A tribute to Emmanuel Olusegun Bello - An Engineer, Builder, Colleague, and Friend

There is a version of AgroEknor’s story that cannot be told without Emmanuel Bello.

I first came across his profile on LinkedIn at 12:35 in the morning on September 22nd, 2022. I was struck immediately. I sent a connection request and a short message. He replied at 6:25 am. I remember thinking: Few people are on LinkedIn at 6 am. I was right to take note.

A month later, on October 23rd at 5:45 am, I messaged him again to ask if he was open to work. He replied at 5:47 am (two minutes) and sent his CV. That responsiveness was not a performance. That was simply who Emmanuel was. Present and Ready. Always.

That was how his journey at AgroEknor began.

He joined us at a moment of great ambition and great uncertainty. We had just acquired a site to build our hibiscus processing chamber, a piece of infrastructure that would define AgroEknor’s ability to operate at a professional, export-grade level. At the time, a handful of people in Kano had the training, commitment, and expertise to supervise a project of this kind. Emmanuel was one of them.

Day after day, he was on site. Supervising. Coordinating. Solving problems before they become crises. Sending progress videos from the yard, containers being positioned, structures going up - always with a short note: ‘Noted, sir, we will up our game, sir.’

Working alongside the rest of the team through the heat, the delays, and the setbacks that come with building anything worth building. He gave the project his full self, not just his technical skill, but his character. His steadiness. His refusal to accept less than what was possible.

When a new fumigation customer came in with a competing offer and asked for a further discount, Emmanuel did not simply pass the problem up the chain. He negotiated thoughtfully, protected the company’s margin, and came to me only when a final decision was needed.

When adjacent land came up for sale, and he identified a risk to the chamber’s operations, he documented it in a WhatsApp message at lunchtime; clearly, calmly, with a numbered list of reasons. That was the engineer’s mind and the company man’s heart, working as one.

By 2024, that chamber was recognised as the best in Nigeria; voted so by external inspectors and industry experts who had no reason to be generous and every reason to be exacting. That recognition belongs to many hands, but it belongs to Emmanuel’s most of all.

What his messages also show, now that I read them in a different light, is how much Emmanuel saw in the people around him. On my birthday in August 2023, he wrote at length and with great care. He called me a ‘scout of potential leaders’ and a ‘pillar of strength.’ He said that none of the seeds of support and leadership had fallen on dry land. ‘They sunk into a fertile mind,’ he wrote, ‘and have yielded the results that we have today.’

I did not know then that I was reading words I would one day carry in grief. But I know now that everything he said about fertile minds and yielding results was about himself.

He was a man of profound faith and deep family love. In February, during what seemed to be a difficult personal season, he thanked me for being ‘a shoulder to lean on at my lowest ebb.’

In March 2026, just two weeks before we lost him, he messaged to invite my family and me to his baby’s dedication. His child. A new life he was building alongside everything else. His joy in that message was unmistakable.

The last message Emmanuel sent me was a promise. He was assuring me (as he so often did) of his commitment to go above and beyond to meet the company’s targets. That was his nature. Even as he faced whatever he was carrying privately, his face turned toward the work, toward the team, toward what still needed to be done.

He was 34 years old.

Thirty-four. A new baby. A mind that had only just begun to show the world what it could build. We grieve not only for what was, but for everything he would have gone on to do. The projects he would have led, the engineers he would have mentored, the chambers he would have built in other corners of this country and beyond.

To his wife, his child, his family, and those who loved him longest and know this loss most deeply, AgroEknor grieves with you. Emmanuel was not just a colleague. He was the kind of person who makes an organisation worth belonging to. His integrity, his excellence, and his quiet, faithful dedication set a standard that will outlast his time with us.

We will continue to build what he helped lay the foundation for. We will do it with his standard in mind. And every time our chamber processes another container, every time it earns its reputation, Emmanuel Olusegun Bello will be part of why.

Rest well, EOB. Your work endures.

Your Friend,

Timi Oke

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