by Damilola Jagun
For someone who never attended a regular secondary school to eventually become a Professor, is no small feat.
Former acting Vice-Chancellor of the Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Prof. Adekunle Adeniran, is the man with the impressive profile.
In a new interview with Punch Newspapers, he revealed that he taught himself almost everything he knows today and other things:
Read:
“I was born in 1935 and like the life of most Ibadan people of my generation; life for me began in the rural area. My grandfather moved out of Ibadan central to settle in Ogeye village in Lagelu council area of the city.
Interestingly, I did not attend any regular or conventional secondary school at all. I read at home on my own. My first formal education ended in standard six which my parents were proud of. I became an untrained teacher at a Methodist school in Lerin which is now in Ogun State. I also taught at St. Luke’s Primary School, Offa-Igbo. In 1955, I was admitted into St. Luke’s Teacher Training College where I obtained Grade Three and later Grade Two which was called Higher Elementary certificates.
In between the two certificates, I passed the London General Certificate of Education and later wrote the Advanced Level Examination which qualified me to become a student of the University of Ibadan in September 1963. I did a degree in English and graduated in June 1966. Fortune smiled on me because in November of the same year of graduation, I was given a job as graduate trainee in UI. It afforded me to study more. I went to the University of Leeds in England and returned in 1966 to do my doctorate degree in UI. I retired in 2005 as a professor. I became a professor in 1992.”
