Adegoke Olubummo was the first professor of mathematics in Nigeria in 1964. He was born on April 19, 1923 to the first honored literate musician of Orin, His Royal Highness Oba William Adekolawu Olubummo II and Chief Abigael Osarayi Olubummo in Orin Ekiti. As a royal child, Olubummo received a quality education at the Methodist schools where he worked as a student teacher in 1937 (Ifaki Methodist School). In 1938, at the age of 14, Adegoke Olubummo was admitted to Wesley College, Ibadan. In 1942 he returned to his alma mater as a teacher and taught for several years in primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, Ghana (then Gold Coast) and Sierra Leone. He earned a bachelor’s degree.graduated from Fourah College in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1950. Adegoke Olubummo received his M.A. in mathematics (1952) and his Ph.D. (1955) at King’s College, University of Durham, Castle-Upon-Tyne, United Kingdom. In 1955 he began his career as a lecturer in the mathematics department of the University College in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he was promoted to full professor in 1964.
Dr. Olubummo with his family.
For many years, Olubummo was Head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Ibadan, where he resolutely strived to create quality traditions despite the obstacles that stood in the way of the development of a young African university. He retired from the University of Ibadan in 1985 and became Dean of the Faculty of Science, Ondo State University. Adegoke Olubummo, along with James Ezeilo and Chike Obi, was part of a trio of black (indigenous) mathematicians who were pioneers of modern mathematical research in Nigeria. He pioneered the founding of the Forum on Functional Analysis and its Applications and the Mathematical Society of Nigeria. All three of Adegoke Olubummo’s children are mathematicians. His daughter Yewande Olubummo is currently in the U.S. as an assistant professor of mathematics at Spelman College. Many of his Ibadan students, T.O. Adewoye, Olusola Akinyele, S. K. Assiamous, V. A.Babola, Senator SO Iyahen, Senator EO Oshabi und Senator O. Oshabi.Popoola left the country to pursue a doctorate in mathematics. Professor Adegoke Olubummo died on October 26, 1992 at the age of 69.
