My Binoculars: Prof of Biochemistry, Wole Shodipo bows out of Unimaid in style

Bodunrin Kayode

My romance with the Dons

The closest opportunity i would have had to study biochemistry as a course was in the then University of Ife when Professor Wande Abimbola was the Vice Chancellor. I had always been an average science student in secondary school so I ended up getting medical microbiology in the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams instead of “medicine” which was my first choice course and obvious preference of my father. After my first year, I knew that course was not my calling because I was not too comfortable with the blood from the little dissections we were involved in the practical classes. While we were doing Zoo 101, Bot 101, Maths 101, Maths 105, my friend Austin from Edo state with whom we stayed at the Angola hall double bunk hostel was studying Biochemistry as his major and all others we were studying including GS 001 and Lib 001. We shared tutorials of smaller classes than what we had in mighty Biological science halls and his was slightly different from his biochemistry notes I used to peep into at the Angola hall i lived before my Uncle name withheld whisked me out to live with his family on road 18.To Uncle, refusing to return the following year was a dangerous rebellion from me. My father was equally angry but i stuck to my focus to become a writer.
Today by Gods grace, I am not just a writer but a journalist who writes freely on all the adjuncts of the health sector which i rebelled against. It is this background flare that brought me close to some of the Professors in the medical and life sciences of the University of Maiduguri where experts like Professor of Biochemistry Oluwole Shodipo have given a good account of himself as an accomplished scholar. I actually got to know Professor Shodipo through Professor of Community medicine Babatunde Omotara who was very amiable and down to earth each time we met in his office along the corridors of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH). Incidentally, I got to know Prof Omotara through Professor of pediatrics Jose Ambe who i had met in my early days of visiting the UMTH to sniff for health news flying all over.

After marching me upstairs to meet Baba Omotara, Baba as we called Prof in turn introduced me to some others I needed to chat with including the late Professor John Ohu and Professor Aliyu Shugaba who later became Vice Chancellor of Unimaid. Professor Omotara became the arrow head of most of my relationships with his colleagues who were doing one thing or the other based on the demands of my editors. Often times we do meet in the home of Baba as we did when Professor Badejo retired. Or at the Mai Yoruba of Borno Kabiyesi’s Oba Hassan Yusuf’s place whenever there was something important that touched the Yoruba community. In such occasions most of the elderly Professors like Sodipo, Ohu, Omotara and many other respected yoruba elders and chiefs used to be present.

I never really had the opportunity to visit the home of Prof Shodipo to see his homely side like i know of the Omotaras. Except with his wife who was also very much a public figure by virtue of her role as the Vice chairman of the Pharmaceutical society of Nigeria (PSN). So whenever PSN invites us for special programs and Professor Funke Shodipo was the Vice Chair, he would be there to support her. This is why I really cannot claim to have captured enough through my binoculars to be able to write a befitting piece about the renowned Professor Oluwole Adebayo Shodipo who saw it all in his area of specialization biochemistry and bowed out from the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) this week at the ripe age of 70. Obviously because most of our meetings have been official when the national biochemistry society is meeting or during convocations.

Prof Shodipo a beacon of service and dedication

So you can imagine how blank i was when I was reliably informed that Prof was retiring from service. This is a man who has given all his youthful years into the ivy tower in-spite of all the torments of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) he belongs to, by both past military and civilian governments. A man whose spouse is also an academic so you can imagine what happens to the entire family when one Nigerian President decides to ground the University system for eight months with threats that they will not be paid if they do not drop their demands and return to work. So many of his colleagues in the country fell during that interregnum but he survived the impasse. How can i write about such a personality without leaving important details out? How can one access an academic who got a first class from the University of Ibadan in 1978 when classes of first degrees were far more relevant than they are today? How do I pry into his academic pursuit in Leeds for his masters program and returning to Unimaid in 1982? His PhD in Ilorin? Professorial Chair in UNIMAID? How much can I write about a don who got posted to Maiduguri in 1978 by the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) and never looked back till May 24, 2025 when he bowed out officially. Prof Shodipo is an academic whose advises would surely be needed beyond his career even as an Emeritus Professor. So much to capture from my binoculars about a man whose former students claim he had a certain swag about the way he carried himself and called them by name when their Grade Point impresses him. A scholar who students describe as cool, calculated, polished, approachable and always willing to get them educated.

Retirement and birthday reception at his home in the main campus of UNIMAID

However from the range one could see during his retirement and birthday reception on Sunday, I knew that Prof is indeed a man of many parts. Easy going, amiable and quite accessible by all generations of students including the difficult to understand gen-zees. Quite a lot of the zee people attended his birthday reception which held at his home in the Unimaid senior staff quarters on Sunday. These genzees mostly undergraduates accorded him deep respect and the type of reverence we don’t expect to come out of people of that strange generation. That to me makes Prof Shodipo a connector who could easily synchronize with all the generations after the X generation. One particular one with recommended glasses moved in and out of the entire house and I had to give a command that he must get Prof a recording facility or a computer that can convert his voice to words so that he starts his memoirs within the next three years while waiting for madam to retire. He smiled and assured me to consider it done.
I later learnt that he was a final year student of biochemistry in UNIMAID who had adopted Prof as his father so certain details may not be within his reach. But the point here is that I was impressed at the closeness he had with the entire family. Many of them all Genzees dominated the reception even with their music. The reception in his home was attended by people from all works of life after a service at the Methodist Church pompomari bypass. Professors like Gidado, Daura a former VC who bantered extensively with him in Yoruba language, wife of the former VC Madam Shugaba and hundreds of others from across the state and the region.
A special presentation was made by the Otunba Chief Lanre Obadiah in conjunction with the Kabiyesi Alhaji Hassan Yusuf for his dedication and contribution to the Yoruba traditional institution in Borno.

Why Prof Shodipo was the engine room of UNIMAID…. Prof Babatunde Omotara

UNIMAID has really been blessed with many brains from all over the world. If it is possible to allow certain caliber of Professors to continue teaching way beyond the retirement age, Professor Shodipo is definitely one of those management will refuse to allow to go home. A teacher of teachers and a Professor of professors. In a telephone chat recently, Prof Omotara told this reporter that Prof Shodipo was indeed a teacher of teachers because virtually every medical doctor who successfully passed out of UNIMAID studied biochemistry. That makes him a father of several mentees who have graduated and achieved leadership positions in the country today . The list is endless and it includes the present Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) Professor Ahmed Ahidjo, Professor Modu Sheriff and most of the Professors in the faculty of life sciences and the department of biochemistry today. Prof Shodipo has also produced two Vice Chancellors, Aliyu Shugaba who just stepped down from Unimaid and Lawan Buratai of the Army University in Biu, Southern Borno. Prof Shodipo’s students also include all the medical practitioners at the UMTH who got their degrees from UNIMAID. They are so numerous to recall including Professor Bashir Tahir who is now the CMD of the police hospital in Damaturu and many more.
Reeling out further testimonies about Baba Shodipo, Prof Omotara described him as the “engine room” of the University. He was one of those officers who ensured that every student earned his or her degree following after the main criteria of graduation which is character and learning. “He was the chair of the course system of the University which means he had to be an astute administrator to succeed as he did in such a distinguished task.” On the accommodating spirit of Prof Shodipo, Baba Omotara went on: “He is the first friend i made when i arrived the University. Himself and Professor Olatunji Folorunso were my first circle of friends. We were three friends at the beginning later we became five friends.We had a spot in front of the Delara joint. The other two were Profs Taoheed Adedoja and John Ohu who has passed.

“He was the chair of the course system in the University. He was also a member of the Senate business committee. They are responsible for the meticulous scrutiny and production of degrees for each student that merits same”. Such a committee set up to ensure that each student is fit in character and learning to go into the world and contribute to humanity is really tasking yet he had given a good account of himself even as he contributed to knowledge and published articles in international journals before retirement.”
On his advise to his friend who retired this week, Prof Omotara went on ” Nothing very special about retirement if you plan ahead mentally, physically. I have published two articles during retirement and i contribute massively to my community which is my choice but its up to him to choose which path he wants to tread.” Said Prof Omotara.

Prof Shodipo’s Adventure into ‘saponin’ is well known internationally. I am also aware that he contributed to the production of Saponin, a derivative from the NIM tree.” Said Omotara.
As he retires, he has impressed his feet on the sands of time as it concerns teaching, research, practical trainings, mentoring and hard core administration.

Asked during his thanks giving reception if it was time to go home. His response was “Not without my wife who retires in three years”. Indeed, Prof Olufunke Shodipo has been the real backbone of Prof Shodipo. Keeping the home front while improving on her career. She is obviously a very strong woman who after mentoring her mentees at the faculty of pharmacy goes home to multitask about keeping her partner, husband and friend happy. She is obviously the stabilization factor of the home front ensuring that her children are all trained in character and learning without feeling too choked up having two Professors breathing down their heads to do the right thing at all times. Congratulations to a worthy son of Ogun State Nigeria. A bright star among the constellation of Egba’s worldwide and a well referenced and cited scholar of substance. May God keep you in good health as you continue in your service to humanity sir.

My Binoculars: Prof of Biochemistry, Wole Shodipo bows out of Unimaid in style