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The death of Professor Gregory Ikechukwu Ibe, a consummate patriot and the Founder of Gregory University, Uturu, (GUU), Abia State, is akin to the fall of an iroko tree. As a king of trees and natural wind breaker, an iroko tree rarely falls but if it happens, the neighbourhood would feel the shuddering impact. The birds that build nests and or perch on it would be naturally displaced. So is the painful exit of Greg!
A proud native of the historical town of Uturu, his worldview and strategic choices distinguished him as a man who saw tomorrow and who was also ahead of his generation. I came in contact with him in the year 2000 through his kinsman, Mr. Chidi Slessor Mbah, who was the Director of Sports during our students’ union days at Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu. Mbah, who later earned a doctorate, became a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, and currently, he serves as the Chairman of ASUU, ABSU Chapter. It was through him that Greg donated a sum of N100,000 in support of the inter-collegiate football competition on campus which was organised by a committee led by Mbah. And after the successful tournament, Mbah and I, as president of the union, visited his family house and thanked him for the magnanimity. That was how the robust affinity between Greg and I was built, and it lasted for almost 26 years.
Greg was a torch-bearer and a great relational inspirer. There was no dismissive aura around him. He was not class-conscious in relationship. Rather, he was a comely personality with supersonic memory to the extent that he hardly forgot the names of whoever crossed his path. He was really down-to-earth. When he moved into his palatial country-home, he invited some of us – his junior friends – to an all-night of merriment with blazing music, assorted drinks and delectable meals from his ever-busy kitchen and hardworking chefs who had a standing order to feed all his guests (no matter the number) anytime that he was at home. Indeed, I will never forget that it was through Greg that I first visited the 13th Floor of Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, in 2005, when he was the UNESCO consultant handling the supply of education equipment to tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The exposure fired my budding imagination phenomenally.
When he started building his privately-owned Gregory University – just a few kilometres away from the Abia State University that had operated for over two decades before he nursed the idea, I doubted the finesse of the business case which informed such an investment in a countryside. But Greg was lion-hearted. He told me that virtually all the States in the Southwest have no less than three universities and that they are all ranked highly. He noted that no University in the Southeast offered Insurance as a course of study, and that he would make sure that his university fills that gap. And he did. Currently, GUU runs a BSc in Insurance. For him, Ndi Igbo as predominantly business people need to understand the relevance of insurance policies in covering unforeseen losses and mitigating cash flow uncertainty in business.
Like an elder, not by age then, but by clairvoyance, what he saw sitting down, the children could not see it even on top of the hills that surround Uturu community. Hence, he was able to overcome the difficult terrain in the GUU’s location: undulating topography, deep valleys, spring-water streams, and the ubiquitous screw-pine tropical palms used in traditional mat-making, which littered the area. He defied the odds and built a world-class university. And for years, he maintained the access road to the University premises which is off the Okigwe-Afikpo Road.
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Greg was detailed, creative, methodical, resilient, and a hands-on person. He was a real professor of entrepreneurship in practice. As an actuary, he had at his fingertips the number of blocks, bags of cement, rolls of rods, and quantity of gravel and sand for erecting a unit of classroom block and hostels. Such was his analytical depth! Walking people round the campus was fun for him. He was so consumed with the passion for developing the university that he visited almost every fortnight despite his international business engagements.
Greg was a cultural icon. Every December, he sponsored and hosted the Igbo Uturu Cultural Carnival. He said that, “the major aim of the carnival is to explore the potency of the carnival to weld apparently disparate cultures to create cultural unity, social harmony and strength on the one hand while on the flip side it is to checkmate the move towards ethnocentrism, which leads to racial prejudice, discrimination and other social ills.” Greg loved his Igbo people and he was ready to do anything to change their fortunes. Hence, he hosted the World Igbo Congresses, not in the United States, but in GUU, for many years.
On a personal level, Greg was good to me. He gave me an opportunity to recommend a qualified academic staff when the university took off. He also organised a post-wedding dinner for me and my wife after our wedding on May 10, 2010. During my book launch on March 5, 2021 at Enugu, he sent the University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Augustine Uwakwe to chair the event on his behalf. Also, when I was the PDP gubernatorial running mate in Abia State in 2023, he encouraged me outstandingly, despite that he was on the ballot against my principal from a different political platform.
Greg was a philanthropist of note. He was a man of exceptional empathy and large heart. Many young people benefited from his scholarship scheme, while others leaned on his shoulder to move forward in life. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he donated bags of foodstuff and cartons of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the Abia State Government in support of relief-provisioning to Abians. No wonder, he was deservedly honoured as Enyi Abia – (The elephant of Abia). May his life and legacies continue to inspire the present and unborn generations.
