This piece, for me, is an exercise in hagiographic historical reconstruction, as well as a celebration
of friendship. There are so many gaps in our sociocultural histories and trajectories that require
intellectual attention and cultural curiosity in ways that increasingly fills out the history of ideas,
figures and issues in our social history. I believe the Aworeni clan of Ile-Ife constitutes one of this
critical point of history that requires filling out. And with most sociocultural histories, one can
only keep putting the puzzles together without ever achieving a perfect and coherent fit. One can
only hope that a significant dimension of the objectives of journalism and media reporting in
Nigeria will be diverted to the excavation of such histories that serve as the foundation of a
people’s sense of self and of cultural knowledge.
Anyone familiar with the educational trajectory of the 1970s and 1980s in the Southwest would
immediately remember the name of the ‘notorious’ Chief Johnson Adedapo Aworeni of the
Adesola High School fame. I came into the knowledge of his notoriety as a student of Awe High
School, where Chief Aworeni was once a principal. Chief Aworeni, as I will narrate in a moment,
was an educationist and philanthropist of the sort whose activities had a most unintended
consequences that seemed to undermine his objectives of allowing so many children to achieve
educational advancement. This endeavor cast Chief Aworeni in a bad light as someone who
bastardized the essence of education, something that the Awe people—from many of my pieces
about my hometown—take very seriously as a sacred issue.
And so, in 1989, while I was at the Lagos State directorate of the Mass Mobilization for SelfReliance, and Economic Recovery (MAMSER), I met one Abimbola Aworeni at the Thorburn
Avenue, Yaba office. When he introduced himself as “Bimbo Aworeni,” that last name struck a
historical chord immediately. I was quick to pose the next logical question: “Are you related to the
Chief Aworeni of the Adesola High School, Ibadan fame?” Of course, he was! He was one of the
sons of the great and notorious chief. And in a typical lively and jovial manner that I would grow
used to, Abimbola owned up and made fun of the extreme qualities of his father. But then, he
celebrated him as “a unique philanthropist and a kindhearted lover of the downtrodden who will
give all to give others a better life.”
My curiosity about Abimbola’s father eventually led both of us into a lifelong relationship that
ensured that we always were readily available to attend to each other’s need when the occasion
arose. The past tense I have used for Abimbola Aworeni is indicative and tragic: he passed away
on the 15th of May, 2023, and quite so untimely. This news is painful because no one should ever
lose a dear one—Abimbola was a brother and a friend after my heart; and one of my regrets is that
I was not able to keep up with his joyful philosophy of existence and relationship given that I was
too taken in by the necessity of juggling critical professional and research responsibilities that
prevented me from socializing and keeping up with equally critical relationships. And what best
way to celebrate my friend than to begin a preliminary historical protocol of excavating the
significance of the Aworeni family in the history of the educational and philanthropic dynamics of
the Southwest.
Let me complete the story of Abimbola’s renowned father. Chief Aworeni was practically a selfmade man who started climbing the educational ladder with distinction from a very early age. The
doggedness that saw him through secondary school equally kept him pursuing distinction all
through a first degree in economics, a second degree in history, a postgraduate diploma in
education, and a law degree all from the Universities of London and Ibadan. We will probably not
know what turned Chief Aworeni’s attention to education, but he not only made the rounds of the
most famous secondary schools in the southwest—Ibadan Boys High School, Oduduwa College,
Ile-Ife, MacJob Grammar School, Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode Grammar School, Awe High School, Awe,
etc.—as a teacher and principal, he also probably picked up, along the way, his populist orientation
that made him one of the most influential philanthropists in the Southwest in his days.
The Aworeni Scholarship came to signify the emergence of a spirit of unrestrained giving that was
tied to the Ile Ife root of the Aworeni, but that transcended that cultural boundary to encompass all
indigent students who qualified by simply demonstrating a need to learn. He demonstrated a
cultural patriotism that was determined to lift all indigenes of Ile Ife beyond the limitations of
ignorance into the sublimity of education and enlightenment. And his open-minded philanthropic
philosophy would ensure that he threw wide the net of empowerment to as many as would be
willing to learn. And it was only logical that Chief Aworeni would eventually establish a school
to accelerate the realization of his desire to encourage many less privileged candidates to pick up
a pen and get an educational foundation. The Adesola High School, Ibadan was the institutional
embodiment of the Aworeni scholarship and the philosophy of empowerment that he stood for.
And this is where the zeal to shine the light of enlightenment on many dark minds led to the
opening of the floodgates that would burden quality education with the deadening quantity of
overloaded classrooms. Chief Aworeni was not careful to measure his populist philanthropy with
the realistic assessment that one school cannot take all comers. And this is not just about the
available infrastructures; it was also about the quality of education such students can be provided
with. A perceptive reader would have made the connection between Chief Aworeni’s educational
experiment and Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s free education project. Unlike the former, the latter
was founded on a well-laid out educational policy that also involved taxation to achieve a level of
required funding that made the project a success. Chief Aworeni’s enthusiasm was simply borne
aloft by his populist eagerness. It was as if Chief Aworeni was too impatient to countenance any
hindrance—including educational planning—to his ultimate goal of adding values to people’s
lives, especially the underprivileged whom the state had abandoned to themselves, and to a life of
indistinction.
This is where Chief Aworeni’s educational philosophy and philanthropic spirit should first be
applauded. Azim Premji, the Indian businessman, aptly summarizes Chief Aworeni’s
philanthropic sense: “The responsibility of philanthropy rests with us. The wealthier we are, the
more powerful we get. We cannot put the entire onus on the government.” Philanthropy
complements the efforts of the government in transforming the lives of the citizens; and hence,
this made Chief Aworeni a significant part of the rendering of the educational history of the
Southwest. Unfortunately, populist philanthropy does not always serve the objective of an
education that is functional and optimal, especially the type that a citizen requires to become a
good member of society. It would seem that this was the point at which people of Awe took
exception to the educational “philosophy” of the great man.
But then, maybe Chief Aworeni was just not well understood. This was definitely a man that was
deeply motivated to domesticate his philanthropic spirit to the service of his community. That, all
by itself, is a worthy contribution to the well-being of the community members, and makes the
initiator of the community service programme an ambassador to note. It would seem however that
the weight of attention has been focused more on the negative side of Aworeni’s populist
philanthropy rather than on the larger picture of what he did and why he did it. We only have the
collective appreciation of those who scaled through the overload of the Adesola High School, and
the many others who benefitted from the Aworeni Scholarship, to thank for representing the
success of the unsung philanthropist.
At a more deeper level, Chief Aworeni calls into play the relationship between education and
philanthropy, especially in a postcolonial context like Nigerian where the state seems to have
abdicated its responsibility towards the creative harnessing of the human capital that could be
deployed towards communal and national development. It likely will be a difficult research
endeavor to determine the extent to which the beneficiaries of the Aworeni scholarship and
goodwill have contributed to the developmental dynamics of the Southwest. But there is no
denying the fact that he did the best that he could within the constrain of his time and context, as
well as the limited resources he had which he distributed with all joy to the needy.
No wonder my departed friend—his son—Abimbola Aworeni, who goes by such nicknames as
Bambo and Skolobi could be very proud of his notorious but unique father who damned every
consequence to be relevant in his own way. He loved his cultural root; and he loved people even
more, wherever they could be found who needed help to make their ways in life. And that was
what he directed his entire life attending to. I am glad I met the scion of such a large heart. May the gentle soul of my dear friend, Bimbo, rest in peace.
Prof. Tunji Olaopa
Retired Federal Permanent Secretary
& Professor of Public Administration
