Former Vice-president Atiku Abubakar has described the death of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Babatunde Sofoluwe, as a great loss to the country’s intellectual community.
Atiku in a press statement signed by his media office in Abuja yesterday said the death of Professor Sofoluwe at this point when there is a shortfall in the country’s intellectual powerhouse will leave a large hole that will be difficult to fill in a short time.
The former Vice-president noted that he was particularly shocked, like most other Nigerians, to hear about the demise of the prodigious professor of Computer Science over the weekend.
“It was a shocking development to hear about the death of Professor Sofoluwe even when no one had inkling to any notice of his ill health.
“As a stickler to academic excellence, I share in the grief of the country’s intellectual community and, as a nation; we can only take solace in the fact that the late professor had made his mark in his field of scholarship.
“No doubt, his death will leave a very large hole in the gamut of intellectual powerhouse in the country which will not be easy to fill in a short period of time. But I have an unwavering confidence in the capacity of the intellectuals in the country to step into the shoes left behind by Professor Sofoluwe,” Atiku said.
The statement further consoled family, friends and relations of the deceased, “to take his death as an act of God, which is inevitable.”
