Foremost technocrat and boardroom Czar, Deacon Gamaliel Onosode, 82, is dead.
Vanguard learnt Mr. Onosode died Tuesday morning at Gold Cross Hospital,
Ikoyi Lagos at about 8:15am after a protracted illness.
Onosode was flown home yesterday from London.
According to Wikipedia:
Gamaliel Offoritsenere Onosode (born 22 May 1933) (Died 29 September 2015)
is a Nigerian technocrat, administrator and a former presidential
candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party of Nigeria. Educated at the
Government College, Ughelli and the University of Ibadan, he emerged in
the 1970s, as one of Nigeria’s leading educated chief executives, when he
was at the helm of NAL merchant bank of Nigeria. Over the years, he has
risen to become a leading boardroom player in Nigeria’s corporate
environment. He was also a former presidential adviser to President
Shagari and a former president of the Nigerian Institute of Management.
Life and career
An Urhobo man, born and raised in Sapele , a suburban city in the current
Delta State by a disciplined father, he sometimes credited the strict
family background and practice as being a complementary factor in his
success as a disciplined civil servant and corporate administrator.
Throughout his career, Dr. Gamaliel Onosode has chaired several private
and public sector businesses and initiatives. He was the Chairman of
Dunlop Nigeria Plc (1984–2007), a former chairman of Cadbury Nigeria Plc
(1977–93), the Presidential Commission on Parastatals (1981), Nigeria LNG
Working Committee and Nigeria LNG Limited (1985–90) and the Niger Delta
Environmental Survey (since 1995). He is also the Chairman of Zain
Nigeria, a GSM telecommunications company, the oldestGSM operator in
Nigeria.
Mr. Gamaliel Onosode was Presidential Adviser on Budget Affairs and
Director of Budget (1983). He is a Fellow of the Economic Development
Institute of the World Bank, the Nigerian Institute of Management, of
which he was President (1979–82). He is also a Fellow of The Chartered
Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, having been elected to membership of its
Board of Fellows in 1998.
In addition, Mr. Onosode is immediate past and inaugural President of the
Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, immediate past Pro-Chancellor and
Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Uyo and immediate
past and inaugural President & Chairman of Council of the Association of
Pension Funds of Nigeria. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Nigerian Academy
of Letters and holds Honorary D.Sc. degrees of Obafemi Awolowo University
(1990), the University of Benin (1995), and theRivers State University of
Science and Technology (2003) as well as Honorary D.D. degree of The
Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso (2002).
In 1995, he became the Chairman of the Niger Delta Environmental Survey, a
non-governmental organisation that conducted scientific studies on
environmental and social impact assessment of oil exploration in the Niger
delta. The survey was partly financed by Shell. The survey reports which
apportioned responsibilities and blame for much of the environmental
degradation in the region on oil operators, the federal government and
communities has not been made public.
Deacon Onosode is an alumnus of the University of Ibadan, and has
contributed immense time to see through philanthropic and governing
matters concerning the university. He is the former Pro-Chancellor of the
University and Chairman of its Governing Council.
He is also a devout Christian and started Good News Baptist Church in his
Sitting Room on 1 Feb.1984. Good News Baptist Church is now a large church
of over 2000 people and has become a force to reckon with in the Nigerian
Baptist Convention in terms of missions and evangelism. Mr. Gamaliel
Onosode was the inaugural Chairman of the Global Missions Board of the
Nigerian Baptist Convention.
In addition, Onosode is Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigerian
Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso, Nigeria’s oldest degree awarding
theological institution, which in 2008 marked 110 years of its existence
while the University of Ibadan was 60 years old.