WHEN YOUR GOOD WORKS FIND YOU OUT: PROF.GREGORY IBE EXAMPLE

Recently, a renowned forensic/social psychologist, journalist, public policy analyst, author, and social critic, Dr. Law Mefor wrote an article titled “A Peep into the “Shortlist” of Candidates for Nigerian President of Igbo Extraction”, where he listed some South East personalities (mainly partisan politicians) who he feels are qualified candidates for the position of Nigerian president. Worthy of note among the personalities is a non-partisan politician in the person of Prof. Gregory Ibe, the Chancellor and owner of Gregory University Uturu which is one of Nigeria’s and West Africa’s foremost private universities.
Many people who do not know Prof. Ibe well might be curious why he made the list, but people who know him and his antecedents well, would understand that it is only his good works that inadvertently found him out!
Who is Prof. Gregory Ibe? Prof. Gregory Ibe, OFR (Enyi Abia) is a legendary Nigerian Business Executive, an entrepreneur par excellence, the moving spirit of educational transformation in Nigeria, a philanthropist and humanitarian.
He was born on December 10, 1963 in Kaduna where his parents, natives of Uturu, lived then and worked. Although born and brought up outside his parents nativity, Chief Gregory Ibe never ceased to be the quintessence of an Igbo son who is in perfect harmony with the rest of mankind world over. He adores his home place, Uturu, and makes Uturu adorable to the World.
He was not born into easy circumstances of life. Indeed, he had a raw deal with poverty in his early life which rather spurred him with the determination to attain great heights today. His tough early life toughened him to complete his primary, secondary and tertiary education, alternating between work and education. That was perhaps nature’s way to prepare him for his future role in Nigeria as the hope for the hopeless.
Prof. Ibe’s alma maters include: Boys High School, Ihube, Imo State; School of Accountancy and Management Studies, Aba; Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu; and California Coast University, Santa Ana, CA where he obtained his Master’s Degree in 2003 and Doctorate Degree in Management in 2006.
Prof. Gregory Ibe is a great name in Nigeria particularly in education. Currently he constitutes the private sector spirit that is shaping science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in Nigeria through his involvement in supply of the state-of-the-art teaching/learning equipment with innovative pedagogy in the delivery of the subjects. His intervention is currently transforming the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in Nigeria at all levels of education. He has implanted entrepreneurship as curricular innovation in education and particularly in Business, Engineering and Technical/Vocational Education.
Prof. Ibe went further to establish his Private University called Gregory University, Uturu in Abia State, Nigeria with a focus on applied research, entrepreneurship and a Work-Based University Education. His University has the mantra “Knowledge for Tomorrow” and just recently in 2019 won the “best private university in Nigeria” award.
Prof. Ibe also established Gregory Ibe Foundation as a humanitarian medium to reach out to the poor and the helpless in Nigeria. The Foundation is in affiliation with World Medical Relief Inc. and Global Medical Relief Inc. in the United States for execution of medical aid programmes in Nigeria. Recently, through his foundation, he successfully concluded a first and second phase of palliatives distribution to the entire LGAs in Abia State, especially the less privileged, as a form of intervention against the hardship caused by the current covid-19 pandemic. His foundation also sponsored the fumigation of selected market places in Abia State. Even outside Abia State, the Imo State government also received donations of palliative items from the Gregory Ibe Foundation.
Prof. Gregory Ibe has been on the spotlight constantly for over two decades – not for his stupendous wealth or his countless national and international laurels, but consistently for his incredible, selfless investments in human welfare. He is a man not easy to deconstruct. Many have tried to define him in the context of populist notions of giving with the right hand and opening the left for pre-arranged returns. But he has risen above such notions, naturally, and practically redefined the character of philanthropy as a purely unconditional and selfless enterprise.
Prof. Ibe’s interventions in sustainable physical development at the grassroots, particularly the various rural roads rehabilitation and electricity projects he has single-handedly funded in his Uturu hometown and other communities; his footprints in the area of culture and heritage through the Uturu Royal Country Club which he founded in 2008, the Igbo (Uturu) Cultural Carnival which he founded and funded for over five years from 2010, and the World Igbo Summit that he has convened at Gregory University since 2017 – now the most influential initiative of its kind shaping the socio-economic and political future of Igboland. It is also to the credit of his pan-Igbo vision that Gregory University remains, till date, the only private university in Nigeria with a functional research centre on Igbo affairs, known as the Centre for Igbo Renaissance.
Prof. Ibe’s undertakings in the educational sector are objectively too numerous to enumerate in this singular write-up. Apart from the hundreds of scholarships he has personally granted for nearly three decades through the Gregory Ibe Foundation, his university has been an enviable pioneer, especially in science education, since its inception. The university has been a preferred national training centre for specialized areas of science education not only because of the world class equipment available in its laboratories but the quality of academics handling the courses. Recently, a scholar (student) of the university produced hybrid fuel-less power generator that is currently going through processes towards becoming patented. The school also invented the very first Human Sanitization Chamber in Nigeria as part of its response to the current global threat of COVID-19. Furthermore, the GUU Green Project Initiative is one of the most comprehensive environmental conservation campaign projects in the country, under which more than 1000 trees have been planted. The GUU Gender Advocacy Project has also been leading the campaign against rape and other forms of gender-based violence particularly in the South East.
Indeed, Prof. Ibe has done a lot more for humanity than whatever may have been reported in this write-up or in the media. In his words, “I have a humble background and I do not forget how my journey started. I have never been disconnected with my roots. Growing up, I experienced the pains and discomfort associated with daily struggles for survival. That is why I am deeply inspired by the words of John Donne: ‘every man’s suffering, every man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind and never send to ask for whom the bell tolls.’ Whatever I am doing for my fellow Abians today stems from my belief that we can all join hands to make Abia State better and lift families out of poverty.”
The most remarkable value of Prof. Ibe’s amazing philanthropy is that he never seeks to use his several acts of kindness to draw attention to himself. Unfortunately for him that does not like attention, good deeds such as his never go unnoticed no matter how hard you try to subdue them and that is why the recent article by Dr. Law Mefor should not surprise anybody as Prof. Ibe’s numerous good deeds over the years is simply finding him out!
By Chijioke Igwe,
Lecturer,
Gregory University Uturu.