04-08 2020 22:25
wrote:
CELEBRATING DR ALIOUNE BADIANE
It is no longer news now that Dr Alioune Badiane left this sinful world on Friday, the 31st of July 2020. What started as a casual visit to the hospital for a ‘common’ malaria turned out to be an eternal journey. There have been many tributes by all who have come across this enigma of a human being who positively touched lives in ‘magical’ ways—turning despondency to hope and desperation to confidence.
For me, it has been a journey of 28 years.I came to meet and know Dr Badiane in 1992/1993 at the onset of the Urban Management Programme (UMP), a collaborative programme of the UNDP, UNCHA and the World Bank, haven been introduced to him by my late mentor and brother, Professor Poju Onibokun. We criss-crossed the whole of West Africa (with the core of young professionals he assembled) and as the seat of the programme moved from Lome to Accra and lastly to Abidjan, engaged in various programmes across the various sectors in the quest to shape new approaches to urban development and management.
We collaborated on various urban researches and one which I particularly remember him for was his providential visit to my University, the University of Ibadan in 1996. The French Research Institute in Africa (IFRA) has identified Urban Violence as one of its pillar of research and I was involved. I had submitted a research proposal to the Institute which was approved and funded. However, IFRA could no longer fund the proposal and it was at this time that Alioune visited the Institute and requested that we meet at the Institute. We discussed as usual and when I told him of my proposal to the Institute, he was very interested, telling me that this was one of the new areas UNCHS was interested in. He promised to part-fund the proposal and that was how the research was concluded and the publication captioned The Architecture of Fear became one of the earliest publications related to the Safer Cities Program of the UN-Habitat.
Even when he went to the UN-Habitat headquarters in 1999, we continued to collaborate through the Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP) and met at different fora in different parts of the world. At any of these meetings, Alioune was always full of energy, asking to know what frontiers of knowledge you have travelled and how he could help. I was also often times in Nairobi for various programmes at the request of his organization.
We had become very close in the last three years as his Deputy in the management of the African Forum for Urban Safety (AFUS) based in Durban, South Africa. He has been instrumental to the evolvement and nurturing of AFUS as the Chair of the Advisory Board and most of the achievements of the organization can be attributed to him. AFUS will surely miss him.
Alioune (standing) at the 2019 AFUS Presentation
In 2019 when I was in Dakar as the Chair, Regional Committee for Africa (RCA) of the International Science Council (ISC) for the LIRA programme, he played host to me in his house, taking through the house room by room while we had a lot of discussions on what activities we would engage in after my present tenure as Chair of Human Settlement at the MUT in South Africa.
Iam convinced that he has played his part beautifully and effectively well, touching lives at the most critical points and ensuring that he leaves his indelible imprints on the sand of time. All of us are travellers and we will alight at our different bust stops.
May his soul find comfortable repose in the hands of his maker.
Professor Babatunde Agbola
04-08 2020 22:25
wrote:
CELEBRATING DR ALIOUNE BADIANE
It is no longer news now that Dr Alioune Badiane left this sinful world on Friday, the 31st of July 2020. What started as a casual visit to the hospital for a ‘common’ malaria turned out to be an eternal journey. There have been many tributes by all who have come across this enigma of a human being who positively touched lives in ‘magical’ ways—turning despondency to hope and desperation to confidence.
For me, it has been a journey of 28 years.I came to meet and know Dr Badiane in 1992/1993 at the onset of the Urban Management Programme (UMP), a collaborative programme of the UNDP, UNCHA and the World Bank, haven been introduced to him by my late mentor and brother, Professor Poju Onibokun. We criss-crossed the whole of West Africa (with the core of young professionals he assembled) and as the seat of the programme moved from Lome to Accra and lastly to Abidjan, engaged in various programmes across the various sectors in the quest to shape new approaches to urban development and management.
We collaborated on various urban researches and one which I particularly remember him for was his providential visit to my University, the University of Ibadan in 1996. The French Research Institute in Africa (IFRA) has identified Urban Violence as one of its pillar of research and I was involved. I had submitted a research proposal to the Institute which was approved and funded. However, IFRA could no longer fund the proposal and it was at this time that Alioune visited the Institute and requested that we meet at the Institute. We discussed as usual and when I told him of my proposal to the Institute, he was very interested, telling me that this was one of the new areas UNCHS was interested in. He promised to part-fund the proposal and that was how the research was concluded and the publication captioned The Architecture of Fear became one of the earliest publications related to the Safer Cities Program of the UN-Habitat.
Even when he went to the UN-Habitat headquarters in 1999, we continued to collaborate through the Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP) and met at different fora in different parts of the world. At any of these meetings, Alioune was always full of energy, asking to know what frontiers of knowledge you have travelled and how he could help. I was also often times in Nairobi for various programmes at the request of his organization.
We had become very close in the last three years as his Deputy in the management of the African Forum for Urban Safety (AFUS) based in Durban, South Africa. He has been instrumental to the evolvement and nurturing of AFUS as the Chair of the Advisory Board and most of the achievements of the organization can be attributed to him. AFUS will surely miss him.
Alioune (standing) at the 2019 AFUS Presentation
In 2019 when I was in Dakar as the Chair, Regional Committee for Africa (RCA) of the International Science Council (ISC) for the LIRA programme, he played host to me in his house, taking through the house room by room while we had a lot of discussions on what activities we would engage in after my present tenure as Chair of Human Settlement at the MUT in South Africa.
Iam convinced that he has played his part beautifully and effectively well, touching lives at the most critical points and ensuring that he leaves his indelible imprints on the sand of time. All of us are travellers and we will alight at our different bust stops.
May his soul find comfortable repose in the hands of his maker.
Professor Babatunde Agbola
