I TOOK no Philosophy course in my undergraduate days in the University of Ife – now Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, – but I got to know Dr. Oladipo Fashina quite well. My introduction to him 38 years ago, was indirect. One day, I ran into two of my course mates in the Drama department. They were in a hurry for a class. “We have Jingo” they announced. I wondered what course was called ‘Jingo.’ I was to discover that Jingo, was the affectionate nickname students called Fashina; so all the courses he took from 100 to 400 Level were called ‘Jingo.’
He was so accessible, simple and open, that to many students, he was the familiar elder brother or uncle. He was a lecturer with no airs whom you could stop anywhere and he would be ready to listen with compassion and even explain issues. Fashina speaks softly, logically, simply and so convincingly, that even if you do not accept his worldview, it is difficult to disagree with the workaholic who some students vowed could be found any time in his office. Students who missed him in his office, sometimes headed for the Sports Centre where he could be found playing beautiful football with students. He is ever willing to defend the weak especially victimised students.
Fashina is a rounded human being and an inspiration to generations of Ife students. He is also, an identity. One day in 1990, I got into conversation with a rising journalist who has now become a top politician. She bet I didn’t know her, so I mentioned her name and the medium she worked. She seemed disappointed I didn’t know her earlier than her journalism profession. I drew a blank: “I was Jingo’s student!” she said with pride. Needless to say, we worked closer as journalists as we belonged to the Jingo ‘fraternity’.
Fashina is from the Ashogbon family of Isale Eko, the part of Lagos that produces its kings. He attended St. Peter’s Faji School, Ajele, Lagos. At 12, Fashina was admitted into the prestigious Kings College, Lagos and in 1963 and proceeded to Government College, Apata, Ibadan for his Higher School Certificate, HSC. He gained admission into the University of Ibadan to read French on Western Nigeria scholarship, but opted to study in the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR.
Fashina, a polyglot, speaks Yoruba, English, French, Russian, Ukrainian, reads and translates German and Spanish. He moved to the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA, United States, where he got his Doctorate in Philosophy. He had got to the same Philosophy Department in UCLA in 1971, the year after the famous Angela Davis had been forced out for being a communist. Fashina joined the Movement and worked with the Black Panthers led by Bobby Seale, Huey. P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. It was his involvement in the Black Movement that radicalised him.
For his doctoral thesis, he disproved the hypothesis that Karl Marx had only a theory on functions and change in social systems, but not on individuals. The title was A Theory of Individuals in Karl Marx. He got his Ph.D in 1979; that was at the height of Afro-American nationalism with a strong “Back-to-Africa” theme; so he decided to return to Nigeria immediately and join the movement for the emancipation of the country. That was how he came Ife.
Fashina used the Socratic methodology of teaching; leading the student to discover his or her faculties and applying this critical thought process to all he is taught, and does. He frequently uses the fictional Jingo as an example because he does not want to be accused of maligning anybody. But if he had to use more examples, he merely invented other names like Bongo, Bamanga, Bambara. Jingo has stuck on him and he willingly accepts this. To him, his students are his life.