Omololu Olunloyo (1935-2025): A tribute, By Ajibola Ogunshola

The following morning, during one of our frequent tripartite discussions on mathematics, he showed us his PhD thesis, opened it, and tried to, in the simplest terms, explain the broad nature of the work. Not unexpectedly, we could not understand it. Still, I have committed to memory the words of the closing paragraph of the thesis, where he wrote: “The message this example transmits is both salient and powerful, and brings to a dramatic close this thesis, dramatic in a way all its own.”

Although I did not meet Dr Omololu Olunloyo until early 1962, it was only a matter of time before that happened, as he, Dr Lekan Are (whose mother was from the Aboderin family), and my maternal brother, Chief Olubunmi Aboderin, had known each other before they entered secondary school. Both the Olunloyo and Aboderin families had Kudeti origins.

Omololu Olunloyo and Lekan Are entered Government College, Ibadan in 1948, while Olu Aboderin entered Ibadan Grammar School in 1949. The three friends sometimes spent parts of their school holidays together, or separately, at the Oke-Bola residence of Mr (later Chief) Moyosore Aboderin, a wealthy man whom they recognised as a “big brother.” He was about 15 years older than them.

Olunloyo had lost his father in December 1948, the year he entered GCI.

All of them grew up to attain heights of achievements and became recognised names in the Nigerian firmament.

Omololu Olunloyo’s younger paternal brother, by eight years, Olusegun Olunloyo (“Segun”), attended Igbobi College in Lagos. We became friends in early 1962, during our first year in the Higher School Certificate, he at Igbobi College, and I at Government College. His subjects, and mine, were Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Physics. Our first meeting was in the middle of 1961.

As friends, we together visited his elder brother, Dr Omololu (“Brother Mololu”) from time to time during the school holidays, which he invariably (to my knowledge) spent at the residence of their “baba”, Canon Olunloyo, at Ekotedo in Ibadan. Baba Canon must have been much older than their father, as he appeared to be in his 70s or early 80s, while their father, Horatio Sowemimo Olunloyo, was born in 1906 and would have been less than 60 years old in 1962, had he been alive.

Somehow, word got around about Segun’s elder brother. This young, brilliant mathematics lecturer also drove an unusual type of car: the Citroën, featuring a unique shape and hydraulic system.

For me, the attraction was his being an Ibadan man and an old boy of Government College, who had won laurels in mechanical engineering at graduation and completed his PhD in applied mathematics at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in a record time of two years.

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I attended the wedding ceremony of a relation of the Olunloyos, Mr Lere Adeyemo, who was also an old boy of Government College, in 1962. I recollect that that was probably where “Brother Mololu” met his future wife, Miss Funlayo Akinyemi, who was the chief bridesmaid at that wedding. Perhaps he was even the best man at the occasion. He was, at the time, the Commissioner for Education in the old Western Region, when the region was under an “emergency government” headed by Dr Majekodunmi in 1962.

Horatio Olunloyo was among the Ibadan notables of his time and age; his facility with various musical instruments (he had grown up under the guidance of his uncle who was a vicar), his achievement as the first Ibadan man to pass Intermediate BA, and Intermediate LLB examinations by private study at home, his appointment as Treasurer at Ibadan Native Authority, made him famous in elite circles. He also socialised and entertained with choice drinks.

Not long after, Brother Mololu and Miss Akinyemi got married, and Segun and I donned our best agbada dresses to the event.

While he held the office, his official residence was directly opposite the “Premier’s Lodge”, the official residence of the region’s premier, located at Iyaganku GRA, which the late Chief SL Akintola had occupied before and after the emergency administration, until his assassination in January 1966 by the military.

Segun spent part of his 1962 summer holiday there, and I stayed overnight with him on one occasion.

The following morning, during one of our frequent tripartite discussions on mathematics, he showed us his PhD thesis, opened it, and tried to, in the simplest terms, explain the broad nature of the work. Not unexpectedly, we could not understand it. Still, I have committed to memory the words of the closing paragraph of the thesis, where he wrote: “The message this example transmits is both salient and powerful, and brings to a dramatic close this thesis, dramatic in a way all its own.”

He read it aloud with some excitement in his voice and on his face, and Segun and I chorused in excited approbation.

I became quite close to him, especially after Segun travelled to the US in the middle of 1964 to study Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University, while I went to Ibadan in September to study Mathematics. On his return to Nigeria in 1973, Segun joined academia, rose to preeminence in his field, but sadly passed away on 13 October, 2017, at the age of 74.

Brother Mololu treated me like his own blood brother in those days, and I am grateful to him. He took me along with him to several places. On one particular occasion, we went from Ibadan to Lagos to visit his uncle (his father’s younger brother), Mr Akinniran Olunloyo, who was the proprietor of Paramount Photos. He was unwell, he said, spoke of his struggle with hypertension, and then added in a loud note of defiance, “but it can’t kill all of us!!” That was in apparent reference to the 1948 fate of his elder brother, Mr Horatio Olunloyo, who was Brother Mololu’s father, and who had died of hypertension at the age of 42.

Uncle Akinniran passed away not long after our visit. The possibility of his early death from hypertension haunted Brother Mololu in those years, which was why he sometimes discussed with me the disease of hypertension and the subject of death, young though I was at the time. And he certainly did not have the disease at that time. We also discussed prostate issues in later years, which is why, although he succeeded mightily in the longevity marathon of the human race, I nevertheless felt a tinge of unhappiness that he missed the attainment of the age of 90 by just eight days!

Horatio Olunloyo was among the Ibadan notables of his time and age; his facility with various musical instruments (he had grown up under the guidance of his uncle who was a vicar), his achievement as the first Ibadan man to pass Intermediate BA, and Intermediate LLB examinations by private study at home, his appointment as Treasurer at Ibadan Native Authority, made him famous in elite circles. He also socialised and entertained with choice drinks. Segun had reported that he was about to travel to the United Kingdom to complete a bachelor’s degree in Law when he suddenly died.

At all times, we held opposing political views, and we both knew it. However, he was deeply involved in politics, held high political office, and contested elections. At the same time, I was not a politician, and we both avoided engaging in political arguments to maintain our brotherly relationship. The long-standing political predilections of my elder maternal brothers, the late Chief Moyo Aboderin and the late Chief Olu Aboderin, and I were, broadly speaking, pro-Awolowo, in contrast to his own.

I have recently read one or two reports after Dr Olunloyo’s death, stating that Horatio Olunloyo spent only one night at his new Molete residence before his death on 29 December, 1948. However, my father, Chief JL Ogunsola, recorded in his diary on Saturday, 26th April 1947, that he “attended the opening of the house of Mr. Sowemimo Olunloyo,” which suggests that he may have celebrated the opening of his house almost 20 months before he started to live there. Chief Ogunsola was the chief-in-charge-of-tax at Ibadan Native Authority at the time.

My home visits to Olunloyo became far less frequent when I entered the University of Ibadan, as I was now a student in the Mathematics department, where he was a senior lecturer. I became increasingly interested in European classical music, which he had introduced to Segun and I in 1962.

In my final year at the University (1966-67), I took one of his courses, Abstract Algebra, and I therefore became his student.

In terms of teaching quality, he was the best in the department, among those to whom I was exposed, as he went to great lengths to ensure that his students understood the subjects he taught. The students admired him for this.

His Nigerian colleagues in the Mathematics department in my time were Professor Adegoke Olubunmo, Professor JOC Ezeilo, Professor Sowunmi, and, later, Professor H Tejumola.

My contacts with him after university became infrequent, as I went abroad almost immediately for five years and, upon return, have lived and worked continuously in the Lagos axis. There were no mobile phones then, and landlines were as scarce as gold, even in Lagos. He had become increasingly involved in governance and politics; his family setup had also expanded.

At all times, we held opposing political views, and we both knew it. However, he was deeply involved in politics, held high political office, and contested elections. At the same time, I was not a politician, and we both avoided engaging in political arguments to maintain our brotherly relationship. The long-standing political predilections of my elder maternal brothers, the late Chief Moyo Aboderin and the late Chief Olu Aboderin, and I were, broadly speaking, pro-Awolowo, in contrast to his own.

Iyabo and I commiserate with ‘Sister’ Mrs Funlayo Olunloyo and Mrs Ronke Olunloyo, and with all his children; also with his sisters, ‘Sister’ Molara (Mrs Balogun) and ‘Sister’ Bisi.

May they all be consoled by the fact that he was widely recognised as a man with exceptional brilliance and thirst for knowledge, who held several high political offices without stain, and whose stay on this earth was more than twice as long as his father’s.

Ajibola Ogunshola is the Chairman Emeritus of PUNCH Nigeria Limited.