Breaking! Africa’s First Professor of Geology Dies in Kwara

The first African professor of Geology, Prof Jimoh Oyawoye has died.
Oyawoye who was chairman of Guarantee Trust Bank reportedly died in Offa his hometown on Monday.
A former member of the Kwara State House of Assembly in Kwara Hon. Saheed Popoola, while speaking of the late Oyawoye, said his impact on his people were too immense to describe.
“Baba died today and we are mourning. He was a great man and one who loved his community. You won’t believe it, the Summit University in Offa , he spent so massively you would think the University belongs to him.
In his autobiography, Oyawoye had written “Intuitively, I see myself as an avatar of a sort; embodying all the virtues and nuances of these royal bloods. Easily, this story of my life could carry the title: Alade Merin, but my journey through life has been inexplicably tied to several other factors that have overshadowed my royal beginnings. There is a slice of my life that is far more profound, or do I say, that has remained vivid as it flickers in my subconscious. A chance meeting with that great American poet, Robert Frost while doing my Ph.D in the U.K. and even earlier before, my encounter with his most prominent poem The Road Not Taken (as an undergraduate in the U.S.A.), which purportedly ponders on the choices we make, or refuse to make, as we wade through the seas of life, provided a veritable interpretation of my life. “
At different points, Oyawoye had served as chairman of boards of many companies and institutions both at national and international levels. Some
Of these include Federal Capital Development Authority, 1976 – 1980; West African Examination Council (WAEC), 1985 – 1988; Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (NNPC), 1989 – 1993; Federal College of Education, Yola, 1989 – 1993; Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, 1995 – 2005; Kwara State Agricultural Development Corporation; Kwara State College of Technology, 1968 – 1975; Kwara State Transition Committee (1992).