User:Sola Odumosu Father of Celebrology/sandbox

'''SOLA ODUMOSU, THE FATHER OF CELEBROLOGY

THE FIRST BLACK INVENTOR OF ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE, FIRST IN THE WORLD TO PROPOUND THE CELEBRATION THEORY AND CURRENTLY THE WORLD LEADING BIOGRAPHER.

Sola Odumosu is the Nigerian-born intellectual genius. He was born in Lagos at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital where his mother was a midwife in the year 1982 but controversies surround the precise date and month he was born. A date 4th of May has been chosen to mark his birthday. His Mother, Felicia Mosunmola Odumosu suffered intensely from stillbirth and was often confronted with ill- health problems before and after his birth. His father’s name is Joseph Odumosu – a tailor from Odosenbora in Ijebu kingdom. The family has a long standing lineage from Ijebu-Ode, the cradle of Ijebu civilization. His patriarchs were known for their pioneering movement of Christianity in Ijebuland in Africa. He is said to have inherited the gene of invention and intellectual deviance from his family.

HIS EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION Sola Odumosu lived with his parents in their rented house at Iyana-Ipaja in the latest years of the 20th century,1982 till 1990- these were periods of his growing years of childhood. At a very tender age, precisely age 3 his mother became too ambitious of her son’s intellectual wizardry and she promised to devote her time to train her son. She began the training of little Sola Odumosu with what she tagged “ fervent domestic training of my son”. She taught him to read alphabets and numbers at home and at age 4 enrolled him into nursery schools. Sola Odumosu attended Ayanfe Nursery school and Alebiosu Nursery school in Iyana-Ipaja before being enrolled at primary school. During his nursery school days Sola’s IQ was tested and was considered a genius from childhood and he topped the class, becoming the envy of other children. He moved to Oki Primary School in Iyana-Ipaja,Alimoso at age six where he continued to excel. During these periods his mother‘s illness grew worse and began to suffer from acute cough. All money gathered by the family to develop the plot of land and build the family’s house went on the sick mother to save her life. To help take care of Sola and his little brother, Olumide, his aunt, Ibukun arrived Lagos to assist her sister. At this time Mosunmola had resigned her job in LUTH to engage in a craftwork where she could manage to take care of her children and her health.

At the beginning of a new academic year, marking the promotion of Sola Odumosu to primary 2, Mosunmola pleaded with the school authority to take her son to Ijebu. In the latter months of the year 1990,Sola and his brother, Olumide were taken away from Lagos to live with their grandparents in the village of Odosenbora. Both were enrolled in classes 2 and 1 respectively. At first, change of environment and motherly care resulted in some psychological disturbance as it brought some relegations to academic performances for months, but at promotion to primary three, the kids picked up courage and came first in the year promotional exam at Christ Church Primary School ,Odosenbora in Ijebuland. But in the following year, while another promotional exam was to be written, the death of his mother, Felicia Mosunmola was announced in the year 1992! He was advised by his headmaster never to allow the death of his mother deprive him of his academic excellence, and after the examination, he still came first. Throughout Sola’s primary school days in the village, he displayed enormous intelligence a child and excelled that he was considered the senior prefect of the school.

While leaving the school for his secondary education, his uncle,Taiwo Odumosu considered him too intelligent a child and asked him to begin to think of going to the city for his high education. He purchased the Common Entrance Examination form for him and asked him to compete with pupils from cities. A woman whose character reflected arrogance once mocked Sola Odumosu’s ability and considered him a village champion but he proved himself that he was not just a village champion but a city champion. He once told the story of how tattered and rough the dress he put on was on the day he was writing his Common Entrance Examination at Ijebu-Ode Grammar School and was scornfully laughed at by others. His aunt’s husband whom he lived with during his secondary school days was not particularly pleased with his dressing. The family waited on and on for the release of the result and Sola’s name appeared on admission lists. He had gained admission to the prestigious school in the city. Sola at first had difficulty in blending with the city life amidst the new academic challenges that confronted him but he summoned courage and demonstrated a great deal of academic proficiency. He lived with his cousins under strict disciplinarian guidance of their father, Mr Adeolu Olufowote who was a retired principal. His aunt ,Mary Olufowote showed a great deal of benevolence to young Odumosu and promised to take the role of a mother. Sola lived with this family four six years and was brought up with Christian traditions. Domestic training was fervent and he managed to blend it with academic challenges. In nearly all these he excelled.

HIS INVOLVEMENT IN YOUTH ACTIVITIES At the time Sola was in Ijebu-Ode Grammar School, precisely at form 5 when he was elected the library Prefect, he joined the extracurricular activities in the school and was encouraged by his cousin, Oluwaseun, to visit Youth Action Project (YAP) secretariat in the town- an NGO, that he would meet a white woman. He decided to go one day and on getting there was excited with the youth activities. He became very curious of the project and made enquiries. He got a satisfactory answer to his yearnings and began to make a full commitment. He joined Press Club and within a month exercised his creativity in writing and speech. He brought revival to the project that the project coordinator, Mr Tope Ekundayo, broke the protocol and marveled at his ingenuity. Really Youth Action Project (YAP) was a community initiative of Women’s Health Organisation of Nigeria (WHON) targeted at Ijebu youths to develop their sexuality and mental competence. Sola found YAP as an opportunity to develop himself and he demonstrated his zeal for intellectual liberation. It was at this place that he was motivated to begin to see the world in totality.

After he left Ijebu-Ode Grammar School in the year 2000, Sola never left YAP, instead he continued to use the organisation as a training ground for his IQ. YAP gave Sola an opportunity to showcase himself and he was often sent on official assignment for he had voluntarily offered himself to the service of fellow youths in the community. He assisted in the global campaign against HIV/AIDS and several other sensitization programs. His great moment of victory came when he was given an opportunity to talk at the most populated high school in Ijebuland –  Adeola Odutola College,Ijebu-Odein the year 2001.After YAP programs came to an abrupt end, Sola continued his independent campaign for  youth development through his personal initiatives he called Youth Speak Network (YSN) and moved from Ijebu to Lagos, and from Lagos to Ijebu where he visited schools for series of sensitization programs and collaborated in training with Family Health International. During this period Sola continued to develop himself and often began to ask questions about contemporary societies. Many call him a philosopher. A brother, Tunde Ajayi, once admired his curiosity and in order to help him gave him a book written by Prof. Joseph Omoregbe, ”Knowing Philosophy”. He became excited and nursed the ambition of studying Philosophy in the university. He read widely before his admission into university.

SEPTEMBER 11 LED TO THE THINKING OF CELEBROLOGY- MARKING THE BEGINNING OF INTELLECTUAL REBELLION Sola Odumosu grew up in a Nigerian society where many problems have been plaguing the nation’s history. He had voiced out in the way he could as a young man yet he knew his limitation.He made serious contributions to both local and national dailies as well as magazines.These were periods of the Nigerian nascent democracy. He discovered the menace of corruption in the nation and assumed intellectual radicalism to help solve the nation's problem.One day in the night, while contemplating on the Nigerian problems, there was a sudden news break-out that terrorists had invaded United States of America. He watched the news on the television with panic and his worries about the world grew. He then shifted his attention to the world, thinking of what to do, to help solve global problems. Sola Odumosu developed a very high taste for intellectual radicalism and thought of inventing a new field of knowledge to solve world problems. He first thought within himself about "human dignity", and in the mean time discovered that the reason there is problem in the world is because there is lack of respect for human dignity. He then though of inventing a field of knowledge that will concentrate on human dignity. The idea of Celebrology had begun ! But it took Sola Odumosu some years to coin Celebrology. One day around 2003, he found himself facing the mirror and was talking to himself. suddenly, a question struck in his mind that supposing people come around and ask him what he was doing, what would he say? He then answered himself this way " I think I am looking for the scientific study of honour that places value on what I am looking for". Sola Odumosu was always found with this idea anytime he wants to plumb the depth of his being. The phrase " scientific study of honour " struck his mind. He carefully reasoned with the fundamental truth that honour can only find expression in human dignity. But he was conscious of the name he would give to the new knowledge and he began to search for the languages he would use. He thought about Greek and Latin. The reason he did this was to honour Europe and appreciate their pioneering role in knowledge formation, appreciating Greek and Latin as the intellectual languages of Europe over the years. He then looked for the Latin word for honour which he found in celebrare and the Greek word for scientific study which he found in logos. Now celebrare and logos were combined together and first pronounced celebrarelogos and better pronounced celebralogy and best pronounced CELEBROLOGY. Celebrology therefore literally means the scientific study of honour. However it must be told that apart from Latin and Greek, an African language known as Yoruba remains the bedrock of the intellectual wizardry of Celebrology. Most words have been coined by Sola Odumosu from Yoruba into Celebroloy for example a word such as fefetule was coined from the Yoruba word fi efe tule which literally means to charge the ground with humour.Theoretically, it has been proposed by Sola Odumosu as the basis of carnival all over the world. Sola Odumosu, while creating the theoretical base of Celebrology developed what he calls superwaves on which he developed the concept of (i) universalism, that human dignity is universal and it is the possession of mankind and wherever humans exist, they have dignity that must be respected; (ii) constant-dynamism, that human dignity is constant everywhere and their behaviour is different; (iii) generation-persistism, that human dignity persists in every generation irrespective of the age humans have ever lived and will still live on the planet earth (visit www.celebrology.com)

Reference: Wale, Dada (2010). “The Universal Declaration of Celebration Principles”, p. 2. Ready tutor and Company, Nigeria. ISBN 9789784861618.