Eni Njoku

Eni Njoku (6 November 1917 – 22 December 1974) was a Nigerian botanist and educator. He was vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos (1962–1965) and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1966–1970). He served in the Nigerian House of Representatives as federal minister of Mines and Power, and was chairman of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria. He was an emissary at OAU-sponsored peace talks.

Biography Education Eni Njoku was born on 6 November 1917 in Ebem, Ohafia, Abia State. He is of Igbo origin.

He was educated at Ebem Primary School and attended the Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar from 1933 to 1936. He attended the Yaba Higher College (now Yaba College of Technology) Lagos from 1937 to 1939 graduating with a tertiary education certificate.

Njoku studied botany at the University of Manchester in England. He graduated with a first-class honors degree in 1947 and obtained his M.A. degree the following year. In 1954, he obtained his external doctorate degree from the University of London.

Career When he returned to Nigeria in 1948, Njoku took up a teaching appointment at the University College, Ibadan (now University of Ibadan) as a lecturer in botany. He was one of only two Nigerians on the academic staff at the opening of the college in 1948. He studied photoperiodicity in tropical crops and plants, He was chairman of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (1960).

In 1962, Njoku became the first vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos. Following a major crisis in 1965 over his re-appointment, he resigned to become a visiting professor at Michigan State University.

During the civil war Njoku remained in Biafra as an advisor and administrator, advocating for peaceful resolution of the civil war conflict. He was a leader of Biafran delegations to the Ad Hoc Constitutional Conference in Lagos (1966) and OAU-sponsored peace talks in Niamey and Addis Ababa (1968). After the war ended in 1970 he returned to teaching and research at the University of Nigeria, Early in his career he was an outspoken advocate for improvement in the quality of Nigerian higher education. Later, Ashby referred to him as “one of the most eminent of Nigerians” and noted his “enlightened leadership of the University of Lagos.” Njoku, Eni (1963). Seasonal periodicity in the growth and development of some forest trees in Nigeria: I. Observations on mature trees. Njoku, Eni (1971). The effect of sugars and applied chemicals on heteroblastic development in Ipomoea Purpurea grown in aseptic culture.