Professor Omo Omoruyi

Late Prof. Omo Omoruyi On Monday, October 14, 2013 I woke up at about 4 am to discover too shockingly from the social media that the great Professor Omo Omoruyi, renowned and foremost political scientist who for many years was my mentor had lost his long drawn battle with cancer. I was instantly disillusioned on the news of this sad event for a number of reasons

Prof. Omo Omoruyi was evidently a rare Nigerian; his exit at this time the nation is critically in search of credible leaders leaves an ample space too difficult to fill. In fact, my close association with him starting from 2005 when he returned from his self exile revealed to me inviting and desirable attributes of Professor Omoruyi which are lacking in many of our leaders today. He was not only detribalised, he was a downright   patriot, and an honest Nigerian.

As an accomplished academic, Professor Omoruyi had many writings to his credit.  Prior to my close contact with him, I had developed somewhat admiration for him, arising from his candour, wit and erudition. This prompted me to read every piece of article he wrote about Nigerian politics and government enabling me to respect his robust, courageous, unabashed and illuminating style of writing. His articles touched so much on the hypocrisy of the leaders of the Nigerian state that offer little or no accommodation for the underprivileged. As a young man then such articles that lampooned the political class excited me. I dreamed of the opportunity of close contact with this great Nigerian who through his writings offered me useful insights into intricacies of governing a fragile state like Nigeria.

He would also be greatly remembered for his innovative contributions to Nigerian electoral system which if genuinely sustained would have cleansed our putrid electoral process. It is on record that Prof Omo Omoruyi introduced the two- party system and the Modified Open Ballot System (MOBS) otherwise known as Option A4. His platform, Centre for Democratic Studies was never given the credit, instead NEC took the credit and this did not bother him.

It was indeed a great privilege to have worked closely with such a great Nigerian on former Military President Ibrahim Babangida presidential campaign project in 2007. This offered us a wonderful opportunity to interact, analyse the Nigerian political situation and to share ideas.  Prof as we used to call him was a great fun and intellectual to behold. During our interactions he proved to be down-to-earth, humble, kind, and candid.

He was so profound about his perception of events which sometimes I considered too academic and at variance with realities. He saw everything from the prism of academics, judged political events in Nigeria from the angle of advanced democracies. In his view democracy must be near perfection. We however disagreed on some of his hard core perceptions. 

Prof Omoruyi was a man of great integrity and shunned opulence. When he resigned as DG of CDS, he had no car other than his official car. When an attempt was made on his life, he was flown abroad on borrowed funds. Yet, here was a man who was in the “bedroom” of power, nominated Ministers, and helped people get multi-million Naira contracts and oil blocs. Prof,   was thus an epitome of selflessness; he evidently lived for his friends and for the country.

As a social critic, Prof Omoruyi fought many scary battles in his life time. He disagreed with his long standing friend, confidant and boss, IBB over the annulment of June 12 Presidential election. It became so deep that he went to press to insist that the election was free, fair and credible and advised him to handover to the winner. That was the flash- point of their departure.

Dogged, resolute and defiant especially on issues he believed in, he took on Abacha at every forum locally and internationally to denounce the continued military dictatorship in Nigeria and the sustained detention of Chief M.K.O Abiola, winner of the June 12 Presidential election. The result was orchestrated state assassination attempt. He was thus forced into exile. The rest is history.  Intrinsically, he also took up arms against Civilian Administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo over his plot to elongate his tenure.       

I recall with nostalgia our last day in Minna after a session with IBB at 12:30am on December 6, 2006.  After he successfully persuaded IBB to shelve the idea of running in the Presidential election and the General tasked him to prepare a draft of his withdrawal letter to President Obasanjo, while we were putting finishing touches on the draft, Prof tapped me on the shoulder and said; “Mbaise man, learn to live with the realities and always be prepared for them”. This witty annotation still relives in me till day. Like this annotation, even though Prof Omoruyi is dead, being a man of wisdom  and intellect,  his beliefs and perceptions will live on.

 Prof Good night Sir!  You were an incontrovertible good man.