By Damola Kola-Dare
Members of the Government Team in the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN)/University-based Unions Re-negotiation Committee have paid tribute to their late Chairman,Prof. Emeritus Nimi Briggs, who died in April aged 79.
The tribute was signed by the remaining members of the team – Pro-Chancellor, Federal University, Lokoja, Lokoja, Kogi State, Chris Adighije; Pro-Chancellor, Federal University Birnin Kebbi, Birni Kebbi, Kebbi State, Prof. Emeritus Funmi Togonu-Bickersteth and Pro-Chancellor, Federal University Wukari, Wukari, Taraba State, Lawrence Ngbale.
Others include Pro-Chancellor, Aliko Dangote, University of Science and Technology, Wudil, Kano State, Prof. Zubaivru Iliyasu; Pro-Chancellor, Niger-Delta University, William Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Matthew Seiyefa and Pro-Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, Prof. Olu Obafemi.
They hailed the deceased who they described as an incurable optimist and “an indomitable patriot and genuine national hero,” for his sterling leadership qualities, for his ‘never say never’ attitude, for his resolute pursuit of the goal of fashioning out a workable solution to the problems bedeviling the education sector of the country and for his “alluring humility.”
According to them, despite the setbacks experienced in the course of their assignment with Briggs as their leader, they still stand firmly in support of his ideal, “that visionary leadership, committed to the triumph of education as a bedrock of human civilisation and the imperishability of the regime of merit in national growth, will still emerge and our educational system, nay our beloved country, which he laboured tenaciously and died for, will come to be.”
They said: “Even when it was obvious that, contrary to our expectation, the Agreement was not going to receive the blessing of the ultimate authority, Briggs led us on in the conviction that the document will sail through eventually, because, as he drummed it into our willing ears, there was no alternative to accepting the well-wrought document, if the university system will be rescued from its present doldrums, decadence and declining standards.
“He refused to be daunted or ruffled when the patently distracting legal process was entered into by an agent of government and a court injunction was obtained when the easiest option was to get the two parties to sign the Agreement. The Committee of Pro-Chancellors, following our Chairman’s Report to it, set up a small team to further seek audience with government at the highest level to obtain a minimal consent of government by a slight shift of position to salvage the system. The failure of that effort did not lead to despair or despondency.
“Until he breathed his last, the apostle of human possibility, a global scientific intellectual and clinician per excellence who, additionally was a man of letters, who believed in the arts as a curative and redemptive instrument, he held us together, undaunted in his belief in the irresistibility of such a solution-laden document. He was ready for any other opening that will bring resolution to the crisis of education in our country that our Committee was set up to address and which he embarked upon with dogged commitment and genuineness of purpose.”
The late Briggs was was a renowned Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a university administrator, who headed the Federal Government Team to renegotiate the FGN 2009 Agreements with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The team was poised to solving the challenges of tertiary education system.