Lagos Governor Raji Fashola Mourns Death of UNILAG VC Sofoluwe
Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) on Saturday expressed shock and disbelief at the sad news of the passing away of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Adetokunbo Sofoluwe. He describing the sudden death as a personal loss to him.
The University of Lagos Dean of Students’ Affairs, Professor Kayode Amund, said Sofoluwe, 62, who was in his second year of his five-year tenure, had a heart attack in his office, Friday night, and was rushed to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). He suffered another attack before he gave up the ghost early Saturday.
Fashola, in separate letters written to the VC’s widow, Dr (Mrs) Olufunmilayo Sofoluwe, and to the UNILAG’s Registrar, Mr Oluwarotimi Shodimu, said that he remembered the warm reception he was accorded at the university when he was invited to deliver the School of Post Graduate Studies Annual lecture in January this year.
The Governor described the late Prof. Professor Adetokunbo Sofoluwe as a brilliant scholar and versatile administrator.
He conveyed his sympathies on behalf of the Lagos State Government and people of Lagos State, saying that the calm and easy going manner Professor Shofoluwe chaired the proceeding that day showed him as an amiable gentleman, whose dedication to the University of Lagos was not in doubt.
‘’In the short time since January 2010 when he was appointed Vice Chancellor, I was privileged to have made his personal acquaintance on a number of occasions. I therefore know him to be a very jocular, affable and unassuming gentleman and I looked forward to our meetings from time to time,” Fashola stated.
He said from all accounts, Professor Shofoluwe’s open door policy, which made the Office of the Vice Chancellor more accessible than before, endeared him to the entire university community, adding that he was indeed renowned for regularly having his lunch at the University Staff Club, where he often engaged in discussions on how to realize his oft-quoted mission to transform UNILAG into one of the top 100 Universities in the world.
The Governor prayed that the good Lord will comfort and continue to uphold the widow and the family he has left behind.
“Whilst it is our prayer that God grant the departed’s soul sweet repose, we also pray that his successor will take up the gauntlet and carry on from where Professor Shofoluwe has so eloquently left off, so that his great plans and ambitions for his alma mater will not die with him,” Governor Fashola prayed.
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