Nigerian students mourn as Vice-Chancellor dies in Benin Republic
Vice-Chancellor of the Ecole Supérieure Panafricaine de Management Applique (ESPAM-FORMATION University) is dead.
Dr. Esther Tchoukacheu passed on, last Friday, at her residence in Cotonou, Benin Republic after a prolonged illness.
Many Nigerian students attend ESPAM, a tertiary institution based in neighbouring Benin Republic.
The students said they regarded Tchoukacheu as a “true disciplinarian,” while lecturers said the late VC made her mark as an international education icon.
Her death reportedly threw graduating students into confusion as to how their papers would be sorted on time. The school authority later allayed those fears.
The school management, Monday, declared a one-week mourning period to honour the late VC.
Newsroom gathered that Tchoukacheu had been sick since the last quarter of 2013 with the cause of her ailment a mystery to many.
In August 2015, she was said to have travelled abroad “to rest.” It was, however, rumoured she went for a surgical operation. Barely three months after her trip overseas, she died.
But while she was alive, students and lectures affirm, she represented everything an academic and administrator would.
Irrespective of her ill health, they said “she ensured the university maintained its high standards.”
Tchoukacheu hailed from Cameroon. She is survived by a husband, two children, and other family members.
After receiving news of her death, Friday, ESPAM lecturers and non-academic staffs visited her residence to offer their condolences to the family.
The school said it would, this Friday, hold a candle night to honour the late VC.
Her burial arrangements would be announced later, her bereaved family said.
