By Olivia Obijiaku
The Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, and Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe was in the Assembly Hall of the University, Tuesday, 21st May 2024 to witness the Inaugural Lecture of Prof. Ken Okoli O.Describing the event as one with so many differences, the leader commended the Professor of Sculpture at the University for his Outstanding Performance in Zaria, environs, and many other parts of Nigeria but remarked that he is yet to showcase his worth in that regard in Onitsha, his maternal home.
He then called on the Awka South indigene to replicate such gestures in Onitsha.In his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Kabir Bala thanked the Chancellor and lauded him for the huge sacrifice he made to be at the event, observing that he was attending an inaugural in the institution for the first time.
He solicited for more of such gestures from him even as he called on professors who are due for inaugural lectures in the university to do borrow a leaf from Prof Okoli.Prof Okoli focused on, ‘Masquerades on a Metallic Sculpture Odyssey’ in calling for a better appreciation of sculpture. He noted that though sculpture has been a tool of relationship between man and his God to a very large extent, it has lost its significance to new religion except the Catholic Church.
He called for a better appreciation of sculpture asserting that it has been demystified and has become an object of attraction and appreciation.
