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17 Facts About Chike Obi

1.

Chike Obi was the first Nigerian to hold a doctorate degree in mathematics.

2.

Chike Obi successfully used the perturbation technique, and several of his publications greatly helped to stimulate research interest in this subject throughout the world and have become classics in the literature.

3.

Chike Obi is the author of several books and journals on mathematics and Nigerian politics.

4.

Chike Obi was educated in various parts of Nigeria before reading mathematics as an external student of the University of London.

5.

Chike Obi returned to lecture at the premier Nigerian University of Ibadan.

6.

Chike Obi was diverted from this by political activities.

7.

Chike Obi left Lagos to return to his root in the city of Onitsha, establishing the Nanna Institute for Scientific Studies.

8.

Chike Obi had won the Sigvard Eklund Prize for original work in differential equation from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics.

9.

Chike Obi was a university teacher until his retirement as an Emeritus Professor in 1985.

10.

In 1997, Chike Obi claimed to be the third person to solve Fermat's Last Theorem after Andrew Wiles and Richard Taylor in 1994.

11.

Chike Obi claimed to have found an elementary proof to Fermat's Last Theorem.

12.

In Ibadan, Chike Obi began to give lectures about his political philosophy, Kemalism and how best he felt the country should be managed.

13.

Chike Obi helped form the Dynamic Party of Nigeria, of which he served as its first secretary-general.

14.

Chike Obi was elected as part of the Nigerian delegation that negotiated the country's path to self-rule at two London conferences in 1957 and 1958.

15.

In 1962, Chike Obi was arrested and charged with treason in a closed trial organized by the then national civilian government, who accused him and others, including the main opposition leader at the time, Obafemi Awolowo, of plotting to overthrow the government.

16.

Chike Obi derided religion and ethnic extremism, and the culture of corruption pervading the Nigerian political class.

17.

When Chike Obi died in 2008, he was survived by his wife until 2010.