FOREST SHEPHERD AT 52: A TRIBUTE TO PASTOR (PROF.) KAYODE OGUNJOBI – “AMINO”

In the cathedral of towering iroko and whispering bamboo, where sunlight prays in dappled fragments on the forest floor, we find a man who walks two sacred paths, one of sawdust and syllabi, the other of altars and souls.

Kayode Ogunjobi, the wood whisperer, the student moulder, the union sentinel, today, at 52, you are both root and branch, wood and Word.

Some call you Amino, the essential building block of every living cell.

And truly, you have been the amino acid of this academia; small enough to penetrate the hardest heartwood, vital enough to sustain the whole organism.

You bind the nitrogen of truth to the carbon of courage, releasing the oxygen of hope for all who breathe in your shade.

Your labyrinth is not a maze of confusion but a spiral of redemption.

From the podium of FUNAAB’s student presidency, where your voice was a part of the downpour on parched savannah, to the union trenches of ASUU-UNAAB, where you sharpened your intellect like a bushcutter’s blade against the thicket of injustice, you have been the fire that clears the underbrush for new growth.

Now, as publisher of ValidViewNetwork, you are the hornbill of the digital canopy, carrying seeds of insight from the treetops of knowledge to the waiting earth below.

But higher still, you have answered a different call.

In the Redeemed Christian Church of God, you stand as a shepherd of the flock, your crook carved from the very mahogany you study, your staff laid across the famished road of human despair.

You preach redemption not just in the sanctuary, but in the woodlot, not just from the pulpit, but from the laboratory. For you know that the same God who numbers the hairs on our heads also counts the rings in every felled tree.

At 52, you are the baobab of many seasons, sturdy against the elephants of bureaucracy, resilient under the droughts of strikes, yet tender enough to offer fruit to the baboons of youthful restlessness.

Your voice in the church is the morning call of the turaco, clear and resonant; your hands in the workshop are the termite’s patient industry, building without destroying.

Amino, friend, builder, pastor, professor. You have walked the famished road where students wept, where colleagues groaned, where publishers starved for readership.

But like the fig tree that sends its roots deep into the rock, you have found water in the Word, sustenance in the Spirit. The cross of Calvary meets the cross-section of wood grain in your life, both telling a story of sacrifice, both pointing to a resurrection of purpose.

Your rings at 52 speak in tongues:

· The sapwood of youth: passion for student rights.

· The heartwood of maturity: steadfastness in union battles.

· The bark of ministry: protection for the vulnerable.

· The crown of publishing: shelter for wandering minds.

May the forest of your years remain evergreen. May the Redeemer who walked on water calm the seas of your struggles.

May the church you serve grow like a mighty cedar, and may the university you love become a garden of righteousness.

Happy birthday, Amino.

The trees applaud with their leaves. The choir of birds sings your anthem.

And the ValidViewNetwork stands as a monument to your legacy; wood, Word, and wonder woven into one.

In the spirit of Naett, who knew that every tree is a hymn, and every pastor is a planter of eternal groves. 52 Years. One Amino. Infinite Impact.

🌳✝️🪵

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