OAU Mourns Ex-VC Wale Omole: A Legacy Marred by the Night of Terror

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has announced the death of its former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Wale Omole, who served from 1991 to 1999.

The university’s management described his death as a “painful loss to the Great Ife community” and praised his contributions to scholarship and university administration.

But for many alumni of the institution, Omole’s name is inseparable from the darkest chapter in OAU’s history: the night of terror that led to the killing of a student, and the culture of cultism that flourished during his tenure, ValidViewNetwork reports .

THE OFFICIAL TRIBUTE

The OAU Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olarewaju, said the university received the news of Omole’s death with profound sadness.

“He was an accomplished scholar and a distinguished university administrator whose association with Obafemi Awolowo University occupies an important place in the institution’s history,” the statement said .

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Simeon Bamire, extended condolences to the family, saying Omole’s contributions to the university would remain part of its enduring history.

THE DARKER HISTORY

The official tribute does not mention the events that defined Omole’s tenure.

During his time as Vice-Chancellor, OAU was gripped by a wave of cultism and student violence. The most infamous incident was the killing of a student unionist George Iwilade popularly known as Afrika, whose death became a symbol of the failure of the university administration to protect its students.

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The night of terror that led to Afrika’s death shocked the campus and the nation.

Students were terrorised. The administration was accused of complicity, or at the very least, of failing to act decisively against cult groups that operated with impunity.

Omole’s tenure ended unceremoniously. He was removed from office in 1999 amid reports of his alleged complicity in the cultism crisis. The circumstances of his exit were controversial, and the allegations against him were never fully resolved in a court of law.

His successor, Professor Rogers Makanjuola, inherited a campus in crisis. Makanjuola moved swiftly to confront cultism, dismantling the networks that had flourished under Omole and restoring a measure of order to the institution.

THE ANALYTICAL LENS

Wale Omole’s legacy is complicated. He was a scholar and an administrator who served OAU for eight years. He contributed to the institution’s development in ways that the official tribute rightly acknowledges.

But he also presided over a period when cultism threatened to destroy the university. Students were killed. The campus was unsafe. And the administration was perceived as either unable or unwilling to act.

The official obituary will not mention this.

It will focus on his scholarship, his service, and his contributions. That is the nature of institutional tributes. They are designed to honour, not to reckon.

But the alumni of OAU who lived through those years will remember. They will remember the night Afrika was killed. They will remember the fear that gripped the campus.

And they will remember that Wale Omole’s tenure ended not with a celebration, but with a removal. He is dead now. The debate over his legacy will continue.

And the lessons of that dark chapter in OAU’s history should not be forgotten. ValidViewNetwork reports.