Integrity Personified
A great Iroko has indeed fallen. With the passing of Dr. Christopher Kolade, our nation has lost an institution, a vast human library whose volumes were written with integrity, wisdom, and solid moral compass.
He was the custodian of ethics and corporate governance, a title he did not merely hold but lived with every fiber of his being. In the boardrooms of corporate Nigeria and the halls of public service, his voice was a steady, resonant call for principle over profit, character over convenience, and service above self. At the Lagos Business School, he was a teacher who taught not just with words, but by the impeccable example of his life.
Dr. Kolade was a bridge-builder, the connection between the East and West, a father figure, and a lighthouse guiding generations away from the rocky shores of moral compromise. His legacy is not only in the institutions he led such as the Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria, Pan-Atlantic University and others, or the policies he shaped, but in the countless lives he mentored and the high standard he forced us all to see as attainable even whilst serving as the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Though the great Iroko has fallen, the forest he nurtured, the seeds of integrity, professionalism, and faith he planted, will stand for generations to come. Dr Kolade was a life of profound impact, beautifully lived. I have lost an elderly friend.
May his gentle soul find perfect rest in the arms of the Almighty.
Requiscat in pace
Prof Fabian Ajogwu OFR, SAN
