Saint Augustine Of Hippo, Jimoh Odutola Of Ijebu Ode And Muyiwa Awe Of Ibadan

Jimoh Odutola was born March 16, 1905, on the day of the wedding of Gugliemo Marconi, Physicist and then the greatest Italian Scientist.

Conversely Muyiwa Awe’s wedding was on December 25, 1960, the anniversary of the birth of Isaac Newton, the greatest British Physicist.

Jimoh Odutola and Muyiwa Awe are both pioneers in Nigeria, West Africa and Africa. Odutola was the first man to discover raw gold in Nigeria and Awe the first President of the Nigerian Institute of Physics; Awe would describe Physics as the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg.

Odutola was the owner of the first tyre retreading factory in West Africa and Awe the first President of the West African Association of Science. Odutola was the first African to fly over the North Pole and Awe the first African Professor of Physics on the African Continent.

Odutola started business on December 7, 1921 and Awe was formally brought into the fold of the Professoriate with his Inaugural Lecture on December 7, 1973.

December 7 is known as the feast of Saint Ambrose. Saint Ambrose baptised Saint Augustine. Ambrose is the Patron Saint of Milan. Saint Augustine got his first appointment as Professor in Milan. Jimoh Odutola said he iwas confident that if his name was featured in any newspaper in Milan he iwas sure to be recognised.

Muyiwa Awe and Saint Augustine were born in November 13, 354 A.D. and November 13, 1932 respectively; Augustine in the present-day Algeria and Awe in Nigeria, both of them Pastors and Professors. Augustine was a philosopher and Awe a physicist. Hundreds of years back Physics was known as Natural Philosophy. Augustine was a womaniser and Awe as an undergraduate was a member of the Society for the Study of Sex.

Augustine’s father and Awe’s Father both converted from paganism to Christianity.

Augustine was a member of a gang boasting about crimes that he did not commit and relatedly Awe was a member of the much-talked about Pyrates Confraternity. Augustine wrote the book, The City of God. Awe wrote the book, The Fatherhood of God.

Augustine has been described as a great genius and Awe, one of the four geniuses from Government College, Ibadan – the others being Wole Soyinka, Oludolapo Akinkugbe and Christopher Kolade.

Disclaimer: "The views expressed on this site are those of the contributors or columnists, and do not necessarily reflect TheNigerianVoice’s position. TheNigerianVoice will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here."

Articles by Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth