Born on the 5th of April 1945, Professor Emeritus Titiloye Ademola OYEJIDE, an illustrious son of Ikire, the headquarter of Irewole Local Government of Osun State attended Aiyedaade Grammar School, Ikire and obtained the West African School Certificate with flying colours. He took up job as a clerk to help the education of his younger brother who was admitted to the famous Government College, Ibadan. At the same time, he read for the General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level).
He gained admission to University of Ibadan in 1965 to read Economics and graduated in June 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics, First Class Honours -the first person to earn a First Class honours in the Department of Economics. He invariably came under the tutelage of his teacher and mentor, the late Professor Ojetunji Aboyade of blessed memory, the first Nigerian Head of Department, who instituted a virile capacity building programme especially training of graduates of the Department in the best Universities in North America and Europe.
He gained admission into an M. A. Economics degree programme at Princeton University, USA. However, the process of taking up the admission was delayed hence his mentor, Professor Ojetunji Aboyade, fast-tracked his admission to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) for an M. Sc. in Economics as a stop-gap measure. Thus, he was in LSE between 1968 and 1969 and earned an M. Sc. degree in Economics in June 1969. He, thereafter, proceeded to Princeton University and earned an M. A. degree in Economics in 1970 and a Ph. D. Degree in Economics in 1972. While at Princeton, he served as teaching assistant between 1970 and 1971.
With two Master’s Degrees and a Ph.D. in economics in his kitty, the young Ademola Oyejide did not waste time in coming back to his alma mater, the University of Ibadan, where he joined the services of the University as a Lecturer in 1972. He was promoted to the grade of Senior Lecturer in 1976 and Professor in 1979 at the age of 34. He retired from the services of the University in 2010 and was appointed Emeritus Professor in 2013. He has since become a global citizen with a fixed address in the Department of Economics from where he has been contributing his quotas in different areas including teaching, research, mentorship and leadership.
It has been a great blessing since our paths first crossed in the late 1980s. Although, I gained admission to the Department of Economics in 1985, I did not have a personal encounter with this quintessential economist until during my Ph. D. proposal seminar. The proposal was thoroughly discussed and torn apart at least from my perspective. A ray of hope came from my supervisor, Professor Akin Iwayemi and Professor Emeritus Oyejide who also informed me that a revised proposal incorporating comments offered at the seminar can earn me a thesis grant from the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). The thesis grant was not only the beginning of my association with AERC, but also a launch pad to the international community of foremost economists.
Professor Emeritus Oyejide defines himself as an economist who refused to be pigeonholed or restricted to a particular area of economics. This is possible partially because of his academic exposure to the best traditions of English economic philosophy as well as American economic thinking, but more importantly, because he was schooled in the tradition of development economics and introduced to the tap root school of economic thought by his mentor, the late Professor Ojetunji Aboyade. This placed him in the vantage position to teach, research and publish in different areas of economics. His contributions to economics as a discipline covers trade, trade policy and regional integration – his main area of specialization); banking and finance; industrial economics; public finance; governance and polity; among others.
Professor Emeritus Oyejide is an erudite scholar with over 250 publications to his credit in highly rated journals nationally and internationally; books and chapters in books, monographs, technical reports, conference and seminar papers. As a consummate teacher, he was part of the team that designed the Master of Business Administration programme in October 1980. He taught courses in economics including international economics and development, microeconomics, macroeconomics, management theory, history of economic thought across different programmes in the Department.
He directed some collaborative research programmes under the auspices of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) based in Nairobi, Kenya. The AERC collaborative research programmes are deliberately designed to promote capacity building in rigorous analysis of economic issues with a view to influencing policy direction. They involve senior academics providing the lead with presentations of framework papers that focus on conceptual and methodological issues. They also involve middle to junior colleagues authoring case studies on an issue across countries and or sectoral dimensions. Through this mechanism Professor Emeritus Oyejide has touched the lives of thousands of economists, directly and indirectly, especially those in the areas of trade, regional integration and economic development in general. For instance, the first project he directed: Regional integration and trade liberalisation in sub-Saharan Africa, involved over 60 researchers. The output was published in 4 volumes by Macmillan, London. Similarly, the second collaborative project directed by Professor Emeritus Oyejide, African imperatives in the new world trade order was as impactful as the first one. In addition, he was the Chairman of the AERC’s Trade, Trade Policy and Regional Integration thematic research group for over two decades where young researchers were guided to design and execute policy relevant research projects in that particular area. The impact of this is that Africa now boasts of critical experts in trade policy and negotiations at both regional and multilateral levels.
Professor Oyejide excels as a leader and institutional capacity builder. He served the Department and the University as the head of the Department between 01 August 1981 and 31 July 1985 and he introduced positive changes that have stood the test of time. During his tenure, he initiated the design of Master of Science in Banking and Finance (MBF) which started in 1982. He attracted the grant for the development of the programme from the then International Bank for West Africa (IBWA) (Afribank Nigeria plc and now Polaris bank plc). The fund was used to construct the Department of Economics annex building, popular called “Afribank building” and to support the running of the programme for some years.
He pioneered the establishment of the Trade Policy Research and Training Programme (TPRTP), a major platform for bringing together all those interested in the issue of trade, trade policy and related areas and he served as its Director from 1990 to 2010. In 2011, Professor Emeritus Oyejide with, some of us, also established and served as the Chairman of the Centre for Trade and Development Initiatives (CTDI).
He was a visiting scholar to the Institute for International Economic Studies, University of Stockholm, Stockolm between 1978 and 1979 and a visiting fellow to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington between 1985 and 1987. He also served the academic community in different capacities such as member/chairman of different important committees at the University of Ibadan; as external examiner, external assessor, among others. He was Managing Editor of African Journal of Economic Policy (AJEP) between 1994 and 2010 and Editor-in-Chief of Ibadan Journal of the Social Sciences between 2003 and 2007.
Apart from when he was on sabbatical leaves or on approved short leaves, Professor Oyejide is constantly on ground in the Department contributing to capacity building, through mentorship in the area of supervision of students and willingly participating in leading seminar presentations. Through his philosophy of “we as teachers and mentors are around to profess solutions to problems”, Professor Emeritus Oyejide, opens his doors to attend to students and colleagues.
He has supervised over 25 Ph. D. students and it is not surprising that some of his Ph. D. students are also celebrating this great scholar with a book, A Mentor for Life, in his honour at 80. Thus, this would be the second volume written in his honour, the first being Economic Policy and Analysis edited by O.D. Ogun, E.O. Ogunkola and A. S. Bankole in 2005 when he turned 60.
In 2001, he was appointed as one of a 9-member advisory panel on WTO affairs by the former WTO Director-General Mike Moore. The panel advised the D-G on the challenges and opportunities that confront the WTO and the global trading system. Similarly, in 2005, the Nigerian Economic Society (NES) honoured him with the Fellow of NES, FNES.
Beyond the academic and scholarly setting, Professor Oyejide’s direct contributions to business includes serving as Chairman/Director of Trans Intercontinental Bank (TIB) between 1989 and 2005 and Chairman of Ikire Microfinance Bank limited between 2008 and 2020. At the national level, Professor Emeritus Oyejide was the chairman of the National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC) in the Presidency between 2009 and 2012; and, Vice-Chairman, Enlarged National Focal Point on Trade Matters, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Abuja between 2008 and 2012.
For those who love knowledge, Professor Emeritus Oyejide is a role model as he puts in his best in every assignment that he accepted to do. I personally find him a genius and amiable as he is ready to freely engage in academic discourse with an open mind. He tactically dodges any discussion tending toward personality. I strongly believe he always have a frame for analysing and discussing issues.
For me, I am happy to be associated with you. I am using this opportunity to thank him for his sacrifices of love to ensure that I developed my potentials. I join other well-wishers to wish him a wonderful birthday and many more years in good health and prosperity.
Prof E. O. Ogunkola, Professor of Economics writes via (eo.ogunkola@ui.edu.ng)
