Olufemi Babatunde Ajayi
Lovingly known as “Prof. B.”
11 February 1938 — 21 March 2023 · aged 85
Plant pathologist, deacon and the professor who taught Ibadan to save its cassava
Ibadan, Nigeria Born in Ogbomoso, Oyo State Resting at Family burial ground, OgbomosoAbout Olufemi
In 1968, a young lecturer at the University of Ibadan noticed that the cassava on his family's farm outside Ogbomoso had begun to curl and yellow. Most people called it bad luck. Olufemi Ajayi called it a research question, and he spent the next forty years answering it.
The son of a Baptist catechist, he was the first in his family to finish secondary school, winning a place at Baptist Boys' High School in Abeokuta and then at University College, Ibadan. A doctorate in plant pathology at the University of Reading followed, and he returned home in 1967 with a suitcase of reference books and a promise to his father that he would not stay abroad. He kept it.
At Ibadan he rose from lecturer to professor, served a term as Dean of the Faculty of Science, and worked alongside the researchers at IITA on the diseases that threatened West Africa's staple crops. Students remembered his terrifying red pen, his habit of arriving at the laboratory at six in the morning, and the afternoons when he would take a whole class out to a farm to look at a single leaf for an hour. Dozens of his students now teach in universities from Lagos to Leeds.
He was a deacon for thirty years, a lifelong Baptist who nevertheless followed his wife, Titilayo, to Anglican harvest services every October and sang the hymns louder than anyone. He loved amala with ewedu, Fela's early records played at a respectable volume, and long arguments about cricket he had never seen played.
Prof. Ajayi died peacefully at home in Bodija in March 2023, four years after losing his wife. He is survived by his three children, nine grandchildren and a generation of scientists.
“A farmer who loses a crop has not lost luck. He has lost information. Go and find it.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Ogbomoso, Oyo State
- Resting place
- Family burial ground, Ogbomoso
- Passed away
- 21 March 2023, Ibadan
Funeral Service
Thursday, 6 April 2023 at 12:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Secondary education
Baptist Boys' High School1951 – 1956 · Abeokuta
First in his family to complete secondary school.
PhD Plant Pathology
University of Reading1963 – 1967 · Reading, England
Studied fungal and viral diseases of tropical root crops.
Lecturer to Professor of Plant Pathology
University of Ibadan1967 – 2003 · Ibadan
Supervised more than sixty postgraduate students.
Married Titilayo Ogunsanya
1964 – 2019 · Ibadan
A marriage of fifty-five years.
University of Ibadan Distinguished Service Award
University of Ibadan2003 · Ibadan
On his retirement after thirty-six years.
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Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Olufemi is survived by
- Dr. Folake Ajayi-Williams· Daughter
- Tunde Ajayi· Son
- Bimpe Ajayi-Cole· Daughter
- 9 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
5 people have shared a memory of Olufemi.
Knew Olufemi? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- BA
Daughter, London
Daddy ended every telephone call with the same words: 'Don't spoil the good name.' He meant the family's, but I think he meant everyone's. We are trying to deserve it. Thank you to everyone who has written.
- DF
Former student, now at Cornell University
I teach plant pathology in New York because Prof. B. once handed me a magnifying glass and a diseased cassava leaf and said, 'There is a whole country in there.' He was right. I have been exploring it ever since.
- PA
Alafia Baptist Church, Bodija
Deacon Ajayi counted the offering for thirty years and never once wrote a note of complaint about the small coins. He paid for the school uniforms of fourteen children in our parish and asked that nobody ever be told it was him.
- DE
Former PhD student
I arrived in 1996 afraid of him. By my viva I understood the red pen was his way of saying he believed I could do better. He came to my wedding and my inaugural lecture, and in both rows sat the same proud, slightly bored professor.
- BO
Colleague, Department of Botany, University of Ibadan
For thirty years we shared a corridor and one temperamental kettle. Femi never once reached the end of a faculty meeting without making some visiting dignitary laugh. He was fierce about standards and gentle about people, which is rarer than any professorship.
