[2] Obi's early research dealt mainly with the question of the existence of periodic solutions of non-linear ordinary differential equations.
[3] He successfully used the perturbation technique, and several of his publications greatly helped to stimulate research interest in this subject throughout the world and have become classics in the literature.
Obi had won the Sigvard Eklund Prize for original work in differential equation from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics.
This work was carried out at his Nanna Institute for Scientific Studies in Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria and published in Algebras, Groups and Geometries.
He was later released for “want of evidence.” When the Nigerian Civil War broke out in 1967, Obi sided with Biafra, working for the rebel leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
Obi derided religion and ethnic extremism, and the culture of corruption pervading the Nigerian political class.