My opinion article, "They now call our professors bros!" was published in The Guardian, Thursday, May 28, 2015. It was not for nothing that I wrote that article comparing great professors of old and the new with an opening line on Prof. A.A. Elueze.

"WOULD you dare walk into the office of Professor A.A Elueze, of the Geology Department, University of Ibadan many years back sloppily dressed? You couldn’t.

Most students tucked their shirts into their trousers and secured their shirt buttons appropriately before doing so. Here was a professor who walked his talk and was known for his firm principles. Undergraduates wouldn’t dare enter his lectures late, after he had started teaching, He was a professor of first-rate quality and never brooked laziness from students."

Professors are well-regarded professionals and this educational designation is customarily given after years of conscientious academic work.

No sooner was that article published than an academic, just returned to Nigeria, called to thank me for that article and vented his spleen on Nigeria's educational environment (my numbers were listed then). Moments later, professor Sylvia called me from the University of Benin to say she knew the great professors I mentioned and that I should keep up the good work. Professor Aweto, called from Ibadan to thank me for mentioning him in that article and said, it will encourage him to work harder.

Forever humble. That professor. Days later, whilst watching a programme on TV, I got a call. "Is that Simon Abah." "Speaking," I responded. "My name is professor Elueze" I jumped up from my seat.

"Goodness gracious me." "You called me professor?" "Yes, I had to. My attention was drawn to your publication in The Guardian in which you gave me credit. You are a good man. A very nice man. Me! Elueze, in a national newspaper. May God bless you." I told him that he truly deserved it and that his principled, disciplinarian stance enabled we students to see life beyond our narrow indoctrinated perspective.

"Where are you and what do you do now?" I told him. "I will see you again God-willing. God bless you. You are such a good man." His call made my day.

In April 2016, I got the chance to visit  the University of Ibadan. Regrettably both he and Prof. Aweto were out of town. When I called Prof. Elueze, he said he was sick and "managing a sickness associated with old age." "I will put you in my prayers" was what I said. I never stopped praying for him. I had to take a snapshot in front of his office with his name stuck on the door clearly visible in the photograph. I called him after that, and he returned the call and he also called at other times to know how I was doing.

It was with shock therefore, when a colleague called to inform me of his passing in late June. I called Professor Aweto and he confirmed it.

Professor Azubuike Anthony Elueze, former head of department, Geology, Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan was a distinguished gentleman who didn't believe in public and private morality. He walked his talk. I wrote a tribute on my facebook wall and Babatunde Ajayi wrote this about him, "If you had the head of Medusa, you dare not come late to Prof. Elueze's class. How time flies."

I remember a friend of mine Anthony Nzekwu and others from Ibusa who were Geology students and they loved him no-end. He was instrumental for their love of Geology.

Professor Elueze was a first-class graduate of Geology. It says a lot about him. He was very strict, but very accommodating if you knew your onions. Grammatical rubbish such as, "it is like" "basically speaking," "as in" were not tolerated by him.

A graduate student he supervised called me when he read,"they now call our professors bros!" "The fact that you are a graduate student does not give you the excuse to dress shabbily, you must tuck in your shirts in his presence.

 Little details always mattered to him when he read my thesis" He also told him to not copy another person's work verbatim, to avoid the risk of plagiarism accusations and to be careful about paraphrasing someone else's work. "Do be careful." He warned him.

As a Catholic myself, I saw him participate actively in the activities of our chapel in the university, "Our lady Seat of Wisdom Parish" I was told that he was also active in the activities of the Catholic church in his native Ibusa community in Delta state.

I think the most important thing for me is having known that Professor Elueze was someone so kind and jovial and could feel the pain of another, having told him of my many unrealized dreams after university of Ibadan, to suspend everything and call me to know how I was doing, even if it was fleeting was spiritually intimate and would be with me forever.

Rest in peace, professor A. A Elueze

‪

SIMON ABAH

Port Harcourt

Nigeria.