When there was no university in Nigeria, Chike Obi read from home in Onitsha, southeast Nigeria, for a first degree and Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of London.
The first university in Nigeria, University of Ibadan, started as University College in 1948.
Chike Obi only traveled out to Cambridge University, from where he got a Ph.D at the age of 29 years in 1950.
The African Mathematics Union regards Chike Obi as the first Nigerian to hold a doctorate degree in Mathematics.
Emeritus Professor Chike Obi in an interview with this writer, Obiechina Obba, for NTA News in 2000
He also held honourary D. Sc from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and University of Agriculture, Akure.
Chike Obi was one of the first fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Science and had the national award of Commander of the Niger, CON.
He settled in Lagos and taught briefly in the University of Ibadan before the Nigerian civil war started in 1967.
Among his students was Iya Abubakar who graduated with a First Class in Mathematics in 1957 and went on to obtain a doctorate from Cambridge in 1963.
Iya Abubakar became Professor of Mathematics in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, at the age of 28 years in 1963 and was Head of that department at the age of 33 years.
Another of the many distinguished students of Chike Obi was Emeritus Professor Alex Animalu who served meritoriously as the Director, Chief Executive Officer, of the National Mathematical Centre.
A biography of Chike Obi by Emeritus Professor Alex Animalu, and approved by him, says Chike Obi also ventured into politics and won a seat in the regional assembly in the 1960s under his party, Dynamic Party of Nigeria.
This did not last as disagreement ensued and the Speaker, Eastern House of Assembly, ordered that Chike Obi be physically ejected from the House and the order was obeyed and he was carried off.
Chike Obi was nicknamed “Cantamanto” for his love for numbers in his earlier days in Christ the King College, Onitsha, where he was one of the pioneer students in 1933.
At the outbreak of the Nigerian civil war in 1967, he was appointed one of the advisors to Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Biafran leader. However, his loyalty was in doubt and the Biafran authorities detained him till the end of the war in 1970.
After the civil war, he joined the University of Lagos from where he retired in 1985 as Emeritus Professor.
He worked mainly on non-linear differential equations using what mathematicians call Perturbation techniques which he popularized all over the world.
Emeritus Professor Chike Obi is widely regarded as Africa’s leading mathematical genius.
While in University of Lagos, he also commented freely on national issues: one of which to be remembered is on the 1979 presidential election in which Alhaji Shehu Shagari was declared the winner.
He argued that the constitutional requirement of a winner scoring a minimum of 25% of the votes in two-thirds of the 19 states then, was not met as Shagari won only in 12 states, instead of 13 states.
Two-thirds of 19 is 12 and two-third. The outstanding two-thirds of a state, he insisted, must be rounded-off upwards to satisfy the law. If it is rounded-off downwards, then the law is not satisfied – “The problem with FEDECO (the electoral body then) is, therefore, this simple problem of Arithmetic.”
Since then, the Constitution and electoral laws have been amended rounding-up any fraction of a state as the number of states must be a whole number – putting the constitutional crisis that ensued to rest.
While still in University of Lagos, he will also be remembered for being critical of drug traffickers who gained notoriety in 1985 when the military regime then introduced a decree making the crime punishable by death.
He spoke out strongly in support of such a sentence saying, “If there is anything worse than death, it should be given to them.” Some persons had criticized that law for being made retroactive and too harsh.
On retirement, Emeritus Professor Chike Obi moved back to Onitsha and formed the Nanna Institute for Scientific Studies.
From there, he published in Mathematical Reviews what he called, a simple proof of Pierre de Fermat’s last theorem.
The French mathematician, Pierre Fermat, published in Arithmethica in 1637 that: ” No three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than 2.”
Integers are whole numbers. Fermat said he had a simple proof but did not publish it before he died.
One finds that 32 + 42 = 52 gives 9 + 16 = 25, which is correct. However, no other exponential whole number greater than 2 has been found to satisfy this equation.
Since numbers are infinite, a proof is needed to lay this to rest. Chike Obi’s attempt was simple as Fermat may have wanted, but it was not fool-proof to all mathematicians.
The British mathematician, Andrew Wiles, gave an accepted proof in 1995, some 357 years after Fermat, but the mathematics was tedious – perhaps, not as Fermat had wished.
Mathematicians still doubt Fermat that a simple proof is possible.
Chike Obi did not like flying and in one of his rare visits to the United States he met Albert Einstein, whom he described as a normal person and not a mathematician.
Chike Obi was so good with numbers at an early age that his mates say he solved problems like a fire going through dry elephant grass to which he jokingly, says he is a spirit (Okwu n’agba achalla, Muo ka mbu).
Chike Obi hated ostentation and once complained to this writer about the ostentatious life styles of many politicians in Abuja – “Go to … (a 5-star hotel in Abuja) and see the affluence they’re living in.”
On Thursday, 7 April, 1921 in Zaria, northwestern Nigeria, and as he told this writer, by exactly 3 am, Chukwunwike Obi was born.
He spent the first 12 years of his life in Zaria and spoke Hausa, English and his native Igbo languages fluently.
Emeritus Professor Chike Obi’s wife, Belinda, who had a degree in Nursing, died in 2010. They have two children.
Emeritus Professor Chike Obi died in Onitsha on March 13, 2008, aged 86 years.
Chike Obi may well be the most supremely complete mathematician ever known.
Whatever is anyone’s vocation, be it in science, academics and even politics, it is hard not to take a bow for the genius and forthrightness of the incredible Emeritus Professor Chike Obi.
Emeritus Prof Chike Obi must be remembered as a de-tribalised Nigerian. He named his sons Mustapha and (I think) Balogun. May God grant his soul eternal rest.
Thank you for finding the time to read Science World.
Emeritus Prof Chike Obi was a detribalised Nigerian and more.
I agree with your comment.