Prof Sunday Otokiti dies at 66, Kwara state university mourns.....
The Vice-Chancellor of KWASU, Prof AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, announced this in an e-mail to the University Community on Tuesday, December 27.
Na’Allah’s announcement reads:
It is with a heavy heart that I announce the death of Prof. Sunday Otokiti, Director, KWASU Consultancy Services and formerly HOD, Department of Business and Entrepreneurship.
Prof. Otokiti joined KWASU as a full-time staff in 2014, after serving on a KWASU committee to develop postgraduate studies in Business Administration. He was among the topmost professors for our University. His death is a serious loss to this young University.
I spoke to his daughter and son yesterday evening and I expect more information from them about burial arrangements.
KWASU has lost one of its most loyal, hardworking, brilliant, dedicated, honest, and visionary professors. I pray to God Almighty to console his family and all of us who have had opportunity to work closely with him, especially his students who were always dearest to his heart.
Prof. Otokiti developed for KWASU, along with Prof Nasar, HOD, Accounting, Finance and Banking, the postgraduate program in Business Studies thus ushering in postgraduate studies in KWASU. He founded in KWASU the first ever Business Laboratory in any University in Nigeria. He was a straight thinker and had so much love for our dear campus. He led efforts to clean up the campus as Chair of a committee, and was always involved in plans to make KWASU great. He was never tired when it came to teaching and mentoring his students (undergraduate, postgraduate, top-up, etc.), and it is doubtful there is any KWASU professor today who taught more courses and met more students and mentored more students than Prof. Otokiti! His death is a serious blow to the teaming population of KWASU students who saw him as a father, teacher and mentor.
Please join me in sending messages of condolence and heart-felt sympathy to his family. His daughter is a member of academic staff of KWASU in Business and Entrepreneurship.
I was about to draft a message yesterday (Monday, December 26) to felicitate with staff and students on the Holidays, especially to send best wishes for 2017, when I got the sad news.
My dear members of KWASU Community, let us continue to pray to God Almighty to continue to support KWASU and ensure that this kind of tragedy never again occurs. May God give all KWASU staff and students long lives, prosperity and make 2017 and beyond great years of peace, progress and continued achievements for every KWASU person and for our University! Amin.
I hereby declare three days of mourning for the remembrance of our distinguished Sunday Otokiti, and all flags on campus be put at half-mast. Please use this period to pray for him and show solidarity with his family.
Thank you all, and see you around.
I am hugely saddened – Chancellor
The Chancellor, Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, Prof Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, has condoled with the entire members of the University Community over the demise of Prof Sunday Oyewole Otokiti.
“I am hugely saddened by the news of the demise of Professor Sunday Otokiti, a senior member of our University Community, who served meritoriously as Director of KWASU Consultancy Services and was also former HOD of the Department of Business and Entrepreneurship,” Gambari stated in an electronic message to the Vice-Chancellor, on Wednesday, December 28, 2016.
He also condoled with the family and colleagues of the late Professor of International Business and Entrepreneurship, praying God to grant the deceased eternal rest.
His death, a sad blow – Registrar
The Registrar, Mr Surajudeen Oyebode, described Prof. Sunday Otokiti’s death as a sad blow not only to his family, but also to the KWASU family. “This astute, versatile and erudite scholar and a gentleman will be sourly missed,” he stated.
He was a man with a coat of many colours – Awodun
In an electronic message to the Vice-Chancellor, the Executive Chairman, Kwara State Internal Revenue Service, Dr Muritala Awodun, paid tributes to the late scholar.
“Until I met this man with a coat of many colours and a world of possibilities, I never believed nothing is impossible,” he said.
Awodun stated: “Before joining KWASU, he spent 14 years at Lagos State University, Ojo from 1988 - 2002 where he rose from Lecturer II to Associate Professor of International Business, 8 years at the Covenant University, Ota where he was appointed Professor of International Business and Entrepreneurship (2002 -2010), and was seconded to Landmark University Omu-Aran where he spent 4 years as one of the founding Professors and Director of the Enterprise Development Services and Head of Department of Business. He joined the Kwara State University, Malete in 2014 as the Head of Department of Business and Entrepreneurship for two academic sessions (2014/2015 and 2015/2016). Until his demise he remained a Professor in the Department of Business and Entrepreneurship.
“In his 28 years of academic stewardship, he produced a dozen of Professors, two scores of PhDs, hundreds of M.Scs., about a thousand of MBAs, and thousands of B.Scs.”
Meanwhile, members of the University Community have continued to pay tributes to the late Professor of International Business and Entrepreneurship.
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