Rev’d Olusola G. Oluwatoyinbo: Good Bye, Good Night
By Gani Adeniran
When on Tuesday, April 27th 2021, Reverend Olusola Gabriel Oluwatoyinbo passed on in Canada, I was devastated. Not that he was too young to have died or possibly unprepared for the hereafter, but the futility of the human enterprise simply caught my attention again! Hear what the author of the book of Ecclesiastes (9:11-12) has to say: *“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.”*
As what seems to me the nadir of the despair, the same Preacher is uncertain whether the fate of human beings is better than those of other living things when he says in Ecclesiastes (3:19) *“For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.”*
This scripture is difficult to swallow but it represents a fundamental lesson of life! All the happiness, wisdom, enjoyment, riches, knowledge, power and influence of man are of temporary value and they are never totally satisfying! Only the life anchor on God is worth the living. In conclusion, the Preacher enjoins us: ” *Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man* .”
Rev’d Dr Olusola Gabriel Oluwatoyinbo led a spartan life of service to God and humanity. He touched many lives and left his indelible marks in the sands of time. It was in his hands that others and I landed in 1977 as ordinary Diploma students/Livestock Assistants in Training of the then School of Animal Health School (IAR&T) University of Ife, Moore Plantation, Ibadan with Mama Elizabeth E. Crocket as the School Principal.
Dr Oluwatoyinbo was very dutiful, considerate and accommodating. Since our class boasted of students with school certificates and those with on-the-job experience but limited requirements (known as field overseers), he strove to come to the level of everybody in the Pharmacology course that he taught us.
His efforts paid off, otherwise there would have been mass failure in that class.
He was a prayer warrior, always ready to offer prayer at every point. Our teacher was very handsome. He spoke Yoruba fluently and his handwriting was good enough to earn him a most beautiful lady! He got one in the then Miss Foluke Okunlola of Oke Imesi.
After completion of the Ordinary Diploma programme, he encouraged some of us either to go for the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, return for the HND, or travel for further studies in the USA, especially Tuskegee University, in Alabama. These three suggestions were embraced by different students in my class set then. I maintained good relationship with him throughout my undergraduate days and it was by providence that he was instrumental to my being employed as Tutor II at the School of Animal Health School (IAR&T) in 1988 as soon as I returned to the Oyo State Civil Service after my study leave without pay and the NYSC.
Dr Oluwatoyinbo also supported my transfer to the University of Ibadan when the opportunity came barely a year after I joined the School. He loved genuinely, admired dearly and never discriminated on the basis of religion.
Together with Dr Kanayo Nwufor (also of blessed memory) they worked assiduously in the transformation of the school from “School of Animal Health” to “School of Animal Health and Husbandry” and now “Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology.”
Rev’d Olusola Gabriel Oluwatoyinbo lived well and left behind a splendid example of how to live, a life anchored on God.
He made great demands on himself in serving: always perceiving himself as an instrument in the hand of God. He exhibited many fruits of the spirit: peaceful outlook, gentleness, self-control, goodness, readiness to forgive, guilelessness, faith in God and, above all, great humility.
May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.
Dr Gani Adeniran
Department of Veterinary Pathology
University of Ibadan, Ibadan.
