Pius Okigbo (February 6, 1924 — 2000) was an eminent

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

from Ojoto village, the present headquarters of

Idemili South Idemili South is a Local Government Area in Anambra State, South-East Nigeria. The headquarter is Ojoto secretariate and the estimated number of people is 159,631. The towns that make up the local government are Akwu-Ukwu, Alor, Awka-Etiti, Ojoto, ...

Local Government Area in

Anambra State Anambra State is a Nigerian state, located in the southeastern region of the country. The state was created on August 27, 1991. Anambra state is bounded by Delta State to the west, Imo State to the south, Enugu State to the east and Kogi St ...

; he was the older brother of the poet

Christopher Okigbo Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo (16 August 1932 – 1967) was a Nigerian poet, teacher, and librarian, who died fighting for the independence of Biafra. He is today widely acknowledged as an outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet an ...

. Receiving his secondary schooling at

Christ the King College, Onitsha Christ the King College, Onitsha (CKC), popularly known as CKC Onitsha, or Amaka Boys, is a Catholic all-boys secondary school in Onitsha, Nigeria. It is ranked the top-ranked high school in Nigeria and 36th in the top 100 best high schools in Af ...

, Pius passed his Cambridge School Certificate examination in Grade one in December 1940 with an exemption from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

matriculation. In 1941, he admitted into the prestigious

Yaba Higher College Yaba Higher College was founded in 1932 in Yaba, now a suburb of Lagos in Nigeria to provide tertiary education to Africans, mostly in vocational subjects and teaching. The college staff were transferred to start the University of Ibadan in 1948 ...

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

, for a diploma course in arts (1941–1942). Due to conversion of Yaba College into a military base for the Royal West African Force during World War II, in 1942 he was transferred to the Achimota College in Accra, Gold Coast (now

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

), where he completed his studies in Latin, Greek, history, English language, and literature with a diploma certificate in 1943. He also earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in Economics through private study, after, he proceeded to

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, where he earned an MA and Ph.D in Economics. As a

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

, he contributed a great deal in propelling into academic discourse, new methods for solving African economic problems. As an economist with sensitivity to historical changes, Okigbo researched and wrote about the origins, evolution and transformation of major economic policies and was practical in his identification and application of competing theories of development that he thought suitable for the realities of the political economy of Nigeria and Africa. He gained academic acclaim in Nigeria when he published a book on the

national accounting National accounts or national account systems (NAS) are the implementation of complete and consistent accounting techniques for measuring the economic activity of a nation. These include detailed underlying measures that rely on double-entry ...

standard of Nigeria. He was then appointed as the economic adviser to the governor of the defunct

Eastern region of Nigeria The Eastern Region was an administrative region in Nigeria, dating back originally from the division of the colony Southern Nigeria in 1954. Its first capital was Calabar. The capital was later moved to Enugu and the second capital was Umuahia. T ...

. As an erudite scholar on public finance, he lent his service to public scholarship and policy, he was chairman in a number of Nigerian committees, particularly those dealing with the economic direction of the country. In 1994, as chairman of a committee to probe the activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria, he released a report critical of the government's role in mismanaging 12.4 billion dollars of

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

revenues accrued primarily to two special accounts. The panel's report is popularly known as the Okigbo report.

References

*Pius Okigbo Citation, Nigerian Merit Award.

External links

NNMAPius Nwabufo Okigbo: A Pragmatic Economist and an Intellectual Giant
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okigbo, Pius Nigerian economists Igbo academics 1924 births 2000 deaths Christ the King College, Onitsha alumni Nigerian expatriates in Ghana Northwestern University alumni Nigerian expatriates in the United States