Prof. Aniedi Ikpang : The passing Of A Legal Colossus | David Antia
On Thursday last week, 11/01/24, the news of the demise of Prof. Aniedi Ikpang brayed to my rude shock and helpless bewilderment. It sent a cool shiver down my spine. I had refused to concede to this sad reality and it is only painful now, that the tyranny of death is having the loudest voice.
Each day since I recieved that news, I have ceaselessly repine and reflect on the aleatory of life. While it may be said by many that life is vanity upon vanity, I refuse to submit to such theorem of truth, in the case of Prof. Ikpang.
Beyond being a legal scholar and education administrator of extraordinary brilliance, wit and erudition, Prof was a father to many, a good friend and Mentor to his students, a torchbearer of civilization and human progress. Law, according to Prof. Wole Soyinka is the most precious asset of a civilised society.
As a giant in criminal law, his thoughts and compendium of researches combined to conduce our society to a pristine path of moral and social recuperation. His Legacy lives on, his effect and influence is a living thing that animate the lives of many and the social trajectory of a society he was building up till the time of his demise. To such man as this, it is never vanity upon vanity.
It is rather the vanity of death. Death paraded itself in a false grandeur of might, in depriving Prof of his corporal body, it has only permitted him a greater enhancement and imortalization in the trough and crest of our humanity. Death has achieved nothing and is thus, a vanity upon vanity.
MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH PROFESSOR IKPANG
On 4th October, 2022, I was in the Law faculty of Topfaith University, for my first law class.
When it was 9:05am a man dressed in corporate wears appeared. He was accompanied by the faculty officer who assisted him in carrying his lecture materials. It was Professor Aniedi Ikpang, the Dean of the Faculty of Law. When I looked at him, I saw a personality full of wisdom and dignity.
He announced to the class that he was going to lecture us on Legal Methods. He paused for a while and looked at his materials. As he resumed his speech, the class was enveloped with an inexpressible fervour of serenity, the air being half quizzical and half deferential.
This cerebral academic, ingenious scholar and Professor of Criminal Law was just ready enough to help us undergo an intellectual mutation that will make our minds fertile enough for the implantation of legal knowledge.
He said , “ this course will prepare your mind and acquaint you with principles of Law which you shall come across in your 5 years here and beyond”.
While lecturing us, he would carefully pronounce his words and make sure his dictum were not perplexed with poor grammar. He was mindful of his vocabulary and enjoined us to develop ours. At one time, he quoted Lord Denning as saying that Language is the tool of the legal profession. He was forever in the quest of scrupulously precise words. To Prof, nothing is more beautiful than a word fittingly spoken and also, nothing is more creative than the use of a word in its exact meaning.
Though many people of good education often unconsciously circumscribed themselves with a small vocabulary, to Prof, infirmity of words was a disease to an advocate who can only attain professional success having a command over words and language. His lecture was a prolific outpouring of legal knowledge.
Interestingly, Prof was also a peerless raconteur who used his storytelling to assuage the pressure on us as he resumed with more serious details on and on. He will often take time to tell us significant past events in his life when he was in our Shoes. He said he was not very brilliant at some point , but that through hard work and discipline of purpose, he moved into the realm of sharpness of mind. I always take this as an assurance he was giving to his students who are struggling to understand some concepts in Law, that they should not easily give up but assiduously brood over those concepts and that by doing so, their intellect will germinate them into starlit intellectual eminence.
“David stand up and answer that question or I will ask you to leave my class”. That was Prof when he wanted me to crack the gordian knot in class. He trusted me to “rescue” the class in such quizzical moments. He loved me and usually joked with me and others during his lectures.
Prof was highly interested in the character development of his students. The words of the famous U.S. Senator Dan Coat that “character cannot be summoned at the moment of crisis, if it has been squandered by years of compromise ” succinctly introduce the firm view of Prof. Ikpang.
AS I SAY FAREWELL TO THE MAN WHO BAPTISED ME TO COMMENCE A JOURNEY IN THE LEGAL SPHERE;
I shall bask in the realm of unbridled and infectious energy and industry which he caused me to enter through the interest he excited in me as a result of his prolific lectures. In so doing, I shall be excellent in my academic journey and also as a Lawyer in the future. Prof will have reasons to smile and be happy where he is.
PROF,
The arch nemesis of death is not for us a loud Victory. We do not whinge or fear, for we know that the pages of your life was not filled with flotsam and jetsam but with impact. You offered yourself a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God for the building of Men and construction of society.
As you pass into your celestial glory, we wish you peace !
Farewell Prof 😢
David Bassey Antia
17/01/24