The African intrepid
Until his transition on 2nd January 2022 at 87, Ambassador (Prof) Lawrence Baraebibai Ekpebu served Nigeria with singleness of purpose. Indeed, his abiding creed was “Service to God and Mankind.”
He explained, “The only career for man is serving God and mankind irrespective of age and circumstance. One’s skills and education are means to this sacred calling. A baby who quietens at night to enable his parents enjoy a sound sleep is serving God. The parents who sacrifice all to train their children are also serving God. Even a dying old man about to expire can also serve God.
“An old man about to expire can with his last breath say something capable of bringing peace or strife to those he’s leaving behind. Whatever comes out of his mouth becomes a position to be defended. Knowing he’s about to be silenced forever, a wise patriarch will set his house in order by telling the whole truth. That is serving God.”
Born May 2, 1935 to Chief Naupa Ekpebu and Mary Geku of Okoloba town, Kolokuma/Opokuma LGA, Bayelsa State, Professor Ekpebu made history as the first African to graduate from Harvard University in 1960 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1962 he earned a Master’s in Public Administration, MPA, from the Woodrow Wilson School of Government, Princeton University. This was followed by another Master’s and Doctorate from Harvard in 1965. Then declining the best from the West, he returned to Nigeria that same year to take up a teaching job with the University of Ibadan.
