Professor Grace Alele-Williams (OON, FMAN, FNAE), intellectual icon, erstwhile vice chancellor of great stature, mother and grandmother, answered the final call of nature on 25th March 2022, some eight months shy of her ninetieth birthday.
Hers was a long and fruitful life in service to God, academia and humanity. She was born on the 16th day of December 1932 in Warri, Delta State. Her father hailed from Owan, Edo State and mother (an Itsekiri) from Warri in Delta.
The young Grace Awani Alele went to Government College, Warri and completed her secondary education at Queens College, Lagos in 1949. In the same year, she was admitted to University College Ibadan to study Mathematics and graduated in 1954.
She taught Mathematics at Queen’s School Ede, Osun State from 1954 to 1957. In 1957, she obtained a Master’s Degree in Mathematics Education. In 1963, she got a PhD in Mathematics Education from the University of Chicago with a dissertation titled “Dynamics of Education in the Birth of a New Nation: Case Study of Nigeria.” By so doing, she became the first Nigerian woman to be awarded a PhD.
Upon the completion of her PhD in Chicago, she returned to the University of Ibadan to undertake post-doctoral research at the Institute of Education. Not long afterwards, she got married to Dr Babatunde Abraham Williams, a Political Science Senior lecturer at the University of Ife in Osun State.
In 1965 the couple moved to Lagos to take up new lecturing appointments at the University of Lagos. In 1968, she was promoted as a Senior lecturer and in 1974, she became an Associate Professor.
The big one came in 1976 when she was appointed as a Professor, the first female Professor of Mathematics Education in Nigeria. In 1985, the then military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, appointed AleleWilliams as Vice-Chancellor of University of Benin.
Her appointment to that position was a watershed in African history because she became the first woman to head a university on the continent. While serving as Vice-Chancellor in UNIBEN, she took far-reaching decisions which did not go down well with the local chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Many thought that she was autocratic in handling matters concerning the affairs of university lecturers. However, it is on record that she curbed campus cult activities in. She remained Vice Chancellor until 1992 when she completed her tenure.
Following her exit from the University of Benin as Vice-Chancellor, she served as a member of the Board of Directors of Chevron-Texaco Nigeria.
In 1994, she delivered the Distinguished Annual Lecture at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru. In her life time, she received many honours and awards including the prestigious Order of the Niger in 1987. In 2014, she received the Centenary Award.
At the time of her death, she had five children and ten grandchildren. News of her passing reverberated around Nigeria and the entire global academic community.
Since then, many have praised her lifetime achievements, eulogising her in multiple categories. Others have also pointed out areas that she would have done things differently and perhaps better, The Trumpet gathered.
Indeed, the life of every person is a dialectic of innumerable possibilities, a two-edged sword that creates and destroys in equal measure, and a two-sided mirror that can reveal two different shades depending on the beholder.
For example, while some believe that the departed scholar was a rare gem, a woman in a different class who surmounted all odds in a Nigerian patriarchal society, others opine that she was dictatorial as a public officer, intolerant and high-handed. In many ways, the late Professor Alele-Williams lived an accomplished life.
Her career success is a testimony that women can succeed and accomplish more in a male-dominated clime like Nigeria. Having served the country in various capacities, the Federal Government of Nigeria should give her a befitting honour by immortalizing her.
Also, Edo and Delta states should honour her in a special way by naming an institution after her. Such an honour will encourage other aspiring women and citizens of the country to work towards success while serving the country. University of Benin should also immortalise her because the history of the institution cannot be complete without a mention of her name.
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As a mark of honour, University of Benin ordered its flag to be flown at half-mast. This is good. Sadly, Professor Alele-Williams does not have an official biography nor did she write an autobiography. What we have on the internet are fragments of accounts of her life and career.
This is an opportunity to advise public servants to write their autobiographies or commission other people to write their biographies. In that way, history is preserved and legacies are documented. Adieu the inimitable Professor Grace AleleWilliams!
