The beckoning signpost heralding you to the abode of Professor Olufemi Durosaro and his wife, Professor Irene Durosaro seems to tell the story of the couple. ‘Femi Durosaro Street’ lies in Tanke, Oke-Odo. The house itself, strategically situated in a remote settlement a few metres away from the University main gate is a china amongst rusts.
Its proximity to the university would also suggest that the couple has eternally come to pitch their tent with the institution that has totally shaped their lives.
But that is even not our story. The story is that of a man who came to the University of Ilorin in search of real scholarship and a degree as the utmost crown, but rather got more than he bargained for. He got a degree, and awarded himself a wife as additional crown at graduation!
The story of Prof Durosaro’s romance and eventual marriage to former Miss Irene Abiodun Alao, his classmate, would definitely have a place in a standard romance novel. But, it also more than measured the spirit of the time, a time when even serious academic work never impinged on their sense of romanticism.
Both of them were enrolled among the first 200 pioneer students of the university in September, 1976, but it seemed their paths were divinely meant to cross from the very first day. He was admitted as student number 131 while she was 113. He was admitted to read Education Management, while she chose Guidance and Counselling. They both were also minor in the Faculty of Arts.
As in academics, they almost were also interacting at every level of social life on the campus. When he became the Students Union President in 1977, she also won an election into the school’s Students Representative Council.
For a long time, the interaction did not presage any feeling of romance until suddenly, as she said, “ I just discovered a change and he was running after me” The story of the attitudinal change was however explained by Prof Femi Durosaro himself. According to him, it was not as if he was not interested. “Of the almost 12 female students in the Faculty of Education at that time, she seemed to be wearing most straight face, I mean completely stony faced. This, in spite of the fact that she was always mixing"
A minor incident however ignited his resolve to make an advance. A friend of his, one Mr. Samuel Ladana, who was in the same class with her, that afternoon, he said, had come to reveal his recent discovery about the woman. Of course he knew that his friend had always had an eye on her. The topic that afternoon was on marriage, woman virginity and tradition. Whatever the discovery, the Prof had kept to himself but he had marked a strategy with his friend, and together they mounted a pressure on her.
When Cupid’s arrow strikes at the tender region of a woman’s heart, the strongest becomes a weakling. Within a short time, she dropped her stern look and became friendly with the chubby-cheeked students Union President. With time, the romance blossomed, and they became inseparable on the campus.
As they prepared for their final papers in June, 1979, so also were they preparing for their wedding, which was slated for the following month.
The wedding itself when it came, put a temporary stop to all activities in the university. While most staffers insisted that they must ‘finish’ what they started in Ilorin ,urging them to consummate their marriage at the Chapel of Light of the University, they decided to move to Ibadan, where they both had their immediate families.
July 17, 1979, the University of Ilorin was literally emptied as students and staff moved to the Chapel of Resurrection, Ibadan where the couple was pronounced Mr and Mrs Durosaro. While the then Registrar, late Mr. Olu Daramola stood at the head of Unilorin delegates, Professor O.O. Akinkugbe, who had left the university to become the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, came down to Ibadan to chair the occasion of their wedding.
Gbolahan Balogun
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