Interview with Deji Yesufu

Deji Yesufu is a 42-years-old man from Ibadan, Nigeria. He earned an Electrical Engineering degree from Ahmadiyya Bello University and a Master’s Degree in Physics from the University of Ibadan.

He attended ABU Staff School for Primary School and Demonstration Secondary School. He wrote the historical account of a Nigerian officer killed during the Nigerian civil 50 years ago entitled Victor Banjo.

He also authored a theological work telling the history of the 16th Century Protestant Reformation called Half a Millennium — An Introductory Text to Protestant History and Reformed Theology. Other written works can be found here: www.mouthpiece.com.

He works at the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he is a Senior Electrical/Electronic Engineer with the Department of Radiation Oncology. Yesufu has worked at the UCH for nine years now. He sees a necessity in the development of progressive leaders in Nigeria to set a different and positive political course for the citizenry of Nigeria.

Here we talk about his life, work, and views.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: If we look at the family background, what was it for you?

Deji Yesufu: I was born into a nuclear family — one man and one wife — this is against a prevailing culture of polygamy here in Nigeria.

Mother raised us up Roman Catholics, while father always practised Islam. I am the second of three brothers and two sisters.

Jacobsen: How did this background provide a context in early life for you — a grounding?

Yesufu: Living in a family where mother was Roman Catholic and the father was Muslim, I would eventually branch out to become Protestant, which offered me my first perception of religious pluralism and tolerance. My reading of Church History reveals the deep rancour that this created amongst people in the past, but, for us, it was never the case.

I should credit my dad for his non-insistence on a single religion for the family to follow. Although, I do not necessarily recommend this model to families. I think it worked out providentially for me, particularly in coming to grasp with Evangelical Christianity and being able to practise it with a certain freedom in my younger years.