JUST IN: Former BUK VC, Prof Umar, Is dead
A RENOWNED physicist and former Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Professor Ibrahim Umar Bichi is dead.
The news was confirmed by his son, Farouk Ibrahim Umar, on Monday night, who also announced that the burial ceremony would take place in the Kano Emir’s Palace, Kofar Kudu, by 10am on Tuesday.
The deceased, who served as BUK VC between 1979 and 1986, was the third head of the institution.
He was the first Nigerian academic in physics to teach at the university in 1976.
From 1989 till his appointment as Director-General of the Nigerian Energy Commission in 1989, he served as a representative of Nigeria at the IAEA General Conference. He presided over the IAEA’s Board of Governors from 2000 to 2001, and from 2004 to 2008, he was the director of the Centre for Energy Research and Training, which is home to the nation’s first research nuclear reactor.
His last known appointment was in 2007, on the international advisory council for the international workshop on renewable energy for sustainable development in Africa, which was held at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Nigeria.
The current VC of BUK, Professor Sagir Abbas, expressed sadness and condoled with the entire university community.
He said the deceased laid a good foundation during his stewardship as the head of the university and was very instrumental to the second phase of university’s development particularly the new site campus.