonies about his intellectual sagacity and responsiveness. For Professor Richard Adeboye Olaniyan, the Diplomatic historian who was his colleague and friend, Osoba was a good man, friendly, amiable and helpful. To Akin Olorunfemi, retired Professor of Economic and Social history, who was also taught at Ife by the deceased, ‘Osoba was the teacher I enjoyed and loved most in OAU [Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife].’

The eulogy by his colleagues, ideological friends, and a member of the new generation was also deeply significant. Jacob Adesina, one of our young Postgraduate students whom we detailed to work closely with Dr Osoba, described him as ‘the last of his kind. An organic intellectual to the core. The learned community will miss him… Unfortunately, he was not given enough flowers for what he represented in Nigeria’s political and economic struggles.’ For Professor Omotoye Olorode, his comrade and associate for several decades, Osoba was a foremost patriot, a committed socialist, an exemplary teacher, and a humanist. In a brilliant fusion of the past and the future, Comrade Professor Chief G. G. Darah gave new depth to Osoba’s ideals, affirming that they would outlive him: ‘the passing of Osoba did not constitute a time to mourn, but to mobilise and provoke more Africans to accomplish the anti-imperialist revolution that awaits us all.’

Until his last breath, Osoba fought against the virulence of neoliberalism and tyranny. He remained a revolutionary whose mentorship extended beyond the socialist praxis that defined his lifelong intellectual and social work. His contributions to national and human development were pragmatic and effective. Present and future generations of intellectuals will continue to engage with Osoba’s ideas, struggles, and legacy. His intellectual production, now available, will remain relevant for generations to come. Adieu, great scholar, father, friend, and patriot. Rest in Peace.