In the words of Prof Joseph Ajienka, 7th Vice Chancellor of University of Port Harcourt, Professor Emeritus Nimi Briggs was a wise man, an outstanding leader, distinguished scholar, great mentor and seasoned university administrator.
By 10th April 2023, Professor Emeritus Nimi Dimkpa Tobin Briggs JP, KSC, OON, MBBS (Lag); MD (Lag); FRCOG; FWACS; FICS; FMCOG (Nig); FIPS; FAS, FNAMed, DFMC; HLR; DSc; NINOM, long retired as a University Vice Chancellor had the following on-going responsibilities amongst others:
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- (From 7th March 2022) Chairman, Federal Government / University Unions Renegotiation Team.
- Member of the Strategy Advisory Committee (STRADVCOM) of the National Universities Commission
- Chairman, Committee of Pro-Chancellors (CPC) of Nigerian Federal Universities
- Pro-chancellor and Chairman of Council. Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State
- Pioneer Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Bayelsa University of Medical Sciences and Member, Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Stated-Owned Universities in Nigeria (COPSUN)
- Chairman, Board of Sports Institute, University of Port Harcourt.
- Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Port Harcourt
- Chairman, Board of University of Port Harcourt Foundation.
- Director, Centre for Health and Development. University of Port Harcourt
He was an academic and professional of great distinction, whose humane lifestyle, incomparable administrative sagacity, distinctive academic ability and achievements have brought great benefits to the Nigerian university system in general and the University of Port Harcourt in particular. Nimi, born to the late Rt. Rev. Dimkpa Tobin Briggs and the late Madam Esther Victor Telema Harry had his early education between 1948 and 1963. He graduated Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Lagos in July 1969 as best student in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Child Health. He worked as a junior doctor in Nigeria, did postgraduate studies in UK and lectured in University Teaching Hospitals in Zaria and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He was Head of Department of O&G, Provost of the medical school and Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt. During his tenure as Vice Chancellor, he served as Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities (CVC) and Chairman of the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) – (2004-2005).
He was Chairman, Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, Rivers State Economic Advisory Council and latterly Pro Chancellor of two universities and Chair of the Nimi Briggs Committee Renegotiating 2009 Agreement between Nigerian Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). For rendering outstanding lifelong services to the university, the community and the nation at large, he was awarded the Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) of the University of Port Harcourt. He was a Justice of the Peace, a Knight of St. Christopher in the Anglican Communion and a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International.
Emeritus Prof, my teacher, mentor, benefactor, friend and father had the greatest impact on my life second only to my mother. I had written about this in ‘the beloved‘. Today (22/02/2025) would have been his 81st birthday. He took his last breath on 10th April 2023, captured in the final journey of a 5* leader.
His CV ran into 32 pages, abridged here as I welcome you to an on-going citation (Emeritus Prof standing in our midst) as I continue reading aloud, now talking about his contributions to national development:
“… There is a saying, “to whom much is given, much is expected.” In 1964, you gained admission to study Medicine in Universities of Ibadan and Lagos. You chose the latter. You won Federal Government Scholarship Award, Niger Delta Special Area Scholarship Award and Eastern Nigeria Scholarship Award to study Medicine. In 1972, you won Federal Nigerian Government Postgraduate Scholarship Award and the British Commonwealth Scholarship awards to specialise in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the United Kingdom.
Is it surprising that you returned from your studies and lived a life of service to your nation, Nigeria?
These are some of your activities:
- From September 1969 – February 1970, during the Nigerian Civil War, you served as a Field Captain (Medical Officer) with the Nigerian Army at the 3 Field Ambulance of 3 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt.
- From 1975 to 1979, you taught, researched on and practised Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. In the course of your job at the Teaching Hospital of the University, you encountered and treated several patients with vesicovaginal fistula (VVF). In 1979, you transferred your services to the University of Port Harcourt where you were appointed the pioneer Head of the Institution’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. There also, you encountered some patients with VVF. So, you set up a Unit at the Teaching Hospital of the University of Port Harcourt for fistula repair.
- While in Zaria and working under the supervision of Professor Kelsey A. Harrison, an internationally renowned Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, and Una Lister, a Briton who served Nigeria meritoriously, you instituted educational programmes to discourage girls from early commencement of childbearing. This began the precursor of today’s Safe Motherhood and other Campaigns, which are being promoted by the World Health Organization and its specialized agencies like UNICEF and other non-governmental organizations – all designed to improve maternal and child health, especially in developing countries.
- In February 2005, you were appointed one of two members of Academic Staff of Nigerian Universities to represent academics at a National Political Reform Conference. The President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, to find solution to the many problems that beset the nation, convoked the Conference.
- As part of your research activities, you established a rural research station at the Health Centre in Kegbara Dere in Ogoni land of Rivers State. This was at a time when the Ogoni people had suffered tremendous losses in men and materials because of the immense political upheavals of the early 1990s. The Health Centre, which served as the focal point for Health Care Delivery in that part of the country, was desolate and abandoned. You raised a team from the University that offered a-round-the clock health care, free of charge. Through the effort of Professor Kelsey Harrison, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, England, collaborated with you and your team to extend support to the Centre. The activities at the Centre spread rapidly and the Centre became the nucleus from which medical services in Ogoni land were reactivated. In appreciation of this selfless service to the Ogoni people of Nigeria, the people of Kegbara Dere of Ogoni invested you with the chieftaincy title of Mene-na-le of Kegbara Dere, which translates as “the Chief that does good”. The Centre now serves as a major academic outpost for the University of Port Harcourt. It is used in the training of medical students on rural medicine and for community based research.
- During the Presidency of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, on advice from the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON), Mr. President established an Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Nigeria, which was to be given the mandate to conduct research into all aspects of the health of women, including those factors that contribute to maternal deaths. A team of ten Obstetricians and Gynaecologists was put together with Late Professor T. Bello-Osagie, then President of SOGON, as leader, to advise Mr. President on the formation of this Institute. You were one of the ten. The team worked for about nine months and put an excellent report together which was submitted to President Shehu Shagari.
- You served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt from July 2000 to July 2005. During that period, the university attained spectacular growth and achievements in all aspects of its operations. You attracted large amount of funds from governments, corporate as well as philanthropic organizations into the University for its Development. Additionally, you launched a Silver Jubilee Endowment Fund, wrote personal letters to all the staff of the university (over 3,000), and implored them to contribute voluntarily. Over 1000 staff responded and contributed handsomely. Academic standards improved because of a more business-like posture of Senate. In 1999, before you became the Vice-Chancellor of the University, the Institution was ranked 25th among 36 Federal and State Universities by the National Universities Commission (NUC) “based on the quality of academic programmes”. However, following the November 2002 “accreditation revisitation of programmes with denied accreditation status” exercise, the University was then ranked FIRST along with the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, after you had served for just two years as its Vice-Chancellor. Furthermore, fake students were de-registered; cultism was drastically reduced and new specialized courses that are critical to the nation’s economy, like those in Gas and Environmental Engineering, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences were introduced. You established institutions that endured like the Institute of Petroleum Studies and the Centre for Health and Development. Furthermore, you vastly expanded the opportunities for staff and students to undertake study visits to Universities abroad under Exchange/Linkage Programmes of the University’s Advancement Centre, which you established. Problems of utilities, infrastructure and security were tackled vigorously. You secured the hosting rights for the University for the Nigerian Universities Games, NUGA 2004 Games. The university hosted the Games in November and December 2004 in such a remarkable manner, that the 2004 Games are now considered to be the best ever staged in the Nigerian University System. Under your leadership, the university constructed a modern Sports village for the Games, which is now acclaimed to be the best in the Nigerian University System. The University’s performance in sporting activities during your tenure as Vice-Chancellor was excellent. It ranked first on the medal list at the West African Universities Games which were held in 2003 at Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and also first at the NUGA 2004 Games. Because of the excellent sporting facilities that you established in the university, University of Port Harcourt has come first on the overall medal list at the NUGA from 2004 – several years of unbroken superiority, that has never been the case before now. The Sports Institute at the university now offers postgraduate programmes in various sporting arena.
To your credit, you have in your possession, three letters of appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt – two in acting capacities and one in a substantive capacity.
Partly because of these achievements, your colleagues, Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities, elected you as their Chairman in July 2004 for a period of one year. Subsequently, the Vice-Chancellors of all Universities in Nigeria – Federal, State and Private, also elected you as Chairman in August 2004. President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, conferred on you the National Honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) on Thursday 16 December 2004.
Partly in appreciation of your meritorious services to the University of Port Harcourt, including those as its Vice-Chancellor, former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Joseph Ajienka described you as “a gift to the University of Port Harcourt” during your investiture as an Emeritus Professor of the university in April 2012.
Furthermore, the university has named the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences block and the Students Hostel of the Institute of Petroleum Studies after you.
- As Chairman of the National Hospital, Abuja, you ensured that the hospital established the first ever invitro fertilization (Test Tube baby) unit in a public Health Institution in Nigeria.
- Under your leadership of the Board as its Chairman, the Board of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and the Hospital Management, in collaboration with the Swedish Government established a Stem Cell Transplant Unit – the first of its kind in sub Saharan Africa. Some patients with Sickle Cell Disease were successfully treated at the Unit.
- As Chairman of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, you conducted credible general (statewide) elections on two occasions which have enhanced the democratic process in the state, and ipso facto, in the country.
- As Chairman of the Rivers State Economic Advisory Council – the Think Tank of the Rivers State Government, you led your Council to give advice which contributed to the good governance for a better governance of Rivers State.
- Despite your other commitments outside the university following your retirement, in consonance with your new status as PROFESSOR EMERITUS, you still mentor undergraduate and postgraduate students of the University of Port Harcourt, vet research proposals, get involved in research activities, make publications and deliver addresses at scientific professional fora.
- Speaking at a book launch on 1st March 2014 to mark your 70th. Birthday anniversary, the Governor of Rivers State, His Excellency Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi announced that in appreciation of your meritorious services to the country and Rivers State in particular, the Government had decided to name the 100-bed hospital at Rivers State University after you as PROFESSOR NIMI BRIGGS HOSPITAL (PNBH). This hospital was finally commissioned by former President Muhammadu Buhari in Port Harcourt.”
A thunderous applause followed…
Writing his tribute to NDB at 70, a former P.R.O. of University of Port Harcourt, Williams Wodi wrote, “Briggs was a steam-roller engine that crushed all impossibilities on his way with the force of energy that baffled his admirers and even his most implacable critics in the line of duty! He made so much demand on himself and did not take no for an answer at any point in his glittering public career.” Though Prof did not say much to me about his role as Chairman of the Federal Government’s Renegotiation Committee on the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement, its end must have been a disappointment. Prof. Nimi Briggs took on a challenging national assignment at a time of deep distrust between the government and the university unions. His committee sought to address critical issues such as salary adjustments, university autonomy, and funding for tertiary education. Despite his extensive experience in academia and administration, including his tenure as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, the negotiations proved difficult. The committee reportedly recommended significant salary increases for lecturers, but these proposals were later rejected by the government, leading to frustration within ASUU and continued industrial action.
While some critics felt the committee did not push hard enough for ASUU’s demands, others recognized the diplomatic tightrope Prof. Briggs had to walk. His role was not to dictate policy but to bridge the gap between lecturers’ expectations and the government’s fiscal constraints. Unfortunately, the deadlock persisted, and the government’s enforcement of the “No Work, No Pay” policy further complicated matters. Despite the challenges, Briggs remained committed to dialogue and a peaceful resolution, believing that Nigeria’s education system deserved better funding and strategic reform. His contributions to academia extended beyond this difficult assignment, reflecting a lifelong dedication to scholarship, mentorship, and national development.
His committee reported facing opposition from certain government officials, alleging that these individuals disseminated false information to undermine its efforts. In a statement, the committee noted that some government agents were “peddling lies in order to set President Muhammadu Buhari against it.” It is sad that the merry go round continues.
On the bright side, Nimi Dimkpa Briggs Legacy Lecture Series commenced with the first lecture titled, “The Nimi Briggs Effect, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Quality University Education in Nigeria.” Prof. Peter A. Okebukola, Emeritus Professor of Computer Science Education, Lagos State University and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, delivered it. It marked the 80th Posthumous Birthday of Professor Emeritus Nimi Briggs, February 22, 2024. The Book, Nimi Briggs @ 80 (Volume 2), selected Writings and Addresses (2014 – 2023) was reviewed by Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba, former VC, Alex Ekueme Federal University. Professor Owunari A Georgewoll, VC, Uniport was the Chief Host. The event took place in the Ebitimi Banigo Hall, University of Port Harcourt.
Thanksgiving Service followed the Legacy Lecture in his hometown at St Paul’s Nyemoni Lutheran Cathedral, Abonnema followed by unveiling of his tomb. Barely two months after his 79th birthday his breathing had ceased in a dramatic finale under the watchful gaze of his students now senior doctors in the UK.
Here lies Prof….
His legacy has just begun. The Nimi Briggs Legacy Lecture Series in his honour. This lecture series aims to uphold his legacy of academic excellence and thought leadership in the field of medicine. Prof John Ikimalo who worked closely with late Professor Emeritus Nimi Briggs for over twenty years became the first Chair Occupant of Nimi Briggs Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. His research interests include reproductive tract infection, infertility and assisted reproductive technology. He established the Assisted Conception Unit at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.
The current Chair Occupant is Ngozi Clare ORAZULIKE (MBBS, FWACS, FICS, Dip HSM), Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Port Harcourt, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. According to the PR Department of the university, she will host the second edition of the Nimi Dimkpa Briggs Legacy Lecture Series on Thursday, 27th February 2025, at 2:00 PM. The event will take place at The Auditorium, CBN Centre of Excellence, University of Port Harcourt. The guest lecturer for this edition is Dr Ibrahim Wada, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nisa Medical Group, Abuja, and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi. He will deliver a lecture on the topic: “The Longevity of Man.”
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Owunari A. Georgewill, will serve as the Chief Host. Faculty members, students, medical professionals, and the public are encouraged to attend this insightful and thought-provoking event.
As I draw the curtains to my eulogy of a man who had a hand in every success of mine from 1987 to date, I am drawn to the first chapter of Nimi Briggs at 70. Selected writings and Addresses (2006 – 2013). A Tribute to a Mother of Peace (his mother) on August 15, 2009… He states, nothing is eternal but that which is done for God and others. That which is done for self dies. At the finale of his tribute, he writes, “But the good Lord has assured us, as stated in the Holy Scriptures, in the Book of Ecclesiastes that He has made everything beautiful in its time. And so as I, this day, inter your remains, earth’s choicest seed, my mother, I affirm that the primordial bond between us exits with such force that it cannot be extinguished. As you and I depart, albeit temporarily from one another, I do so in the conviction that the time will come when every change shall cease. Nothing shall be to come, and nothng past but an eternity now shall ever last. Then I shall be with you again. You shall be my mother and I shall be your son.”
Happy birthday, Prof!
Abiye Hector-Goma is a General Practitioner based in Leeds, UK, an unrepentant Briggs Boy to whom much was given and much is expected!