Immediate past governor of Kwara State Abdulfatah Ahmed will lead a powerful delegation of University of Ilorin alumni to launch two books authored by fellow alumnus Tunde Olusunle, the eminent poet, journalist, and scholar.
The books are Orisirisi: Vistas on Contemporary Politics in Nigeria and Toasts, Tributes and Wreaths.
A statement issued by Bolaji Afolabi, a member of the book launch media committee, said the launch is scheduled for Wednesday, October 9, 2024, at the Yar‘Adua Centre and will be chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, CON.
Kogi State Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo is also expected to be the Chief Host of the programme and will be supported by some of his colleagues. Former Governor Ahmed graduated from the “Better by Far”citadel, the moniker with which alumni and students of Unilorin love to drape their alma mater, about 40 years ago.
The formidable alumni entourage will include the Senator representing Oyo North Senatorial Zone, Fatai Buhari. Buhari graduated in the same year as Olusunle in 1985.
He is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation. Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede and former Permanent Secretary, General Service Office (GSO), in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Olusegun Adekunle, will be on the entourage.
Managing Director of ThisDay Group of newspapers, Eniola Bello (popularly known as Eni-B); Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sports Development, Tinuke Watti; Comptroller-General, Nigerian Immigrations Service (NIS), Nana Nandap and Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Lokoja, (FUL), Prof Yemi Akinwumi will be on the party.
Former Executive Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Victor Babatunde Adeniran; former Director, Policy, Plans and Research, Defence Space Administration Agency, Major Gen Kayode Ogundele; and former Director, Research and Development, Defence Industries, Kaduna, Brig. Gen John Obasa (rtd) will be at the event. Legal Adviser to Green Energy Ltd, Olusegun Ilori; Managing Partner, Awomolo and Awomolo Chambers, Eyitayo Fatogun, SAN; Femi Atoyebi, SAN, of OM, Atoyebi and Partners, as well as Tunji Bamishigbin, attorney and film producer, will be in tow.
Pioneer Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Babatunde Irukera; immediate past Director-General of the National Theatre, Prof Sunnie Ododo; and Secretary to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Franca Aiyetan will honour the event.
Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Ademola Hamzat, an alumnus of Unilorin, will represent the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, while AIG (Mrs) Rhoda Adetutu Olofu, Secretary of the Nigerian Police Force, (NPF), a 1986 graduate of the same institution, will also be in attendance. Newly promoted Commissioners of Police, Wilfred Tokunbo Afolabi and Saadat Ismail; former Director in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Director of Arts and Culture, *Erelu* Ronke Bello, PhD and renowned petroleum engineers Francis Osasona and Idowu Lawanson, also from the same source, will grace the function.
Hakeem Bello, long-serving media adviser to Emeritus Governor of Lagos State and more recently Minister for Works Babatunde Fashola, SAN, and Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media, Tunde Rahman, both from Unilorin, will support the event. Seasoned mariner Sunmola Bakare and his banker wife, Deola Bakare, both Unilorin alumni, will be in attendance. Former Deputy Director-General (Operations) of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Agev Apollos Dem; Director of Public Affairs at the National Hospital, Abuja, Dr Tayo Haastrup, who is also the *Olumobi of Imobi-Ijesa, Osun State, and Mrs Tayo Olowola, Registrar, Kings University, Ode-Omu, Osun State, are expected at the event.
Professor of mass communication at the East Connecticut State University (ECSU) in the United States, Gbenga Ayeni, and associate professor of journalism at Bingham University, Karu, Nasarawa State, Tivlumun Nyitse, will be in Unilorin entourage. Kola Olorunleke and Tunde Akanni, professors at FUL, Lokoja and the Lagos State University (LASU), respectively, will participate in the launch. Chief operating officer of Benjamin Black Group, Dapo Adelegan, and his counterpart in Noah‘s Ark Communications, Lanre Adisa, will be at the event equally.
Tunde Olusunle is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja. He is better known as a poet and has previously published three volumes of painstaking verse, notably Fingermarks (1996), Rhythm of the Mortar (2001), and A Medley of Echoes (2022). Forewords to the various poetry volumes were written by Emeritus Professors Femi Osofisan and Olu Obafemi, both recipients of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM), Nigeria‘s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. He previously authored two compendiums of essays: On The Trail Of History: A Reporter‘s Notebook on Olusegun Obasanjo (2006) and Atiku: Perspectives on a Phenomenon (2023).
