Tears flowed across campuses in Kwara on Saturday as news broke that Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, the former Vice-Chancellor who steered the University of Ilorin through five critical years, had died at 68.
The distinguished veterinary scholar passed away in the early hours at his residence in Oloje Estate, Ilorin, after a brief illness. He died quietly, in the same city where he was born on November 29, 1957 — a boy from Pakata Primary School who rose to lecture halls in Liverpool and back to shape generations of Nigerian minds.
His death was announced by current UNILORIN VC, Prof. Wahab Egbewole (SAN), through the institution’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Kunle Akogun. “This is a major loss,” Egbewole said, his voice heavy. “The University of Ilorin community feels it. Kwara State University, Malete feels it. The nation feels it.”
Ambali served as UNILORIN’s 9th Vice-Chancellor from 2012 to 2017. He was the pioneer Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, the professor who laid the foundation for the department that would train hundreds of vets. Even after leaving UNILORIN, he never stopped serving — until his last days he was Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council at Kwara State University, Malete.
Colleagues remember him as more than an administrator. He was a mentor who rose from Government Secondary School, Jalingo, to earn a DVM from Ahmadu Bello University in 1981, then a Master’s and PhD from the University of Liverpool. He chaired the Association of West African Universities and was a Fellow of the College of Veterinary Surgeons of Nigeria. Yet those who knew him speak most of his humility.
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“He was a father to many of us,” one former student wrote online. “He built departments, but he also built people.”
Egbewole sympathised with Ambali’s family, the Ilorin Emirate, and the entire academic community. The Janazah prayer holds today, Saturday, at 4 p.m. at his Oloje residence.
In the end, the scholar who spent his life healing animals and nurturing minds could not outrun the brief illness that took him. Ilorin has lost a son. Nigeria has lost a builder. And thousands of students have lost a teacher who believed education could change a life — because it changed his.
