Nigeria loses great Economist, author O’Teriba
By Samuel Ogunsona
A renowned Economist and author, Owodunni Teriba has died. He gave up the ghost today at the age of 82. Sources told Irohinoodua that O’Teriba’ s death is connected to old age related ailments.
O’Teriba, as he was foundly called was a Professor of Economics whose various books were recommended for institutions in West and Eastern Africa, a must-read for students in the 70s up to the 90s.
The summary of his career Irohinoodua obtained on line is reproduced below:
“At the center of the illustrious carrier of Professor Teriba, prior to his coming to the ECA, was a
passion for teaching economic principles, monetary, fiscal and development economics that was
pursued continuously in progressing academic positions at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He
was also at various times a Visiting scholar and an External Examiner at some other Universities
in Nigeria, the USA, and several others in Western, Eastern and the Southern parts Africa. His
teaching duties and assignments included a broad spectrum of active involvement in the design
and development of economic curricula and courses in development economics; fiscal and
monetary policies; economic planning; and business and public administration. He was
frequently involved in conducting seminars for business leaders and top-level managers in the
private sector, senior public servants and government leaders. He has supervised many
generations of graduate students in studies leading to the award of higher degrees, and
participated actively on examination boards and in the design of frameworks for the evaluation
of university undergraduates, college and post-graduate students both as an internal and external
examiner. Many of these students are now themselves educators and part of the elite leadership
corps of academics and professional economists in many African countries.
His wealth of teaching, research experience and theoretical insights to public policy was
immense and intense; developed mostly in the course of and as part of his substantial and varied
consulting capability and visibility on the continent. From his base at the University of Ibadan,
he undertook series of project formulation, implementation and monitoring exercises and
assignments, not only for government agencies but also for multilateral and bilateral agencies
and donor organizations, and the UN agencies in support of African development. Just to give a
few examples, he worked several times for the Federal and State governments of Nigeria as a
consultant on development planning and policy initiatives for fiscal federalism while his
scholarly work and policy recommendations on monetary policy were of immense value to the
Nigerian monetary system and capital markets. He collaborated with his colleagues of the
Planning Studies Programme at the Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ibadan, in
carrying out a Ford Foundation-sponsored study on the dynamics and nexus of Africa’s
population and development.
The high regard and esteem in which he was and is still held among his professional peers and
colleagues account for his several nominations, appointments and election to serve in many
professional bodies, such as the West African Economic Association, the Nigerian Economic Society.
