My focus here is on the death of an educationist and teacher of another cast: Femi Oyewole, a Nigerian. Perusing a copy of The Guardian Newspaper of November 9, 2006, I learnt of the death of the ’eminent teacher’, Femi Oyewole. 

Indeed, my generation (exact Science lovers and haters) held and read in Form I, Introduction to Chemistry and Introduction to Physics textbooks authored by Femi and Dotun Oyewole respectively.

Through Femi, the test tube, burette, beakers and so on were not objects from Mars.  Through Dotun, the laws of elementary Physics were made very simple. Today, Femi is dead, aged 84. Dotun is still alive.

In life, there are teachers you love to remember/meet and others you detest out rightly. My love or hatred for Mathematics, Physics or Chemistry was based on the approach of a certain teacher X, Y or Z. The latter mystified these subjects but Femi and Dotun Oyewole made them look simple.

Well, without much ado, I would like to share with you, below, the report of Charles Coffie-Gyamfi (the name should ring a bell) on the passing away of Femi Oyewole:
The late Femi and his twin brother, Dotun, were famous within and outside the country, especially because they were so identical that no one, no matter how familiar with the two men could easily tell them apart.

“We have lived together from day zero till now. We did everything together. We attended the same primary, secondary and university and have the same qualifications… In fact, we started work the same day and retired on the same day…” the surviving half, Dotun, told The Guardian yesterday at his Onikolobo residence, Abeokuta, where he shares a wall with his late twin brother.

But the remarkable parallels in the lives of the Oyewole twins did not end there. The late Femi is survived by six children, five girls and one boy with five of them abroad. His twin brother Dotun also has six children, five girls one boy – with five of them abroad.

Femi’s widow, Chief Yinka Oyewole, disclosed to The Guardian at their Onikolobo home yesterday that her late husband’s health started failing when he had a mild stroke about one and half years ago and was later afflicted with diabetes.

“Since May last year, he was placed on dialysis at the St. Nicholas Hospital, which started with once a week, then rose to twice a week but before his death, it had risen to thrice.”

Mrs. Oyewole said she visited her husband with their first child, Bode, on that Tuesday and chatted with him till about 8.00 p.m. before returning home. She described her husband as loving, kind-hearted, hardworking and intelligent.

“His death has created a vacuum in my life and that of the family, which would be difficult to fill. I will miss him greatly”, the widow lamented.

Dotun recounted that on the fateful Tuesday, he was with his late brother’s wife, their son, Dr. Bode Oyewole and Rev. Kumi Adekunle, who ministered a Holy Communion to the deceased.

“The surprising thing was that as soon as he took the Holy Communion, he cooled down and was no more restless and later slept,” he revealed.Dr. Lateef Adegbite whose house is close to the deceased’s, described his death as a great loss to Egbaland and Nigeria as a whole, especially in the field of education.

Adegbite, who spoke on phone, said as a former science lecturer, many Nigerian scientists passed through Femi’s tutorship. To him, the legacy the deceased left behind in the area of educational development would be remembered always.

Do eminent teachers or educationists really die? Indeed, they live on in the minds and hearts of their pupils and in the books, treatises and acts they leave for posterity.