Jeyifo’s funeral arrangements announced
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According to the timetable of the funeral programmes, evening of tributes will be hosted on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at the Omolayole Hall, the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State between 4pm and 7pm...
By Isa Isawade
Funeral arrangements for the late Emeritus Professor of African and African American Studies and of Comparative Literature, Biodun Jeyifo, have been announced by the family.
In the announcement entitled: OBITUARY NOTICE, AN EXEMPLARY LIFE, and signed on behalf of the family by Professor Okunola Jeyifo, the family said, “With deep regret, but with immense gratitude for a remarkably impactful life, the children and friends of the Jeyifo Family of Oke-Bola, Ibadan, announce the departure of their ‘olori ebi’, Emeritus Professor BIODUN JEYIFO, FNAL, which took place barely weeks after his 80th birthday on Wednesday, February 11 2026.”
According to the timetable of the funeral programmes, evening of tributes will be hosted on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at the Omolayole Hall, the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State between 4pm and 7pm.
Lying-in-state will take place on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at two venues- first at TOS Funeral Homes, 1-3 Surulere Street, Oke-Ado Market Road, Ibadan between 9am and 10am while the second lying-in-state will be done at the late professor’s residence, 2 Jeyifous Street, Oke-Bola, Ibadan between 11 am and 12 noon.
Interment is also taking place same Wednesday at the Anglican Cemetery, St. James The Great Cathedral Burial Ground, Ijokodo, Ibadan by 1.00pm.
The renowned scholar and literary critic who was a strong Marxist was celebrated by family, friends, associates and his former students on January 5, 2026, when he clocked 80.
The ever-committed unionist used the occasion of the birthday celebration to call attention of the incumbent Administration of President Bola Tinubu to what he regarded as the panacea for Nigeria’s economic and developmental woes, saying mere restructuring would not solve the country’s problems.
He criticised the manner in which successive Nigerian governments and political leaders have promoted restructuring as the panacea for the country’s deep political and economic challenges, arguing that it offers no real solution.
“What is superficially called restructuring, in my preferred Marxist term, is redistribution. They never talk about redistribution of wealth. You can restructure administratively on paper and still not redistribute wealth. So we must change that slogan. It’s not restructuring,” Jeyifo said.
Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, Jeyifo earned a first-class bachelor’s in English from the University of Ibadan in 1970, followed by a master’s from the same institution in 1973, and a doctorate from New York University in 1975.
He also holds a DLitt (honoris causa) from Obafemi Awolowo University —formerly the University of Ife — where he taught for many years. Reflecting on that period, Jeyifo noted that it was at Ife he became “the kind of teacher and person I had always tried to become.”
His distinguished career further includes senior professorships at Cornell University and Harvard University, where he was Professor Emeritus of African and African American Studies and of Comparative Literature until his passage.
Jeyifo is generally regarded as the world’s pre-eminent scholarly authority on the works and career of Wole Soyinka. His award-winning book on the 1986 Nobel laureate, “Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics and Postcolonialism” (Cambridge University Press, 2004), is regarded as the most comprehensive study of the author’s work, and the most sophisticated single author study of any writer in African postcolonial studies.
Tributes from academic, literary and political communities have been pouring in for the man many simply call BJ.
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