Nigerian Scholar Biodun Jeyifo Built a Movement That Lives On

When Professor Biodun Jeyifo passed away in February at age 80, Nigeria lost more than a brilliant literary scholar. It lost a revolutionary who believed ideas could change the world and spent his life proving it.

Born in 1946 in Ibadan, West Africa's intellectual hub, BJ graduated with first-class honors in English from the University of Ibadan in 1970. He was only the third student in the university's history to achieve this distinction.

What happened next surprised everyone. While gifted Nigerian scholars were leaving for opportunities abroad, BJ stayed home to complete his Master's degree first, rooting his ideas in Nigerian soil before pursuing his PhD in New York.

He returned to Nigeria not just to teach, but to transform. In 1980, at just 34 years old, BJ became the first national president of ASUU, the Academic Staff Union of Universities he helped create.

Those were dangerous years. Military regimes saw universities as threats to be crushed, and independent thinking as opposition to be silenced.

BJ traveled across Nigeria organizing academics into a coordinated force. His team won every battle with the Federal Government not through violence, but through superior arguments, better data, and unshakeable moral authority.

His approach worked because he came prepared. Femi Falana, a prominent human rights lawyer, later credited BJ with creating the intellectual backbone that makes ASUU powerful today, four decades later.

In 1987, BJ did something that shocked his colleagues. When his university refused him unpaid leave to write a book, he resigned from his tenured position, walking away from career security for his principles.

His scholarship matched his activism. BJ believed literature wasn't just beautiful words on pages but a tool for understanding and transforming society. His Marxism carried deep humanism, recognizing that culture and human dignity matter beyond economics alone.

Why This Inspires

BJ's story reminds us that one person's courage can build institutions that outlast them. The union he founded still holds Nigerian governments accountable for academic freedom today.

He showed a generation of scholars that staying home and fighting for change matters just as much as seeking opportunities abroad. His willingness to test his socialist principles by living in a commune in the late 1970s proved he believed in practicing what he preached.

Even at his 80th birthday celebration just weeks before his death, colleagues remember BJ doing what he always did: asking hard questions and challenging everyone to think deeper about their work and its purpose.

Young scholars across Africa now stand on the foundation BJ built, using their voices to demand better universities, stronger intellectual freedom, and scholarship that serves ordinary people rather than just advancing careers.

His life proved that brilliant minds combined with moral courage can create movements that transform entire nations.