Today’s reasoned concerns about observable feverish official attitude to constitutionally-guaranteed free speech provisions exemplified in a growing or systematic emasculation of the dissemination of social truths, have reawakened the thematic concerns of Professor Ayo Olukotun.

In his many scholarly interventions on the requirement to safeguard our individual and collective freedoms through an unfettered media institution, Olukotun has ably presented his thesis. His scholarship gives us a great fund of talking point on the subject matter of the media and society.

Olukotun remains a solid contributor to the requirement to enlarge the surface area of public consciousness and discourse even as he proposed the terms of engagement of an anti-people administration. His goal to awaken our consciousness to the stunted reality of our democracy and to the awful possibility of the contraction or total proscription of guaranteed freedoms under the facile rubric of “Ours is yet a nascent democracy” is still work in progress. It is yet to be realised.

Even though Olukotun has passed on the baton to us to continue the struggle, our biggest undoing is our collective infidelity to the nature of the calling. It is not a fight-and-run-away showmanship bravado or rodomontade. Commitment to its ideals must be total and unwavering. The struggle for free speech or of matters concerning its functions has a long history.

in repressive state and resurgent media under Nigeria’s Military Dictatorship 1988-1998, Olukotun explored and expanded the theme of the relationship between the media and the government of the day. In that seminal work, he carved new perspectives respecting the development of the media in Nigeria. Olukotun’s view of a resurgent media preoccupation is unlike most views which elicit popular success in the form of ‘propaganda’. His suggestions for achieving our goal of a free society are neither hypnotic nor pressuring to emotions.

Olukotun does not incite us to emotions but ideologically transports us to practical coherence. The effect of Olukotun’s works is to invite or persuade us to accept the view of his vigorously-researched postulation. He limits the truth of his research finding to that which can be methodically ascertained by anyone thereby leaving his art to be a form of experimental, verifiable truth.

Olukotun’s real purpose is “to make us perceive what we see and to imagine what we already conceptually or practically know” with his infusion of refreshing lyricism or peculiar word coinage. Olukotun’s early dalliance with Literature in his student days at Ife simmers through his published works as he effortlessly draws allusions from the rich culture of literary appreciation and the robust imagination of creative authors.

Enamoured of the arts, especially history, there is probably not a single political figure of note whose works Olukotun did not read. He was intimate with the classics – the ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. In literature, Olukotun had a passion for English romantic poets and nineteenth century novelists. His distinctive understanding of recommended texts stood him out early as a potential outstanding literary scholar. The delight in finding one’s own thought expressed in language more clear and convincing than one could hope to express by himself is Olukotun’s captivating flair for writers in the novel genre.

In metaphysics or religion, Olukotun believed that the universe is ruled by immutable laws that are not set aside for the benefit or displeasure of any individual. All humans have equal treatment regarding the laws. No special favours attend any group or sect. Olukotun had a scholar’s knowledge of the Bible and more than a nodding acquaintance of the Koran, the Talmud, the Pentateuch or the Torah and other sacerdotal works. He was at home over abstruse points of interpretation and translation as he engages in numerous exchanges with friends and curious learners. Religion remained for Olukotun an area that was best entertained outside of intellectual rigour.

Olukotun possessed all the qualities that qualify him as a perfect gentleman – empathy, sensitivity, grace and charm. His ability to persuade, delight and arouse admiration remains, even in his transition, a delightful talking point. As a raconteur or skilful narrator of the events of his growing up years, Olukotun had no rival. He would re-tell the story, for example, of his Ife studentship with bubbling wit and fellow alumni would wonder if they ever caught the Great Ife charm.

Belonging to many discussion groups, which met at regular intervals of three or four times a year, the central theme of which discourse was the state of the nation, Olukotun neither missed his keen social sense nor abandoned his disarming camaraderie. Financial security eluded Olukotun and disallowed him from satisfying his generous impulses. The general poor remuneration of the nation’s eggheads or of tertiary institutions’ teachers and researchers prevented Olukotun from acquiring any fortune – substantial or otherwise. He abandoned his hope of sponsoring doctoral students in History, Diplomacy or International Relations or of endowing a chair of Media Studies, by whatever name called.

Olukotun was, however, generous in kind and cash within his means to friends and colleagues. Among his many mails are dozens of letters thanking him for gifts ranging from meals at eateries to tuition fees. He took special interest in orphans who managed to secure admission into college but who have no means to see themselves through financially. They were often in and out of his office and residence. Olukotun stood in loco parentis for many of them. He would discuss books with them and ask them questions on the materiality or contextuality of the issues to contemporary life.

As he grew older, Olukotun relished more and more the companionship of his peers. He always surrounded himself with congenial debating partners often persons who had opposing views to his. Olukotun’s vision of Nigeria resonates with the clear-eyed ideological position of  devolution of power to the sub-national entities or federating units which idea has thankfully returned to the front burner of the national question interrogation in the popular lingo of ‘true federalism’ or ‘Restructuring’.

Despite Olukotun’s deeply or seriously thoughtful concern for the fate of Nigeria, he remained a contented or satisfied man in his private life. For Olukotun, it is not all stiff academic or intellectual rigour. The quick-witted responses of Ayo at Ife were legendary. Space can permit us only one rib-cracking, debonair instance.

Emerging from the cafeteria one dizzying hot afternoon, Olukotun was brandishing a sizeable mound of fried or roasted chicken and a jar of ice-cream. He ran into one elliptical, demonstrative colleague and the following intercourse ensued:
McFoy: Ayo, how now?
Olukotun: We dey su-ffer!

We wish Ayo were around to see how taken-for-granted rice and chicken today define our being or existence. May the gentle soul of Olukotun continue to rest in peace.

Rotimi-John, a course mate and inspirational friend of Olukotun, is deputy secretary-general of Afenifere.