Pius Adeyemi, the Nigerian academician goes home

The flight was believed to be carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members on its way to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, when it crashed. It took off from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, at 8:38 a.m. local time and lost contact six minutes later, the airline said.

Since then, encomiums, condolence messages and painful messages of denial have rolled in across social media from colleagues, writers, admirers and even regular Nigerian social media users who only knew the man from his social media posts.

In the new article written by Pulse News Editor, Jude Egbas to announce the painful exit, he wrote, “He was as much a prolific writer as he was a scathing social critic, perpetually adding his voice to the Nigerian discourse and railing against the poor governance that has held his country back, time and again.”

But then, not much is known about the deceased academician being revered in words across social media as one hopes he was here to accept these accolades in person. Death is an unfair canvass of emotional but ultimately sad praises. What then do we know about the late great?

Background and Education

Wikipedia clocks that, “Pius Adesanmi was born in Isanlu, in Yagba East Local Government area of Kogi State, Nigeria. He had a BA (first class honours) from the University of Ilorin in 1992, a Masters in French from the University of Ibadan in 1998, and a PhD in French Studies from the University of British Columbia in 2002.”

Work experience

According to Naija Enterprise, Adesanmi’s educational and career paths are a gift from his parents who were trained teachers in the missionary background. His surroundings also reportedly motivated him towards his career choices and very bright career.

By 2002, Adesanmi was Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, but left in 2005. In 2006, he became Professor of literature and African studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Around 2010, he became a Professor Pius Adesanmi of the Department of English Language and the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University.

He has also been a Fellow of the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA) from 1993 to 1997, and a Fellow of the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) in 1998 and 2000. The late Professor also had a love for the French Language that he created characters in French.

Naija Enterprise writes that Adesanmi says, "The young minds in Nigeria need to be taught about success and the goals they need to achieve in order to be successful. The youth thinks that being a commissioner means you are successful, but they need to be taught how to be content with their abilities and how to set their own distinctive goals.

"Everything does not have to be tied to government appointments and public offices. Changing this mentality is tricky, thus it has to be done carefully with sound reasoning and logic."

Publications and Books

For a long time, Pius Adesanmi was a columnist for Premium Times, NEXT Newspapers and Sahara Reporters, but since, he has published “The Wayfarer and Other Poems,” published by Oracle Books, Lagos in 2001; “You're Not a Country, Africa” published Penguin Books in 2011; and “Naija No Dey Carry Last” published by Parrésia Publishers, 2015.

Interestingly, In September 2015, he wrote a critical piece on the decision of the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, to take an underaged wife. This generated substantial conversation and elicited a response from the Emir, who responded to Adesanmi by name.

The man also delivered a TED Talk titled, ""Africa Is The Forward That The World Needs To Face."

Awards

Pius Adesanmi with his awards. (Writers' Festival) Pulse Nigeria

Adesanmi's first book, “The Wayfarer and Other Poems,” won the Association of Nigerian Authors' Poetry Prize In 2001.
In 2010, “You're not a Country, Africa, a collection of essays, won the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing in the nonfiction category.
Adesanmi received that Canada Bureau of International Education Leadership Award in 2017.

Social media reactions

Nigerian writers have since released a statement signed by Lola Shoneyin.