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THE MAESTRO OF THE SAVANNAH Professor Jimo Akolo, MFR (1935–2023)Three Years of Remembrance — The Brush Still Speaks

Posted by: Benjamin Onuorah

Three years ago, silence visited the earthly home of a man whose life had long ceased to belong merely to himself.
Yet history refused to mourn him in silence.
For ordinary men pass away and memory slowly retreats. But there are rare souls whose departure enlarges their presence. Professor Jimo Bola Akolo, MFR, belonged to that sacred league of men.

Today, we do not merely remember his passing.
We celebrate the triumph of a life that transformed talent into legacy, culture into civilization, and creativity into immortality.
Professor Jimo Akolo was not merely an artist.
He was a movement clothed in humility. A silent titan who redrew the boundaries of African modernism and carried the dignity of his homeland into the galleries of the world.

Long before his name echoed through prestigious art institutions and international exhibitions, he was first a son of Egbe.
The earth of Yagba raised him.
The spirit of Okunland shaped him.
And Kogi State proudly presented him to the world.
To understand Professor Akolo is to understand the quiet strength and philosophical depth of the Okun people. He embodied that rare balance of gentleness and greatness; a man whose humility never diminished his stature and whose brilliance never detached him from his roots.
Even at the summit of global recognition, he remained unmistakably Egbe.
He remained Okun.
He remained proudly Kogi.

Born in Egbe and inspired from childhood by indigenous craftsmanship and traditional creativity, the young Jimo Akolo embarked on a journey that would eventually place his name among the architects of modern Nigerian art. From S.I.M School Egbe to Government College Keffi, from the celebrated Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria to international exposure abroad, his path was not merely educational.
It was historic.

He emerged among the pioneering minds of the famous Zaria Art Society - that revolutionary collective that challenged inherited colonial artistic frameworks and boldly declared that African art must speak with its own voice, draw from its own heritage, and stand confidently before the world without apology.
That philosophy changed Nigerian art forever.

And Professor Jimo Akolo stood among its defining architects.
He did not imitate the world.
He interpreted it through African eyes.
His brush became language.
His colours became memory.
His canvases became archives of civilization.
Through horsemen, dancers, landscapes, marketplaces, festivals, Fulani life, village scenes and human emotions, he painted not merely images but identity itself. In his hands, colour became testimony and canvas became history.
His works travelled beyond Nigeria.

From London to Brazil and across distinguished global exhibitions, his artistic voice commanded admiration and scholarly respect. Yet greatness never intoxicated him. He remained a reluctant giant — more devoted to excellence than applause.
And so, the nation honoured him.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria conferred upon him the prestigious title of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) — an acknowledgement not merely of artistic skill, but of cultural nation-building.

Yet perhaps his greatest masterpiece never hung inside a gallery.
It was people.
For decades at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Professor Akolo was not simply a lecturer.
He was an institution.
He mentored generations of artists, scholars and cultural thinkers whose works continue to shape creative spaces across Nigeria and beyond. He taught discipline where others taught technique. He cultivated vision where others offered instruction.

He did not merely graduate students.
He formed minds.
And that may well be the highest form of artistry.
Today, the world must see Professor Jimo Akolo for what he truly was.
Not merely a regional painter.
Not simply an accomplished Nigerian artist.
But a global cultural voice whose work bridged traditional African consciousness and modern artistic expression.

He proved that African stories deserve not the margins but the centre.
That our heritage deserves not pity but preservation.
That our faces, our festivals, our histories and our humanity belong on the highest walls of the grandest museums on earth.
Egbe remembers him with rightful pride.
For he proved that greatness can emerge from our hills and still command the attention of civilizations.

Okun people remember him as evidence that intellect and creativity remain among our most powerful inheritances.
Kogi State remembers him as one of her finest cultural ambassadors — a son whose excellence carried the state into conversations of global significance.
Nigeria remembers him as a pioneer.
And the world remembers him as a master whose quiet brilliance outlived applause.

Three years after his transition, death still struggles to explain its victory.
For what truly dies when a man leaves behind beauty, scholarship, institutions, culture, students and works that continue to awaken wonder?
Professor Jimo Akolo still walks among us.
Not in footsteps.
But in influence.
Not in flesh.
But in legacy.
Not in speech.
But in brushstrokes that continue to converse with generations unborn.
To his beloved family:
Be comforted.
You did not merely lose a patriarch.
You gifted the world a legend whose name has become an untarnished inheritance of honour.
To his students and fellow artists:
Guard his torch.
He taught that art is not merely decoration but responsibility. Not merely skill but stewardship.
And to those who once misunderstood, underestimated or opposed him:
History has already delivered its verdict.
A life lived with dignity, discipline and monumental impact requires no defence.
Its evidence speaks for itself.
There are men who seek attention.
And there are men who become timeless.
Professor Jimo Akolo belonged to the latter.

Indeed, to encounter a Jimo Akolo masterpiece is to experience a beautiful ache — the sudden longing to live so purposefully, to create so faithfully and to leave behind a legacy so luminous that when our own final canvas dries, the world pauses not merely to mourn us, but to celebrate us.
Three years have passed.
But his colours have refused to fade.
His voice still speaks through canvas.
His wisdom still breathes through students.
And his memory still rises like the golden sun over the savannah of home.
Sleep on, great son of Egbe.
Rest on, pride of Okunland.
Journey peacefully, distinguished ambassador of Kogi State and Nigeria.
The brush is at rest.
But the masterpiece remains.
Professor Jimo Akolo, MFR, was not merely an artist.
He was a national treasure.
An Okun icon.
An Egbe legend.
And an eternal signature upon the canvas of history.

THE MAESTRO OF THE SAVANNAH Professor Jimo Akolo, MFR (1935–2023)Three Years of Remembrance — The Brush Still Speaks

Source: The Jimo Akolo legacy

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