Pro-Chancellors, VCs Mourn Nimi Briggs

The Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities has expressed sadness over the demise of its chairman, Emeritus Professor Nimi Dimgba Briggs.

In a statement signed by Bashir M. Dalhatu, the alternate chairman of the Committee and Pro-Chancellor, Modibbo Adama University Yola, Professor Briggs was described as an outstanding intellectual, a scholar-practitioner, public servant, statesman and a highly-valued citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Dalhatu said Briggs was above all, a complete gentleman, a family man and a man of deep thought and vision. His footprints in medicine, in general, and in public and private lives are timeless.

“Emeritus Professor Nimi Briggs trained four generations of Professors of Medicine and was a leading authority in the field of gynaecology and obstetrics. As Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port-Harcourt, he set the gold standard in university administration.

“As Chairman, Committee of Pro-Chancellors, he raised the bar in articulating the nature and character of university leadership and governance in Nigeria. His service to our country, Africa and the rest of the world will continue to remind us of this great man,” he said.

In a related statement, the chairman, Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Professor Samuel Edoumiekumo, eulogised Professor Briggs as a strong pillar of the Nigerian University system contributing over 50 years of unbroken service.

He noted that long after his retirement from active academics, he was still serving the system as pro-Chancellor to two universities and a member of the NUC Advisory Committee. He noted that the country has lost a mighty iroko tree in the academic forest. He prayed to God to grant his widow Lady Datta Briggs, his children and grandchildren, the good peoples of Abonnema and Rivers state the fortitude to bear the loss.