All is set for colleagues of his in the academia in his life time, leaders and elders of the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), civil society activists, former students and legatees, serving and retired military commanders to whom he was a resource person, politicians, community leaders and other layers of the Nigerian elite will later today (10/10/2025) participate in an ‘Evening of Tributes’ to Prof Jonah Isawa Elaigwu in Abuja, Nigeria.
The National Planning Committee superintending the event said in a statement that the event taking place at the AIB Events Centre in upscale Wuse 2 would start at the dot of 5 pm (Nigerian time). Prof Elaigwu passed on July 22nd, 2025 in Jos, the city in which he was based as a Political Science academic at the University of Jos for a long time.
Prof Elaigwu was a leading Nigerian expert in comparative federalism and civil – military relations, the domain in which he published much of his research works. As the pioneer Head of Department of Political Science at the University of Jos, he attracted an array of scholars with global name, most notably his legendary Kenyan scholar, the late Prof Ali Mazrui.
Additionally, Prof Elaigwu was not only a member of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) under the Ibrahim Babangida regime, he was also the pioneer Director-General of the defunct National Council on Inter-Governmental Relations (NCIR). The NCIR was Nigeria’s foremost think tank on federalism. Outside academia and the state sector, he founded the Jos based Institute of Governance and Social Research (IGSR), a civil society oriented trainer and think tank. He was the president of the IGSR till his death.
A Jos version of the ‘Night of Tributes’ cum ‘Service of Songs’ will take place in Jos on October 14th before the late Prof Elaigwu is escorted to his resting place in Otukpo, Benue State on October 24th, 2025.
Although he never held high profile offices beyond the DG of the NCIR, he has been a subject of newspaper editorials and sensational mourning across Nigeria. That is taken as national awareness that he was a formidable resource person for many Nigerian leaders at various levels but from behind the scene.
The Political Scientist was educated at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the University of Stanford in the United States.
