Gbenro Adesina
Her life took a dramatic turn at age nine, when her father died. She had to struggle to make it in life. “However, there was a turn of events in December 1965 (after Christmas) as I was handed over to a very close family relative, who was to sponsor me through secondary school. He had to move to his new station on a transfer just as I was to start Form 1 in January 1966 at the age of 14. As I would be a day-student, he left me in his former house but without any provision for where I would sleep or how I would be fed. So, on the first night, there was the challenge of where to sleep. The corridor was readily available though there was nothing to put on the floor. Finally, a tattered mat “eni ore” was provided with a part of my body touching the cold cement on the floor…Waking up the following morning, which was a Sunday morning, I was faced with the challenge of what to eat as I had no money with me. The landlord’s wife, who was a distant relation, was gracious enough to give me one week of grace and told me to make arrangements for my feeding. That marked the beginning of series of negative experiences for the next five years”, she narrated.
Her story continues, “For example, I trekked a distance of 13 kilometres on a weekly basis to my sponsor’s farm throughout my secondary education. The road was deserted, lonely and abandoned on both sides by might trees with dark and thick shades cast on the road. …I would have been prey to kidnappers, ritualists or wild animals if God had not kept me….After completing my secondary education, I left the village, worked as an account clerk in the Bursary Department in the former University of Ife, Now Obafemi Awolowo University”.
Her determination to live a decent and modest life pushed her into seeking for University education and she eventually got admitted to the nation’s Premier University, where she bagged BEd Hons (Chemistry/Botany). After the completion of the mandatory NYSC, she got employed as education officer in the then Oyo State and was posted to Queens School, Ibadan, where she taught for eight years. In the state civil service, she rose to the rank of Director of Schools. Her incurable thirst for the top returned her to the classroom at 45, to study Master in Psychology, in 1997, which she completed in 1999. Thereafter, she obtained PhD in Developmental Psychology in 2004. She was not scared to start all over again to build a career in the academic as she took up Assistant Lecturer in her Department on October 2, 2000. She rose through the ranks in the academic and became full professor of Developmental Psychology on October 1, 2014.
And on Thursday June 17, 2021, between 5pm and 6pm, Professor Grace Anuoluwapo Adejuwon, 69, gave the 494th Inaugural lecture of the University of Ibadan (UI), titled, “Where Art Thou?”. She made a record of being the first inaugural lecturer from the Developmental Psychology. In her lecture, attended by her husband, Elder Clement Oladele, children, students, colleagues, university administrators and eminent individuals, Adejuwon, called on psychologists to do more in the area of intervention and strategies, saying, “There is no other time in the history of Nigeria as a nation, when psychologists are needed for preventing interventions as well as mending the broken hedges in human lives”.
The Don argued that as a result of the various crisis going on in the country including insurgency, terrorism, banditry, kidnaping, armed robbery and insecurity of life and property, victims of these social menace would require the services of psychologists, who are expected to use multilevel, multidimensional, multidirectional, and multidisciplinary approaches to develop resilience and move on in life. Adejuwon took her title from Genesis 3, where God called out to Adam: “Where Art Thou?”. According to her, God, through this question initiated the first research question and laid the foundation of all research and research questions being raised today in all disciplines.
She noted that God was concerned about Adam’s condition and wanted him to be aware of his condition for possible change. “This enquiry after Adam may be looked upon as a gracious pursuit for his recovery. The Almighty God conducted a detailed assessment, diagnosis and effective intervention strategy…Mankind exists today because of God’s effective intervention, which resulted in behavioral change and recovery. The question, “Where Art Thou?”, formed the basis for the enquiry about human developmental changes, which is my source of motivation with a focus on lifespan developmental psychology”, she pointed out.
According to Adejuwon, her contribution to knowledge has focused on psychological health and wellbeing across lifespan from childhood to old age. The findings and conclusions reached in all her studies have made modest national and international contribution to knowledge, intervention strategies and psychological practice.
The scholar raised an alarm about the challenges Nigeria is facing saying, “You will agree with me that despite decades of investigations by scholars in all disciplines globally, the challenge of our time demand for more investigations to provide a better understanding of human behavior, inform data-based policy and intervention strategies, thereby making the individual lives, families, communities, our society and nation better”. Other concerns of the lecturer are maternal and infant health and well-being. She established that Nigeria is one of the countries that have the highest maternal death rate during and after delivery. Adejuwon was also worried about the failure of mothers in Nigeria to carry out exclusive breastfeeding for six months as recommended by medical experts: “The percentage of women who breastfeed exclusively is still very low…Fifty seven percent of mothers in Nigeria gave babies less than one-month-old water in addition to breast milk, and thirty-six percent of the mothers practiced very high mixed feeding”.
She lamented that the field of developmental psychology is current in danger of extinction with only one academic staff at the professorial level to handle all the courses and supervise all the students. Adejuwon said without adequate recruitment of personnel in Developmental Psychology, it is impossible to accommodate human developmental courses in the course curriculum at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This will not only prevent the developmental psychology unit from extinction, it will also ensure global scholarly contribution on human development from the University of Ibadan.
In his tributes, the former Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences, Prof Peter Olamakinde Olapegba, eulogised the inaugural lecturer, stating that they shared office for some years and she proved to be a wonderful, caring and hardworking woman as well as a fervent prayer warrior. He said that one thing that could not be taken away from her is hard work. According to him, despite the fact that she was already retired from the civil service and she was starting afresh in the academic in old age, she tenacious moved through the ranks to become a professor.
The Head of Department of Psychology, Professor Shyngle Kolawole Balogun, also commended Adejuwon for her hard work, noting that she surely has been followed by God’s grace and mercy as her names connote.
In her own remarks, the Sub-Dean (Postgraduate) of the Faculty, and a political scientist, Dr Olubukola Adesina described Adejuwon as an exceptional individual, who contributed immensely to her career path. She revealed that the inaugural lecturer was her Chemistry teacher in Queens School, Apata, Ibadan and she proved to be more than a teacher to her and her class mates as she was more like a mother, who nurtured all of them to ensure that they all passed Chemistry in flying colours.
In the same vein, the Sub-Dean (Undergraduate) of the Faculty, and a political analyst, Dr Stephen Lafenwa, also remembered his encounter with Adejuwon, when they were all living at Philipson Road, UI, several years ago, noting that she was a mother indeed, who was concerned with the wellbeing of her neigbours.
