FOUNDER OF GOOD NEWS BAPTIST CHURCH, FOREMOST TECHNOCRAT AND BOARDROOM CZAR, DEACON GAMALIEL ONOSODE, 82, IS DEAD.
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 the 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 the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (2003) as well as an Honorary D.D. degree from The Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso (2002).
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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.
ONOSODE, THE BAPTIST CHRIST
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.
