Professor Jimoh Bola Akolo was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1934. Eventually, Akolo was brought home to Egbe (in present day Kogi State) by his parents where he finished his primary education. Upon completion, he was admitted into Government College Keffi, a high school that was preserved for the smartest kids that scored highest in the regional common entrance examinations in the Northern region. While at the college he took fine arts among other courses for his Cambridge exam (so called at the time) now called the West African Examinations Certificate (WAEC).
After completing the Cambridge exam with flying colors, he was admitted into the prestigious institute called the Nigerian College of Arts Science and Technology (NCAST) Zaria where he took to Fine Arts. There at the College he met with other students such as Yusuf Grillo, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Adamu Baikie, Uche Okeke, and Demas Nwoko who all together went on to form the Zaria ART Society.
Akolo, who initially set out to study Engineering, found himself enrolled in Fine Arts courses at NCAST between 1957 and 1961. Akolo saw Fine Arts as a means of personal self-expression and used art as a vent to reveal his inner propensity – the genius in him which he was.
Dennis Duerden, a British colonial officer and educator, realizing his huge potential offered to guide and further sharpen Akolo’s artistic ability. He concentrated on drawing, painting, sculpting and art history.
Akolo’s artwork became so outstanding that he was selected to represent his high school –Keffi boys at an international art exhibition organized at the Museum of Modern Art for high schools in New York in 1956. At about 22 years old, Akolo had already acquired international experience, which was rare especially when compared with what his peers were doing at that age such as sharpening their farming skills for the agrarian economy of the land.
During this period Jimoh was busy honing his artistic skills in visual arts as well as developing a philosophical perspective for art education. He became the leader of a group of students at NCAST that later became Ahmadu Bello University, which earned him ‘Rebel of rebels’ a nickname within the intellectual circle which epitomizes a genius that broke all the conventional rules to create his own.
Akolo was the leader of a group that sought to review the art curriculum which was Eurocentric in aesthetic evaluation and appreciation. Jimoh thought that the overall appreciation should include Afrocentric views that reflect the cultural milieu of the people.
This Afrocentric narrative caught on to the mood of the post independent Nigeria, Africa, and indeed the black race. The word ‘afro’ became a dictum that was added to the repertoire of expressions often used as prefix. Jimoh Akolo is regarded as the father of modern post-independent art education, setting its core principles on freedom of expression, personal self-expression, self-actualization, and personal self-fulfillment.
As an artist, Akolo specialized in drawing, painting, sculpting and art history. He was an artist with national and international credentials. Some of his works are worth mentioning here. His outstanding artistic talents won him prestigious awards at both national and international levels.
In 1959, he won the First Prize for Drawing and Painting at the Northern Nigerian Self Government Celebration. In Brazil, Akolo won Best Artist of the year Sao Paulo in 1962. In 1964, he was honored with a solo art exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute London. In 1965 Akolo toured with an exhibition in London and Edinburgh and took part in the Second Biennial Arts Exhibition in Havana, Cuba in 1986. A book presentation that captured the life and exhibition of artworks of Professor Akolo from 1961 -2023 was unveiled recently in Abuja also showing the following Yusuf Grillo, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Adamu Baikie, Uche Okeke and Demas Nwoko together at NCAST, which later became Ahmadu Bello University, as the founding fathers of modern visual art.
Lest not we forget his contributions in Nigeria, including a solo showing at the Nigerian Arts Council in 1970 with subsequent appearances at the All-Nigerian Festival of Arts and Visual Arts exhibition of FESTAC in 1971 and 1977 respectively. Akolo expanded his education in the United States, Bloomington where he received a doctorate degree in Art Education in 1982.
Akolo became a professor teaching at ABU in 1966 and retired in 1998. So far Professor Jimoh Akolo is considered by many the father of modern art education in Nigeria.
Professor Jimoh Akolo, believed in giving back to the community, for this reason he asked his friend, who is still alive to pose as a hunter with a bow and arrow while he sketched him. As a well renowned sculptor, Akolo translated the sketch of the hunter into a sculpture. The sculpture encapsulates the history of Egbe, as a town that was never captured by any outsider. Akolo moved to install the sculpture (Ajaforunti) at the town square that is central to the community whereby everyone would come to see and appreciate the sculpture.
Unfortunately, those who are less knowledgeable of the symbolic representation of the statue have subscribed to the idea of iconoclasm and desecrated his work.
According to Scriptures, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own home” Mark 6: 1-6. What Professor Wole Soyinka is to the Literary world, is what Professor Jimoh Akolo is to the Art world. Right now, the only symbol ‘art work’ by him is the mural painting Learn and Worship that he painted while he was a student in the 60’s at Titcombe College Chapel. This artistic giant should be given a befitting burial by the Kogi State Arts and Culture; he should be buried in a mausoleum at Egbe cemetery where people can come and pay their tribute and last respects laying flowers and wreaths to this Great Man.
– Dr Tony Fagbemi writes from USA
