James Okoye Chukuka Ezeilo (17 January 1930 – 2013) was the first professor of mathematics in Nigeria. He was often regarded as the father of modern mathematics in the country and was the fifth vice chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He was Vice Chancellor of Bayero University Kano from 1977 to 1978. He was an alumnus of Cambridge University and died in 2013. He pioneered the use of Leray-Schauder degree type arguments to obtain existence results for periodic solutions of ordinary differential equations. References 1930 births 2013 deaths Academic staff of the University of Nigeria Alumni of the University of Cambridge 20th-century Nigerian mathematicians Vice-Chancellors of the University of Nigeria Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences