Social Psychologists would always tell us that no two people – not even a set of identical twins from the same homozygote egg – would behave alike. We are equally made to understand that history sometimes repeats itself while some persona in one person in one clime at one point in time may repeat themselves in yet another person in another setting at a different time.
And that brings us to some of the qualities inherent in the third President of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and Nigeria’s frontline legal icon, educationist and valiant entrepreneur as well as unsparing philanthropist, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN.
For the records, Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, served as Minister to France as the constitution was being drafted and was given a sobriquet “Long John” because he was 6’ 2.5’’ tall, with long slender limbs, using his towering stature to advantage to look down on others and in the process, telling them what they were not doing right.
Jefferson was known for so many things in the United States just like Babalola is today known for so many things in Nigeria, depending on which side of the prism one is viewing him.
Let us now explore the areas of similarity between Jefferson and Babalola. Jefferson was a lawyer, Babalola is also a lawyer. Indeed, he celebrated his 50th anniversary at the Bar on July 9, last year, during which period he has handled and won landmark cases and trained more than 2,500 lawyers, including 15 Senior Advocates, some of who later became judges, Attorneys-General of the Federation and of states and first rate academics as well as traditional rulers.
Jefferson was statesman, Babalola is a statesman. It is only a statesman in Babalola’s mould that would waive a legal fee of 5 million British Pound Sterling in 1982 just for a federal institution to be established in his home state of the bigger Ondo State then; a selfless and patriotic gesture that gave birth to the Federal Polytechnic, which was first sited in Akure before it was relocated to Ado-Ekiti, Babalola’s homestead, when the Federal University of Technology took off in Akure.
He is incurably optimistic that Nigeria has the ability and the capacity to be better and greater than what it is today and so he speaks against the cankerworm of corruption afflicting every segment of the society, including his primary constituency of Law, at every available opportunity.
Jefferson was the President of the United States of America between 1801 and 1809. Babalola is the President Emeritus of his four-year old university, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, which has variously been described as a model, benchmark and reference point, the most dynamic, progressive and fastest growing university in Africa. The university graduated its first set of 118 graduates from the College of Sciences and College of Social and Management Sciences during its maiden convocation on October 21, 2013.
Jefferson was and Educator, Babalola is an Educator too. And this could be gleaned from the numerous lectures and papers he has delivered, the volumes of books he has published, his regular column “Afe on Thursday” in the Nigerian Tribune where he dissects and discusses sundry issues ranging from education to governance. Besides, he is the proponent and protagonist of reformatory and functional education in Nigeria by setting out, through the instrumentality of his university, which he established after his eight-year stint as the Chancellor/Chairman of Council of the University of Lagos, to provide and lead others in quality education, industry, service and character as well as discipline.
Jefferson was a political philosopher, Babalola too is one. This could be seen in some of his publications like “The Thoughts of an Icon” and “Impossibility Made Possible”, his own autobiography.
Jefferson was a Naturalist, Babalola is a Naturalist too. Hear him out: “I watch what I eat, drink and the way I exercise. I eat natural food. You will never see me eating any synthetic food. I don’t drink and I don’t smoke and I stay close to nature. At any meal, I eat a combination of at least six different vegetables. I drink my water at room temperature. I stay close to nature.”
No wonder the West Africa Network of Natural Products Research Scientists (WANNPRESS) in November last year awarded him the Distinguished Excellence Service Award in the Propagation of Natural Products in appreciation of his propagation of natural products that exemplifies the values of continental body. Established in 2002, WANNPRES is a network of scientists from universities and research institutes from 15 Anglophone and Francophone African countries whose research interest is in the area of natural products.
Jefferson was a farmer and agriculturistand Babalola shares these attributes with Long Tom. His words: ”I am always on the farm. I am also a farmer. I grow arable crops like yam, maize, soya beans and the like. I also have mango, pawpaw, gmelina, banana, oranges, palm trees, teak and moringa plantations. Do you know the excitement that accompanies planting maize, for instance, and seeing it germinate, tassel and eventually matures for you to harvest? It is always a beautiful, an indescribable experience.”
He added: “I am the biggest fish farmer in this area, with about 200 fish ponds housing at least 5,000 fishes each, which enable us to supply fresh and dried fish to all the neighbouring states.”
Jefferson was a musician, Babalola is a musician too. That Babalola is a dancer and singer is certainly part of the unpredictable and unknown elements of his persona. This writer witnessed this aspect of the Aare Baamofin of Yorubaland on June 18, last year, rekindling the memories of his younger days when he burst into a fitz of singing and dancing with some wondrous dancing steps with his ever so young, radiant and elegant wife, Yeye Aare Modupe Babalola.
Highlife maestro, Fatai Olagunju, aka Fatai Rolling Dollar, would have turned in his grave if he had heard the way Babalola rendered and danced to his (Fatai’s) wave-making track “Won kere si number wa” (they don’t measure up to us).
Jefferson was a Geographer, Babalola is a Geographer. Indeed, it was one of the subjects he took for his G.C.E Advanced Level and one of the subjects he taught in some secondary schools while shopping for funds to go for his final Bar examinations in England.
The similarities between Jefferson and Babalola perhaps end here, for unlike Jefferson, Babalola is not a known Diplomat, Astronomer, Scientist, Inventor, Horseman, Theologian or a Paleontologist. Also, unlike Long Tom who was fluent in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French and German in addition to English, Babalola only speaks English, Yoruba and his native Ekiti as well as some lines of Latin with which he garnishes his submissions in court rooms as an amicus curiae.
Good enough, this does not in any way vitiate the towering stature and prowess of this great citizen of the world of African descent.
– Tunde Olofintila.