I encountered Rotimi Sankore, then Rotimi Johnson (RJ) in Ibadan, precisely at the University of Ibadan, UI, in 1990. I had just enrolled to study political science.

He was a student leader and a Marxist movement leader as well. Bode Ojomu was the President then. After Ojomu Bunmi Olusona, popularly known as Beyond Jordan was elected as president. 

Yet every student on campus knew who the next students union president would be. Rotimi Johnson was not just a student leader, he was a leader of thought, a moving encyclopedia and data expert. He was also an oratory king. Don't just allow him to mount the rostrum!

To put as it rightly, RJ was way ahead of most people on campus then including many of his teachers in terms of knowledge of history and social order.

But the military government saw him as a troublemaker and hounded him ceaselessly. He was later rusticated by the school authority and disqualified from contesting the election.

Although Sankore was two years ahead of me in the University, I ended up graduating before him as his studentship became a subject of legal struggles.

I would see Rotimi Sankore again after the Ibadan years in the Post Express where I worked as the Opinion/ Editorial Page Editor in the year 2000. He had come to visit my Sunday Editor, Angela Agoawike who asked me to meet "her brother." I turned and told her that she didn't tell me beforehand that she had a troublemaker as a brother. Rotimi gave out a wry smile sensing I was from UI saying "don't mind an ill-informed vice chancellor."

The last time I saw Rotimi Sankore was about two years ago at the CMEDIA  programme in Lagos. We hugged and exchanged pleasantries. He was still his ebullient self full of ideas and had not lost one bit the magic of holding everyone spellbound with his presentations.

His life was defined by popular struggles and ideas to bridge inequality gaps.

Rotimi Sankore, may you find rest now!