By Dr Dele Afelumo
To begin with, I borrow the cryptic tribute accorded Niccolo Machiavelli’s funeral: Tanto Nomini Nullum Par Elogium, meaning, “To such a great name, no praise is adequate”. On December 2nd 2025, the death of Professor Albert Sunday Anjorin sent a tsunami of shockwaves across the global community, especially among his coterie of medical colleagues and old students. Different generations of University of Ilorin Medical students who had the enviable and rare privileges to pass through his tutelage called him Angie, Anji or Angiosarcoma. He was a larger-than-life noble debonair whose impactful classroom teachings shaped the lives of many of his old students who now are doctors, shaking the global spaces and plying their trades with much aplomb, confidence and integrity.
Angie was simply an ineffable phenomenon, a luculent revelation too stark in the memories of all those who had the singular honour of knowing or associating with him. In the words of Malvolio in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Act 2 Scene 5, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em”. Truly, our departed medical guru and implacable doyen of Histopathology achieved greatness and even at death, he remained great in the annals of history.
To a man who blazed the trail and almost 96% of graduating medical students always objectively chose him as their best lecturer on yearly basis, no words can sum up his erudition, intellect and father-figure moral admonitions, visage and persona. Angie was an atypical, neoteric lecturer who taught passionately with utmost relish. He balkanized the usual atavistic bug of a wide chasm of teacher-students relationship. He knew all of us by names and had some complimentary appellations for many. He wove a tapestry of closely-knit family relationship with us all as his students.
To Angie in the classroom, the usual panic about and fear of one’s teacher were just non-existent. He related with us all as equals.
Knowing that the usual one hour alloted to Morbid Anatomy was grossly insufficient, our inimitable Angie always sacrificially arranged more lectures at about 7 pm to explain the intricate, complex nitty-gritty of the course. In the same vein, the practical sessions of his Morbid Anatomy was always engaging and interjecting different witty statements to set students reeling in relentless guffaws. To Angie, there was no dull moment as he would often reel out some stories to us whenever he found out that the class was boring.
Professor Anjorin was an avatar who, out of his magnanimity, photocopied lesson notes and usually freely gave his students without any strings attached despite the paltry amounts lecturers were paid. Personally, he always bought that reference ‘Bible’, Robbins and Cotran’s Pathologic Basis of Disease textbook as a prize to the best student in the course every year. So munificent was he to the cause of anything concerning his students. Angie epitomised the best in generosity, moral rectitude, extraordinary intellect, integrity, compassion and devotion to duty.
His mastery of the King’s English language was unparalleled. His delivery of lectures was always done in captivating manners thereby holding his audience spellbound with rapt attention. His mellifluous voice was a simple anodyne for many troubled students encumbered by many ills associated with their studentships.
Grammatically, the flawless, impeccable delivery of his lectures was akin to wearing a sartorial garb of regality with insignia of excellence adorning it. He it was who had the enviable records of being Unilorin’s Master of Ceremonies and the de facto Orator-in-Chief for many years. His pronounciational quiddities and verbiage of the English words were without equal. Without sophistry, you could rightly describe him as tongue sweeter than salt to underscore his raw talent of grandiloquence in superlative, metaphoric terms. He never got hubristic or became supercilious while holding these unbroken records in the University.
Angie gave his all to his students and was never the condescending type. He was approachable and accessible to solve’s students’ myriads of problems. This innate attribute he extended to all sizes and shapes of people from his Amuro community in Mopa-Muro Local Government of Kogi State who usually thronged his office as Mecca of sort to have him solve one problem or another. This he would always do graciously without blinking an eye!
Having given so much to his students, he expected them to perform excellently in their examination. Such were his profundity, depth and prolificity in Morbid Anatomy that his questions were a hard nut to crack to lily-livered students. Even on the verge of death on his death-bed at the infirmary, he was still moving stuff on pain pathways as recalled by one of our colleagues managing him! He had this flair for setting questions to confuse undiscerning students. Many of his multiple choice questions would begin with: “With respect to caseating granuloma….” There could be up to 10 different questions with 5 confusing stems of options on that alone!. “With respect to APOPTOSIS…..” there could also be many confusing stems of questions on this. He would taunt his students with wry smiles, reminiscent of a gruesome glee of: “In my questions, there’s no èyí je, èyí ò je” (“no guess work; if you know, you know”)!
Without any iota of equivocation, our vintage Angie was a quintessential icon; an inveterate personification of invictus whose voice was a thunderous metonymy against injustice in all its hues and ramifications. Undoubtedly, he was a diplomat of moral courage and conscience. Angie was a firm believer in the Greek philosophies of hedonism, animism and epicureanism. He lived peacefully and enjoyed life to the fullest. He was a repertoire of knowledge and a towering figure who came like a Comet once in a lifetime. He was our own black version of Albert Einstein who bestrode our medical world like a colossus in his lifetime and now had taken his glorious exit.
Fare thee well, our great icon, Professor of Professors and father of modern Medicine. We, the 1997B medical graduates of the University of Ilorin would miss you for ever. Your memory would remain evergreen in our hearts. Adieu, our great teacher.
Dr Dele Afelumo (Dakova)
United Kingdom
Co-author of a book titled: AN OVERVIEW OF DISEASE AND HEALTH RESEARCH
For and on behalf of Unilorin medical graduates1997B
