By Evelyn Usman

National President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria,AISSON Dr Ona Ekhomu, has joined other Nigerians to mourn the demise of former University of Lagos Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, describing it as a rude shock and a great loss to academia.

The former University don passed away on Sunday, January 3, 2021.

Describing the late Ibidapo-Obe as an astute administrator, a frontline scholar and a good Christian, the security expert in a statement issued in Lagos , said ” late Prof. Ibidapo-Obe cared deeply about the governance of Nigeria, issues of higher education and youth empowerment.

” Late Ibidapo-Obe and I used to engage in interminable debates about the condition of the Nigerian nation. He will be sorely missed by his family, his friends and a nation that is at a crossroads”.

While explaining that late Prof. Ibidapo-Obe was a member of the Faculty of the Master in Criminology, MCRIM program in the Sociology Department of University of Lagos, where he (Ekhomu) also lectured, he lamented that the MCRIM Program had also suffered a huge loss with the passage of the erudite scholar.

Ekhomu philosophized that great men were not known by the number of years they spent on earth, but by the way they impacted the lives of their fellow human beings. “They are remembered by how they empowered others”.

While praying to God to grant the soul of Prof. Ibidapo-Obe eternal rest, he urged Nigerian leaders to imbibe the virtues of servant leadership, “uncompromising excellence, humility, altruistic service and love of country which characterized the life of the late Vice-Chancellor”.