Bayo
Lamikanra: Philandering don married to Pharmacy & Literature
By GBENGA ADENIJI
Sunday,
March 30, 2008
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•Professor
Adebayo Lamikanra
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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Indeed, one cannot but compare Professor Adebayo Lamikanra’s
enviable interest in Literature with that of the famous Russian
writer, Anton Chekhov, who, though a medical doctor, passionately
romanced the Arts and wrote timeless plays to the admiration
of classical and contemporary literati.
But unlike Chekhov who said medicine was his wife and literature
his mistress, this Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology
who teaches Pharmacy at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU)
is married to both Pharmacy and Literature, for, according
to him, both disciplines play significant roles in the moulding
of his personality.
“Literature is a more challenging aspect of human endeavour.
It sharpens the mind on the abstract level in a way that science
cannot. Science also challenges the mind and the power of
one’s observations. But it is controlled; you have to
prove how you are sure that your observations don’t
contain some aberrations. The temperature has to be right,
the length of time has to be exact and all that. The Arts
is unfettered and freedom in this sense has some responsibilities.
The man in the Arts has some greater responsibilities than
the man in the science. But today’s science is tomorrow’s
culture. I don’t think there is any man in the Arts
who doesn’t use the Internet. If there is, then such
a man is probably a dinosaur. Time has gone pass such a man.
We are all scientists whether we like it or not only that
some of us are more equipped,” Lamikanra told Sunday
Sun.
As it seems, Pharmacy and Literature chose him. He didn’t
choose them. The 58-year-old Lamikay, as he is fondly called,
would readily tell that Igbobi College, Lagos, which he attended
for his post-primary education from 1962-1968, gave him a
thorough and highly rigorous educational, moral and sporting
trainings.
He opted for the sciences as a sort of educational bravado,
to prove his academic brilliance and versatility. His parents
were teachers at a time. And his Ijesha-born father who once
served as Headmaster of a school in Owo, Ondo State, attended
St. Andrews College, Owo which the Pharmacy lecturer said
many believe Igbobi College is modeled after. Hence, with
his sound academic upbringing, Lamikay guessed Pharmacy was
just the right course for him as it deeply brought out the
broad education in him.
Lamikanra read Pharmacy at O.A.U from 1969-1972. Ever since,
he has been turning out thorough-bred Pharmacists into practitioners
and lecturers alike for self actualization and good of society.
But he didn’t set out to be a lecturer; the hand of
fate was visibly at work in that regard.
His words: “I made a second class lower (degree) and
wondered if the result was mine. Really, nobody had made a
First Class Honours then, so we felt that a Second Class Upper
was all better for the course.
So, I expressed my surprise at the result and was challenged
to apply for a teaching job and would be given the post of
a Graduate Assistant. I did.
My internship was done at the University and a year later,
I went to the University of Manchester, UK for Master’s
degree. It was later converted to a Ph.d. I did my Ph.d in
Pharmaceutical Microbiology. When I returned to Nigeria, I
joined the University as a Lecturer II. I rose to become Lecturer
I in 1978, ’81 or ’82 Senior Lecturer and in 1988,
Professor.”
At 36, his writing career was ignited as he began to comment
on social issues having been piqued with the state of the
nation. And from there he plunged into the challenging waters
of Literature. Since then Lamikanra and literature have become
mutual lovers. Their chemistry just rhymed.
He is grounded in the three genres of Literature viz; Poetry,
Prose and drama. The consummate lecturer has been published
in the first two genres and has recently been commissioned
to write a play by a West Indian movie producer who is currently
on a literary sojourn in Nigeria. The producer who read his
published poetry and short stories and observed that Lamikanra
writes from the soul and knows how to express himself.
Lean years, Heart Sounds (collection of Poems), A Round Half-Dozen
(collection of short stories), Wake me up in the year 2000
and The Almond Trees (collection of Essays) are some of Lamikanra’s
published works. His first poem entitled ‘Ode to SAP’
was a satire against the harsh economic policy of the IBB-led
military junta.
In Phamarcy, Lamikanra has over 60 publications to his credit
and published the only book on Pharmaceutical microbiology
as far back as 1989.
Specifically, his area of specialization which is Pharmaceutical
Microbiology, deals on micro-organisms-some drugs act against
micro-organisms and some micro-organisms infest drugs and
damage them. So, the interest is in studying them so as to
know how to prevent them from damaging our drugs and also
have an insight into how to kill them either in the body or
outside the body.
No doubt, Adebayo Lamikanra is a household name on O.A.U campus,
especially among lover of Arts. This is not only because he
is a professor but also for the fact that he is the organizer
of the crowd-pulling poetry festival in OAU - The Ife Festival
of Poetry.
The annual poetry festival, which has entered its tenth year,
has grown in leaps and bounds and an anthology accommodating
the entries of participating poets is published yearly. It
is usually in two sessions -morning and evening.
The morning session takes place at the academic area with
poetry recitations and rich cultural musical performances
taking the centre stage, while the evening session is usually
held at the University’s Staff Club where those who
have to travel all day to get to Ife for the festival are
poetically entertained in the most relaxed atmosphere.
The gap-toothed professor, however, disclosed to Sunday Sun
that the idea of the festival came shortly after a friend
of his, who lives in Sweden, invited him in 1997 to the Malmo
Festival of Poetry in the southern part of that country.
According to him, Wole Soyinka and another Nobel Prize winner
in Literature had earlier been invited to the festival in
which about 15 poets selected across the world are taken round
pubs, restaurants, churches, supermarkets, clubs etc, to recite
their poems.
“It was really entertaining and indeed a performance
poetry. Participants recited their poems in their preferred
language and the organizers later translated it to the language
of their people. Immediately I got to Nigeria, I didn’t
allow the grass to grow under my feet. And I thank God today
for what Ife festival of poetry has become,” Lamikanra
said with profound sense of fulfilment.
But organizing a festival of such literary magnitude hasn’t
been without some challenges. Lamikanra revealed that it cost
good money to organize the festival every year, adding that
if about 130 poets send in their poems only 30 may eventually
be available to recite them. As a result, he said he had decided
to parley with the young ones by inviting students from Secondary
Schools across the states in the country. The idea, he said,
came during the last festival and many schools attended promptly.
To show how excited the students were, Lamikanra said they
were ready to recite poems even before the festival was yet
to officially commence.
Said he: “They have bodies ready and we were able to
connect to their young minds. If we are able to catch the
young minds, they are the ones that will be attending the
festival for several years to come.”
In fact, those in the Humanities and literary critics in general
don’t see Lamikay as an ‘intruder’ for they
give him all the support there is to really spread his creative
tentacles. He, in turn, treasures their warm reception and
refuses to hide it. Professor Lamikanra particularly mentioned
the Romantic Poet and stylistician extraordinaire, Professor
‘Niyi Osundare, who, among others, have been encouraging
him to forge ahead in his literary adventures.
It may even interest you to know that his two children are
toeing different paths from his. Both sons schooled at OAU.
The first studied Physical Education and the second read Law
and is in the Nigeria Law School at the moment.
“I am happy for they are not doing what I’m doing.
My own is to make them useful to themselves and the society.
I don’t remember saying I wanted to study Pharmacy,
I just found myself in it. I could have done Geology or History,
for I have a passionate interest in both. I could have done
a lot of things. I would have loved to be a professional cricketer,
for I engage in a lot of sporting activities.
"But I have no regret at all for what I have done. Some
people call me Professor of English or Professor of Political
Science. This shows that I have crossed several boundaries
in my professional career as a pharmacist, writer and social
commentator.
It may not have been a conscious choice but I think that I
have done well enough to be satisfied with my contributions
to my chosen career,” stated Adebayo Lamikanra who currently
supervises five Ph.d scholars. |
