The unnamed female undergraduate announcing the impending event starts with the delightful assertion: “One man spent his life imagining a greater Africa”. The second sentence is swallowed by the music at the background and the third sentence rounds off: “And that person is Prof Oculi”
‘Announcer’
The event she is letting the world know about is the September 1st, 2026 memorial for Prof Okello Oculi who taught Political Science in the university for around two decades. He was not just another lecturer, having formed the OAU, now the African Union Students Club whose dramatization of the OAU Summit of Heads of State caught global attention.
Prof Oculi died last year but the AU Students Club idea appears to be just starting, with a number of secondary schools successfully simulating the annual summit of African Heads of State. One Nigerian secondary school, with the help of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Adewunmi Adesina, the immediate past president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) went as far as performing at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa when Prof Oculi was alive.
The September 1st 2026 event at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria is expected to be a momentous memorial as current students and members of the club, alumni as well as practicing pan-Africanists are being expected. According to the announcer, they are gathering to “honour his (Prof Oculi) legacy and explore the enduring relevance of his vision for us”. She tells her listeners and viewers how “This is not just a lecture. It is also an alumni home-coming, a celebration of the journey, memories, impact and legacy of the African Union Students Club”
The OAU/AU Club has produced many student Heads of State who are today senior operatives and leaders in the civil society, federal and state bureaucracies, the armed forces and security community, academia, media and diplomacy.
In the meantime, students of the Anglican Girls Grammar School, Abuja Pan-Africa Club are scheduled to put up their annual AU Assembly Simulation on September 26th, 2026 at the NTA Arena, Abuja. Intervention is informed that the theme is “The Participation of Women in Politics and Governance in Africa: A Progress Report. It is understood that Senator Biodun Olujimi will be the Special Guest at the event.
Prof Oculi, originally a Ugandan and a US educated political scientist, died July 26th, 2025. The family marked his one-year memorial in Church on Sunday July 26th, 2026.
