University of Ibadan community lose one of their amazing lecturers, Mr Henry Nigel to the cold hands of death. Many students of the University have taken to their social space to pay a tribute to the ever loving male lecturer.
Taking to his Facebook page, Chibueze Cliton posted a picture and revealed how the greek lecturer taught them through out a whole session. In his words, he wrote;
Today, I lost one of the most important teachers of my life to Covid 19. His name was Mr Henry Nigel, a First Class, St Andrews, B.Phil Oxford, Classics graduate.
When Mr Henry began to take us Greek Language in our 400L, he made the bar our classroom. For a whole session, we'd go to the bar for classes, and while teaching and learning went on, both teacher and students had bottles of beer. Girls drank malt
He paid. Sometimes, he'd give us money to get food after drinking
Before drinking Guinness, we'd chorus, "We're black and our hearts are made of fire!" Then we'd pay homage to Dionysus and Bacchus. Thereafter, Mr Henry would call out the names of everyone who drank beer in the Department right from when he joined 40 years ago to our time.
It was so hilarious and unique!
There'd never be such a class again!
Rest on, Mr Henry!
Another tribute by Babafemi Falayi reads;
THE BEATIFICATION OF NIGEL HENRY (1950-2021)
Beyond his sartorial eccentricity and stoic lifestyle, Nigel Henry was a genius, not only a lecturer but the mirror of how a lecturer ought to be. You can not expect less from an outstanding scholar and alumnus of the University of Oxford and the University of St. Andrews, he brought the tradition of excellence to the Department of Classics, University of Ibadan. Quoting from Prof Niyi Osundare's description of late Prof L. A Thompson (also of the Department of Classics) Nigel Henry is qualified by every means to be described as the "Magister bonus magna cum laude".
As a lecturer, Henry taught me Advanced Latin Language I& II and I fell in love with the language at the period when I ought to be despondent about it. He would give assignment upon assignments mandating us to independently translate those terrible ancient texts of Caeser, Ovid, Sallust, Catullus, Cicero, Horace, Virgil and many others I can't remember. Henry would use his red pen to edit each of our translations, providing us with better alternatives especially with the use of English.
In a typical Henry's class, we learn a lot beyond Latin and Greek or the grammar and scansion, we learn from his life stories, his suffering in the hands of women, the majesty of wine and other interesting analogies. Henry once told us that it is safer to rely on clutch and break than the honk of a vehicle. This principle guide my driving till today.
A prolific drinker, Henry sustained the tradition of taking the entire final year class to the bar every session. When it was our turn, he took us there twice and stopped. He was disappointed in us because we were requesting for Fayrouz and Maltina. He was not comfortable wasting his money on such childish drinks. I think it was Taio that was subsequently going behind our back to drink with him every Friday.😃
Henry was the only man I knew with a paradoxical lifestyle of both the hedonistic and spartan persuasion. He once declared that blood no longer runs in his veins but stout.😂 Henry deserves to be immortalised by Guinness as the face of stout, like an extraterrestrial ambassador of odeku to the gods.
Very unassuming and always ready to assist, I remember when I became the Vice President of the Department Association (Hoi Phrontistai), the President, Taio and I will visit him to get ideas and contacts of foreign alumni.
One evening, couple of years after I have graduated, I was strolling along that Diamond FM street, I met him and we began talking, he apologized profusely for his inability to teach us as he used to in the 80s and 90s- what manner of man was he?
There are many things to say about Nigel Henry but let me stop here because after all is said and done and all opinions are collated, the conclusion will be that Henry was a free gift of nature to the Department of Classics and indeed the University of Ibadan.
NB: Below are the pictures of Henry posing with his signature stout and few of my assignments on the translations of some poems of Catullus and a particular text of Caeser's De Bello Gallico with Henry's red pen editing them.
