Professor Ibrahim Umar, a renowned physicist and former Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), has died.
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that the former VC’s death was confirmed by his son, Farouk Ibrahim Umar, on Monday.
According to his son, the late Umar’s funeral will take place at Kofar Kudu at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
The deceased, who served as BUK VC from 1979 to 1986, was the institution’s third president.
In 1976, he was the first Nigerian academic in physics to teach at the university.
He represented Nigeria at the World Energy Council’s Executive Assembly beginning in 1990 and was a member of the team that drafted the country’s 1979 Constitution.
Umar served on the Nigerian delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference beginning in 1989 and was appointed Director-General of the Nigerian Energy Commission in 1989. In 2000-2001, he was Chairman of the IAEA’s Board of Governors, and in 2004, he was Director of the Centre for Energy Research and Training, which houses Nigeria’s first research nuclear reactor.
In 2007, he served on the international advisory committee for the international workshop on Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development in Africa, which was held at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Nigeria.
Professor Sagir Abbas, the VC of BUK, expressed sadness and condolences to the entire university community in response to his death.
According to Abbas, the deceased laid a good foundation during his stewardship as the university’s head and was very instrumental to the university’s second phase of development, particularly the new site campus.