Professor of Botany, University of Lagos, Prof. James Dele Olowokudejo delivered his last academic assignment with an exit lecture tagged ‘exaugural lecture’ at 70 last Wednesday, saying that he would have served for four decades more.

Olowokudejo, who spoke at the Afe Babalola Auditorium, University of Lagos, said he was departing with a big bag filled with mixed feelings, experience of 45 years and lessons of a life time.

The lecture titled: “Plants, people and possibilities: Musings of a Graduate Assistant, Instructor, Advisor, Mentor and a distinguished Professor”, enlightened attendees of the benefits of plants to man.

Speaking on the relationship between plants and people, Olowokudejo  said plants affected humans not only by keeping them alive but providing wonderful sights, textures and fragrances that enrich existence.

He said the destructive impact of the planet was beginning to take its toll as deforestation, desertification, erosion and pollution have become widespread.

“We are bleeding our planet to death as if there is somewhere else we can go. If we ruin and use up this Eden, there is no other world hanging in the sky that we can blithely move to.”

He said botanists had a huge role to play in human affairs and their raw material was the plant kingdom.

“The earth, its oceans, seas, rivers and lakes are the botanists’ garden, laboratory and herbarium, but new skills and positive attitudes are urgently required,”

Botany, Oluwokudejo said, if looked into properly could make more impact in the society by solving the problem of unemployment.

He advised academics to be guided by the ethics of the profession, adding that those who played politics would not last long in their academic journey.

Source: The Nations newspaper