Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) and family members have extolled the virtues of the late Engr Funmilola Ojelade, as her remains were laid to rest in Abuja.
They described their late colleague as a “strong, dedicated, innovative and irreplaceable leader who gave her all to the profession.”
Ojelade passed away on March 22, 2023, during a brief illness. She served as the 16th president of APWEN. During her tenure, she introduced the “APWEN Town & Gown” mentoring and capacity building programme for young engineers to retain young women in engineering and aid gender diversity in technology jobs.
The president of Nigerian Society of Engineers, Tasiu Saad Gidari-Wudil described Ojelade as a detribalised Nigerian who has proven at many occasions how nationalistic and patriotic she was in the discharge of her duties.
Wudil urged her fellow APWEN members and others to emulate her good virtues.
“My appeal to those of us who are alive is to emulate her, she was a very committed soul and I know she has gone to rest but the time we had with her was too short, she still has a lot to do, but we can’t question God Almighty.
“We thank God for the life Fumilola lived, we thank God for the part she took and we thank God for those little children she was always concerned about when it came to science education.”
On her part, the current APWEN president, Engr Dr. Elizabeth Jumoke Eterigho, stated that Ojelade remains one of the strong figures APWEN has had because of her dedication and teamwork spirit, adding that she is humorous and always ensures she finishes whatever projects she started.
“I want to say that Engineer Funmilola, I call her my ‘presi’ we call her digital president, she is very humorous. She is a finisher, some people will start and will not finish but Funmilola will start and then she will finish the programme, she is so meticulous, plain, straightforward and a woman of integrity, I am very, very sure of that.
“We will miss her a lot. She brought APWEN to this level as far as an online programme is concerned. During the COVID-19, she said to my VP you must do something because you can’t occupy that place without doing something and we discovered this online meeting where the speakers speak to us from all over the world. We will miss her intelligence and everything”.
And we believe God will deliver her out of any difficulty she will have to face there,” Elizabeth said.
Also, 9th APWEN president, Valerie Agberagba said that it is very difficult to talk about Funmilola in the past tense. “I have known her for more than 25 years; we have come a long way. She was a friend, a sister, and my IT tutor. She was committed to APWEN, was thorough and loved God. I know she has gone to rest but the time we had with her was too short, she still had a lot to do,” Agberagba said.
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