After several years of legislative work and lobbying of the highest order, Senator Fatai Buhari, has delivered the Federal University of Agriculture and Technology, Okeho to his constituents in Oyo North Senatorial district.
Buhari single-handedly led the entire process that birthed the University in the two chambers of the national assembly and the final stage of Presidential Assent which eventually occurred yesterday.
But in his statement to announce the Presidential assent yesterday, Buhari mentioned an individual that played a key role to ensure President Bola Tinubu signed the bill establishing the University into law. His name is Prof. Segun Gbadegesin. The question that many have since asked is: Who is Segun Gbadegesin?
Ife-trained Howard Professor
Prof. Gbadegesin received his B.Sc. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics with a First Class Honors from the University of Ife in June 1974, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980.
He worked as a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Obafemi Awolowo University between 1981 and 1989. During his Ife stint, he served as Head of Department and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Arts.
He was a Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison between 1989-1990, and Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Colgate University, Hamilton, New York between 1990 and 1992.
Gbadegesin joined Howard University, Washington, DC in July 1992 as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Philosophy until June 30, 2001. He served as Associate Dean for the Division of Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences from July 2010 to June 2012 and as Interim Dean of the College from July 2012 to December 2014. Professor Gbadegesin retired from Howard University in June 2016.
Tinubu’s Associate
Gbagedesin is a close associate of President Bola Tinubu right from their days as pro-democracy activists in the 1990s. He prominently presented Yoruba programs on Radio Kudirat.
When Gbadegesin clocked 70 in 2016, he launched his autobiography, All the Way: Serving with Conscience. The event was attended by President Tinubu, who was a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the time, the party’s Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, and Deputy National Chairman (Southwest), Chief Pius Akinyelure and Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi. Others were ex-governors of Ogun and Ekiti states, Chief Segun Osoba and Otunba Niyi Adebayo, and Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora.
Early Days
Gbadegesin was born in 1945 in Okeho, currently in Kajola Local Government of Oyo State. His attended First Baptist Primary School, Isia, Okeho before proceeding to Baptist Secondary Modern School, Koso Iseyin where he received the Secondary Modern School certificate in 1960.
He then began the next phase of his education at the Local Authority Teacher Training College, Oyo, where he received the Grade III Teachers’ Certificate in 1963. He taught for two years and was admitted to the African Church Teacher Training College, Ifako, Agege, in 1966.
He received the Teachers’ Grade II Certificate in 1967. After completing his GCE Ordinary Level in 1967, he worked for three years as a teacher and bank clerk before attending the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) from where he graduated with a First Class Honors in Government/Philosophy/Economics (GPE) in 1974.
Family Man, Accomplished Kids
Prof Gbadegesin and his wife, Toun, founded the Segun & Toun Gbadegesin Family Foundation (STGFF), an organization that dedicates the resources available to it to the promotion of educational opportunities for young men and women of Oke-Ogun in general, and Okeho and Eruwa in particular through competitive scholarships for higher education, and health insurance premiums for the needy for greater access to good, especially preventive healthcare.
His son, Muyiwa Gbadegesin, who holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Georgetown University, was commissioner, and later Deputy Chief of Staff, under the administration of late former governor Abiola Ajimobi.
Muyiwa is currently the Director General of Lagos Waste Management Authority. He was, at different times, senior special assistant to Lagos governors, including during the administration of Tinubu as Governor in 2003.
Prof Gbadegesin’s daughter, Ike Gbadegesin, an Harvard-trained historian and lawyer, has worked for major global law firms in the UK and US. She is currently the Senior Vice President at US-based chemical manufacturing firm, Eastman.
