Nigeria, Feb. 12 -- Professor Biodun Jeyifo, who passed away this week, was an intellectual giant of global significance. A thinker and activist, Jeyifo was a beacon to many scholars of his generation and the many others that followed. His calling as a teacher and scholar did not blind him to the suffering of the people for whom he embraced the credo of social justice. It was his unrelenting quest for social justice and demonstration of rare courage that endeared him to fellow academics who entrusted him with the historic honour of being the first president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria.

How difficult it is to now write about Jeyifo in the past tense, having turned eighty years just one month ago. He enjo...