How Maikanti Baru Left Academic to Corporate World- VC NOUN, Prof Adamu Mourns
POLITICS DIGEST– The Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu has expressed shock over the death of the former Group Managing Director of NNPC Dr. Maikanti Baru.
Adamu expressed grief in a statement he made on the platform of Instant News Sharing Group, which was obtained by POLITICS DIGEST.
Baru died Friday night in an Abuja hospital after a brief sickness.
The Vice Chancellor described Baru as an accomplished engineer that served the country diligently well.
According to the VC, Baru has modestly lived a humble life, was very religious and so devoted to the mosque.
“This is absolutely shocking. He was an extremely good friend of mine, even though we had lost actual contact since we went our separate ways from University of Sussex where we graduated. When I returned to Sussex from fieldwork in 1987 with a new wife, I had no accommodation. Maikanti gave up his own bedroom for us while he and his wife then, Fatima, move to the smallish parlor for a whole week while we try to get an accommodation in Brighton.
He was deeply religious and devoted to the mosque in Sussex, going house to house to tell us when the moon was sighted for the start and end of Ramadan fasting during our years in Sussex. He was in the mosque earlier than anyone, cleaning the toilets and the ablution area to make sure it neat. When we realized it was too much for him, we created a roster for every member of the congregation to do their duties in cleaning the mosque.
During his stay in Sussex, he lived modestly, virtually on the poverty line, but never complained. He was a brilliant engineer, finishing his DPhil in record time. Yet he was badly treated by Bayero University and that made him resigned as a Lecturer in the Faculty of Technology as it was then. He was in Sussex not even on BUK scholarship but on British Caledonian sponsorship which was very hard to get. He joined the Ashaka Company he started from shop floor, not executive suite so that he can learn the ropes from the beginning.
Last week I was told he was out of the country with his family for her to study some program and for him to rest having retired from service, and they were caught up in the lockdown, although I don’t know which country or the circumstances of his death.
It is really a tragic loss. May the Lord receive him in His infinite mercy”.
