This story needed to be updated to insert the correct the name. Otherwise, it remains the same with what was initially posted – Editor
Death has occurred of Dr. Kola Torimiro, 83 year old Consultant Pediatrician who retired from the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife some nine years ago.
The deceased was not a big media name across Nigeria but he was an uncommon Left politician in his theory and practice of humanism as well as his persistent concern about the inability of the Nigerian Left to have made a transformative impact in his life time.
Generally regarded as a fantastic medical practitioner, he was also unsurpassable in knowledge of world history. According to Dr. Chijoke Uwasomba of the Dept of English and Dr. Torimiro’s long time neighbour, the deceased was at home with the twists and turns in the history of the world at his finger tips, with deep interpretations of each turn.
Dr. Torimiro who returned to Nigeria in 1982 obtained all his medical training in the defunct East Germany where he was Angela Merkel’s classmate at some point. Before he went to East Germany, he had done his HSC in Britain. That itself was preceded by living for sometimes in Cameroon where he must have learnt to speak French.
Anchoring at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital upon return to Nigeria, he rose to the position of Consultant Pediatrician and Neonatologist before he got stuck in any experimentation with breaking new grounds, the real patriotic reason which actually brought him home.
He emerged a strong ideologue of Left politics, finding organizational outlets in the now defunct Ife Collective as well as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU).
The Department of Pediatrics and Child Health of the OAUTHC which announced the death is promising further announcements from the family in due course.
