The University of Ilorin has said it will organise a candlelight procession for one of it’s alumni, Prof. Pius Adesanmi, who died aboard the Boeing 737 Max–8 that crashed on Sunday.

Pius Adesanmi

A statement signed by Kunle Akogun, Director, Corporate Affairs of the University, on Saturday in Ilorin said the candlelight procession would be organised by the Faculty of Arts on March 19.

He said that the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Sulyman Abdulkareem described the late Professor of Literature and African Studies as “a true nationalist and a rare patriot.”

He said that Mr Adesanmi graduated from the University of Ilorin in 1992 with a First Class honours degree in French.

The vice-chancellor described the deceased as a humanist and an embodiment of all the ideals that Unilorin represents.

Mr Abdulkareem lamented that Mr Adesanmi’s death came at a time when the nation needed his robust intellectual and incisive contribution to its development most.

“The country had benefitted immensely from the late Professor’s dispassionate interventions through well-researched social commentaries on national issues at critical points of its socio-political and economic development.

“Being a committed nationalist, the late Adesanmi was never happy at the state of rot in critical sectors of the nation.

“He never kept quiet nor indulged in complacency, as many of his colleagues who had found comfortable solace abroad,” he said.

Mr Akogun quoted Mr Abdulkareem, as saying, that less than 24 hours before his demise, the patriotic zeal in the late social critic was evident on his Twitter Handle, where he was still discussing the then ongoing governorship and State House of Assembly elections in the country.

“While commiserating with the entire nation, especially the immediate family that the late don left behind, the Vice-Chancellor urged Nigerians not to allow Prof. Adesanmi die in vain.

“Nigerians should emulate his patriotic zeal toward taking the country to greater heights.”

Mr Adesanmi, a 47 year-old indigene of Isanlu in Kogi state was a lecturer at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, before his death in a plane crash on Sunday, March 10, 2019.