Nigerians across political, ethnic and social divides are united in grief over the death of Pius Adesanmi, one of the 157 victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday.
A professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, Adesanmi was on his way to a meeting of the African Union’s Economic, Social, and Cultural Council in Nairobi.
A renowned writer, the satirist was well known for criticising a section of the Nigerian clergy for their extravagant lifestyle and lack of accountability.
He might have scant regards for some “men of God”, but his last recorded writing was a call to God for protection.
The last photo Adesanmi posted on Facebook showed him with his Canadian passport.
His caption included an eerily foreshadowing Psalm: “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
Adesanmi was until his death the director of Carleton’s Institute of African Studies.
The author of Naija No Dey Carry Last, a collection of satirical essays, Adesanmi had degrees from Ilorin and Ibadan universities in Nigeria, and the University of British Columbia. He was director of Carleton’s Institute of African Studies. He was also a former assistant professor of comparative literature at Pennsylvania State University.
“Pius was a towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship and his sudden loss is a tragedy,” said Benoit-Antoine Bacon, Carleton’s president and vice chancellor.
Adesanmi was the winner of the inaugural Penguin Prize for African non-fiction writing in 2010.
