By Tunji Adegboyega
Matters miscellaneous beyond the academia
It was in Bolaji Sanusi’s ‘The Liberation News’ that I first got the hint that Prof Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, the ninth vice-chancellor Lagos State University, Lagos, would be 60 last week Tuesday, through a piece by Louis Odion titled ”Bouquet for the Amazon of multi-tasking at 60”. It came out in the April 18 edition of the online newspaper. After reading Odion’s academic treatise, and the piece by Prof Olatunji Bello’s media assistant, Seun Gbaja, celebrating this scholar at 60, also aptly titled ‘Diamond toast to Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello @ 60″, you would wonder what else to say about this woman that Sanusi himself referred to as “TB’s inestimable jewel” in the advertisement that he generously used to lighten up Gbaja’s piece on Tuesday, April 23, the exact day that she turned 60.
Let me warn from the beginning that this is not going to be strictly speaking about Prof. Olatunji -Bello’s academic attainments. Many people, including this writer had dwelled extensively on that, either now or before. What you are going to find on this page today may look like a wedding anniversary tribute rather than a birthday tribute.
Please do not blame me. Their 35th wedding anniversary is around the corner, the wedding having been consummated on June 3, 1989. That was some 35 years before. I will return to that shortly.
Different things interest different people.
One thing that intrigues me most about the Tunji Bello’s family is not the impressive rise of the man and father figure of the family, Tunji Bello (known among friends and colleagues simply as TB), especially in public administration in Lagos State that has thrown him into limelight, or the pedagogy of the wife, Ibiyemi-Bello that many people celebrate also with her steady rise in her teaching career in the university.
Rather, I am intrigued, first by the continued togetherness of the couple in about 35 years of their marriage despite their ‘Muslim-Christian ticket’. Tunji is a Muslim while his wife is a Christian, as a matter of fact, a senior pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, to boot. I guess part of the secret of her successes at home and in life generally is her choice of service to the Lord. It is worthy of note that her pastoral ministry is reflecting positively in her home and the diverse external publics that she must necessarily encounter in the course of duty.
Indeed, I marvel at how the two of them have managed to stay together for this long despite belonging to two different religions. I marvel because in our country, too many of us are religious but we do not let the tenets of these two religions reflect in our lives. Imagine how the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Tinubu and Kashim Shettima almost tore the country apart. Imagine how on every street churches and mosques are mushrooming and competing for attention. Yet, imagine how the country is today despite our religiosity. Most of us profess our love for God but our hearts are far from Him. In spite of our love for God, our country has remained only potentially great ever since I was born over six decades ago and is still potentially great with over 20 million out-of-school children and about 133 million reeling under the yoke of multi-dimensional poverty.
But that is not where I am going today. So, I don’t want that to pollute my mind or the minds of readers that may have been enjoying this tribute.
Tunji-Bello’s marriage is 35 years and is still intact. I was there at the very beginning with our then deputy editor of ‘The Punch’, Chris Mamah. That was in the struggling years of the newspaper, so, we went to the event in Mamah’s official car, a Volkswagen Beetle. I still remember vividly some of the things that transpired at the time. Please do not blame me if I sound proud to say I was at their wedding. I am like any other rational human being who wants to be identified with success. Only failure is an orphan.
I know so many marriages that were contracted long after theirs that have since collapsed despite the fact that both husbands and wives belong to the same religion. So, what is the problem? The problem definitely is not in the religions but in the people professing to be practicing them.
Of course it is not that if you ask the Bellos they won’t have stories to tell about down moments in the marriage, but that they were able to weather the storms further buttresses the fact that the problem is with the human beings involved in the failed or successful marriages, and not the religions.
Second, the kind of unhealthy competition or rivalry that you find among couples that are both doing well in their endeavours is palpably absent in their union. This tells a lot about tolerance, home training, etc. especially on the part of the woman. This piece is essentially ‘matrimony-centric’ because yes, the man may be the head of the home; the woman is the one who is actually holding the pillars. Where the woman takes her home seriously, the result on the children is spectacular. Odion, in his birthday tribute on her attests to this thus: ”…The heavy burden of raising their children according to Godly values fell largely on the professor. It is to her credit that they have all turned out to be successful, adorable and well-behaved today”. This notwithstanding, though, it is TB that would now be claiming those children. In our society, good children belong to the father while ownership of the bad ones is foisted on the mother. Odion goes ahead to amplify on the attainments of the children, which is equally encouraging, especially in a country and perhaps world where most women now run after material attractions, at the expense of their children.
It is not only on the children that you feel the impact of a good mother, it rubs off on the husband too. When I read Odion’s piece on her, I could see the invaluable contributions she had made in the life of TB. I said that much last week when I wrote about the First Lady and her contributions to her husband’s political and other successes. If TB has been able to come this far, it is because a great woman is also by his side. When you see a man that is nice and approachable, look to his left, that is beside him, you would most likely see the imprints of his wife, and vice versa. This is not to say that there won’t be some exceptions, though.
On all of these scores, one must give kudos to the couple for their ability to navigate the ups and downs in marriage. Yes, I said the two of them eventually because it takes two to tango. A marriage crumbles when one of the parties decides that enough is enough. As the late Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola used to say, you cannot clap with one hand. A marriage begins to get ‘k-leg’ when one of the parties is tired of it. That none of them is tired of it shows their resilience and ability to tolerate one another. It shows the level of trust in the marriage. I can tell you for free that it is not easy to sustain a marriage, especially given the levels that both parties have attained in life. Tunji is commissioner-emeritus in Lagos State after being a successful journalist. Prof too has attained the pinnacle of her career. There would have been several temptations both ways; that neither has succumbed to them is laudable.
Ibiyemi-Bello was born in the Olowogbowo area of Idumota on the Lagos Island on April 23, 1964. She attended Anglican Girls Grammar School in Surulere, Lagos, between 1970 and 1974 and Methodist Girls’ High School, Yaba, Lagos, between 1974 and 1979 for her junior and senior secondary education, respectively.
She then proceeded to Lagos State College of Science and Technology, Lagos, and thereafter to the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology in 1985. She later went to the University of Lagos, Lagos, where she got her Master’s in the same discipline. Thereafter, she proceeded to the University of Texas at San Antonio, Health Science Centre, San Antonio, United States of America, between 1994 and 1998.
She was as an assistant lecturer at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the first professor of physiology of the institution in 2007. She also served as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Lagos State University in 2008, served as its acting vice-chancellor before her appointment as the 9th substantive vice-chancellor in September 2021.
Needless to say that Ibiyemi-Bello had also served in various other capacities and bagged many awards in the course of her assignments.
Nothing I have said should be taken to mean that Ibiyemi-Bello is flawless. No mortal is. My advice to her is to keep doing those things that have been earning her accolades even as she makes room for improvement concerning constructive criticisms.
It is not easy to be ‘oga on top’ anywhere, not in the least a university setting. But if she has survived this far, not even the sky is her limit.
If you see this piece as a birthday tribute, fine. And if you see it as a wedding anniversary tribute in advance, no problem. It was intended to be both, even if the original idea was to congratulate the celebrator who has refused to roll out the drums to celebrate her diamond jubilee despite its being a landmark. We had looked forward to a celebration where rice and stew would be very plenty. We had no choice than to accept the ‘ko sina dida nbe’ (nothing much) that the Bellos saddled us with.
I congratulate Prof Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello all the same and wish her more fruitful years on earth.
