Before I left Ile -Ife for Cambridge, he gave me a pep talk that gave me confidence throughout my stay at MIT. He told me he did not get admitted to MIT when he applied for admission in his time. He got and studied at the University of California, Berkeley, another top-notch engineering school.
I am telling you these details to let you know the extent of mentoring and nurturing that this great academician went. And throughout the four years that I spent in graduate school he made sure he visited to encourage me annually. And when I came back from graduate school, he was always there to give advice on my career path. Even when I was in government as Special Adviser to the President on Energy Matters (2005-2007), he was always available to advise and counsel me.
In my business ventures, he was always available as a sounding board as well as an encourager for my plans. This long-term relationship had a positive and tremendous impact on my career.
So, this leads me to the third principle: Strong, effective, and long-term mentoring system is needed to get the best out of us. I am persuaded it will go a long way to get the best out our brightest for the benefit of our country and the world at large.
While I was at MIT, with the confidence gained from my experience at Great Ife, I faced the academic rigour frontally and by the grace of God I did very well. As it turned out I was the first Nigerian admitted to the Nuclear Engineering department at MIT. After my first year, my master’s thesis supervisor and Director of the MIT Nuclear Research Laboratory, Late Professor Otto Harling invited me for a chat in his office.
He was a blunt German American and wasted no time in telling me how surprised the faculty in the department were about my performance in the department. They had expected that I would not do well and probably transfer to a more ‘black American’ friendly department like Urban Planning in the university. He believed the university where I had my undergraduate study must be good. Then he told me that the department would be willing to admit many more students from Great Ife if they were as academically sound as I was.
To the glory of God, by the time I was leaving MIT in 1981 Mr. Ibrahim a Great Ife graduate from the Department of Engineering physics was admitted. A year after I left, three more students from the same department of Great Ife were admitted.
This brings me to the fourth principle. You must guard jealously this heirloom and not drop the ball so that others behind you may benefit from the reputational capital of Great Ife.
I returned to Great Ife immediately after I graduated from MIT in 1981 to resume my faculty position. Many of my friends also came back from their graduate studies from the US, Canada, and UK. Permit me to mention a few of them, Prof Femi Ajibola, and
Dr. Goke Adegoroye. We were young and participated in the vibrant academic environment of Great Ife. Because of the good time that I thought I was having, I completely ignored my spirituality. I was not going to church on a steady basis talk less of participating in any religious activities. Surely there was a void in my life even though I did not realse it at that time.
Through the grace of God, my late mother and my dear wife organised a “coup” and got me to attend Christ Apostolic Church at Ede Road pastored by Prof AMA Imevbore. Baba Imevbore took me kindly under his wings and began to mentor me as a young disciple. He taught me that faith in God and quest for academic knowledge are not mutually exclusive. Through him I got to be reconnected with my roots and began to grow spiritually.
Then one day in 1999, Baba Imevbore informed about five of us, Elders in the church, that we were going to Ibadan to be ordained Pastors. As far as I was concerned it was the greatest story of grace. I believe then that I was the most unworthy soul to be a pastor. Therefore, Great Ife is where I got my Damascus conversion just as Paul, the Apostle.
One thing led to the other, I have directed to pastor a church in an uncompleted residential building in Ilesanmi layout in Ife. Today, I am a Zonal Superintendent of CAC supervising about 20 churches in Abuja.
This brings me to the fifth principle. You need to be grounded spiritually if you are to cross the many rivers of life successfully.
I plead with you to hold on firmly, faithfully, and honestly to your faith. Let your faith be an anchor to the ship of your life as you will need it when the winds of life blow contrary. However bright you may be, you will face adversities and meet some disappointments in your life’s journey. Sometimes you might even be perplexed no matter how smart you are. I have faced a few myself and through the grace of God I was able to overcome.
Concluded
Professor Adegbulugbe is the Chief Executive of the Green Energy International Limited. He lives in Abuja.
END
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