•How They Are Jostling For Prof. ABEL OLAYINKA’s Job
The search for a new Vice-Chancellor for the University of Ibadan is becoming more interesting by the day. No fewer than seven professors have already signified their interest to occupy the exalted post, as the tenure of the current V.C, Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka, expires come 30th November 2020. Those who have shown interest include the incumbent Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Professor Kayode Adebowale; the immediate past Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor Adeyinka Abideen Aderinto; Provost of College of Medicine, Professor Oluwabunmi Olopade-Olaopa and former Dean Faculty of Arts, Professor Remi Raji-Oyelade of Department of English.
Also on the list are Prof. George Olusegun Ademowo of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutic, Faculty of Basic Medical Science; Professor Oluyemisi Adefunke Bamgbose, SAN, former Dean, Faculty of Law and the immediate past Chief Medical Director (CMD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Prof. Temitope Alonge.
Already, underground scheming and lobbying are going on, as the process for a new V.C to emerge commences anytime from now. However, while it is believed in some quarters that an indigene of Oyo State should emerge as the new V.C. Some felt the V.C position of university as reputable as U.I should emerge based on merit and not by state of origin.
Of course anybody who wants to occupy V.C post, of the University of Ibadan for that matter, must possess an outstanding academic qualifications and experiences. Apart from academic credentials, such person must also be of impeccable character, and a good manager of people.
According to the university’s constitution, “any interested candidate is required to possess a good university education and should be a proven, successful manager of human and material resources.
Specifically, the candidate shall be expected to: be a highly distinguished scholar of the rank of Professor, with a minimum of ten (10) years’ experience on that level and demonstrate ability to provide academic and administrative leadership for such a well-established institution; be a person of proven integrity; be not more than 65 years old as at the date of possible assumption of duty on 01 December, 2020; command the respect of the national and international academic communities through his/her track record; strengthen the bridges between staff, students and other members of the University community; be a person with a clear vision for the development of the University; enjoy excellent physical and mental health and attract the much-needed funds into the University.
It is therefore no doubt that all those who had in the past ran affairs of the University of Ibadan, whether dead or alive, right from inception in 1948, are known to be noble men whose achievements still speak till today.
The outgoing V.C of the university, Prof. Abel Idowu is a professor of Applied Geophysics. He is a former Deputy Vice Chancellor. He is also the President of the West African Research and Innovation Management Association.
So what the Premier University, as the University of Ibadan is widely known, needs now is, a V.C with a broad vision and fresh ideas. Someone who will build on whatever success the past V.Cs must have achieved. In order for the university to remain the number one in Nigeria and to sustain its sole purpose of been the best public research university.
Below are names and academic qualifications of the highly qualified 7 professors who are jostling for U.I Vice-Chancellor post:
PROF. KAYODE ADEBOWALE
He was born on 11 January, 1962 to the family of late Mr. and Mrs. Adebowale Esuruoso. He had his primary education between 1967 and 1972 at St. Marks Primary School, Oke-Ijaga, Ijebu-Igbo while his secondary education was at Ayedaade Grammar School, Ikire between 1973 and 1978. He proceeded to the University of Ibadan in September 1980 where he obtained a B.Sc degree in Chemistry in June 1984; M.Sc degree in Industrial Chemistry in September, 1985 and Ph.D in Industrial Chemistry in October, 1991.
Professor Adebowale’s working career started at the University of Ibadan as a Graduate Assistant between 1987 and 1991. He was appointed Lecturer II at the Federal University of Technology, Akure in October 1991, where he was promoted to the grades of Lecturer I in 1994 and Senior Lecturer in 1997 respectively.
He transferred his services to the University of Ibadan in February 1999 as a Senior Lecturer and was subsequently elevated to the grades of Reader in 2003 and Professor in October 2006.
Professor Adebowale held many administrative positions and served on several Committees of the University of Ibadan. These include Examinations Officer, Department of Chemistry, 2003-2005; Postgraduate Coordinator, Department of Chemistry, 2000 – 2002; Sub-Dean (Postgraduate), Faculty of Science, 2002-2004; Dean, Faculty of Science, 2009-2011; Member, Committee of Provosts and Deans, 2009-2011; Member Committee on the Appointment of Emeritus Professors, 2012 to date. He was Convener, Investigative Panel on the Determination of the Class of Degree of two students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Technology, 2013 and the Director, Special Duties, Office of the Vice-Chancellor, between 2015 and 2016.
Professor Adebowale has won several awards.
A diligent academia, he has been external examiner to many universities in Nigeria and abroad.
He is a reviewer of many international journals.
In a bid to promote original research in Chemical Sciences among young scientists in Nigeria, Prof. Adebowale instituted 2 annual awards in 2014 for members of the Nigerian Young Academy (NYA): Prof. Kayode Adebowale National Scientist Prize for Women in Chemical Sciences and Prof. Kayode Adebowale National Scientist Prize.
A profound scholar, he has supervised many B.Sc projects, over 150 M.Sc dissertations and 15 doctoral students. He is currently supervising 6 doctoral students and has published over 120 articles in both local and international journals of repute. He also has one patent to his credit.
He attended the Senior Executive Course 39, 2017 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru which led to the award of the member of the National Institute (mni).
Professor Adebowale is happily married to Dr. ‘Yemisi Ajibola Adebowale and the marriage is blessed with three children: Temitayo, Ayobami and Ayomitunde. He is presently the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan.
PROF. ABIDEEN ADERINTO
He is the immediate past Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of the University of Ibadan.
Professor Adeyinka Abideen Aderinto attended Abadina Primary School, University of Ibadan between 1973 and 1978 for his primary education. He started his secondary education at the Ede Muslim Grammar School, in 1978 and completed it in 1983 at Abadina College, University of Ibadan. Professor Aderinto gained direct entry admission to the University of Ibadan, Ibadan in 1985 for a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology, and graduated in 1988 with a Second Class Honours Upper Division.
At the University of Ibadan, he won the Professor Okediji Memorial Prize for The Best Overall Student in Sociology at Both 200 and 300 levels, and in 1988, won the Sociology Department Prize for the best graduating student.
He has a Master of Science Degree in Sociology, with a Grade Point Average of 67.0 which was the second highest in the class in 1991.
During the programme, he was elected President of the Sociology Graduate Students’ Association. Aderinto was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Sociology in January 1997.
Professor Aderinto started his teaching career in 1992 when he was appointed an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria and rose to become a Professor of Sociology in the same University in 2009. Professor Aderinto’s main areas of teaching and research are Deviance, Social Problems and Childhood Studies.
He has held many administrative and academic positions at the University of Ibadan and outside it.
Professor Aderinto is an active researcher and has been part of many collaborative research programmes.
He has served as Consultant on various projects as follows: Aderinto has also been a recipient of many awards spanning his student days till now. He won the Sociology Department Prize for the Best Graduating Student in 1988 and the Professor Okediji Memorial Prize for the Best Overall Student in Sociology at Both 200 and 300 levels.
He was also an awardee of many research grants.
He was also a grantee of the Macarthur Foundation Fund for Leadership Development, and a fellow of the Bill and Melinda Gates Summer Institute on Reproductive Health and Development, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
He is a widely travelled man having attended conferences, research meetings, courses in countries in North America, Europe and Africa.
Professor Aderinto has published widely in his areas of research, and currently has over 80 publications in books and journals, and some others already accepted for publication.
Professor Adeyinka Abideen Aderinto is happily married with children.
PROF. OLUWABUNMI OLOPADE-OLAOPA
Professor Tunji Olaopa was born 20 December 1959 in Aáwé, Oyo State. He is a political scientist and public administrator. He is the Executive Vice Chairman of Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, Bodija, Ibadan and a Professor of Public Policy at the Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State.
He is also an alumnus of the University of Ibadan. His academic and professional careers span Urology, Molecular biology, medical education and health systems research and development.
As regards the latter two disciplines, he has contributed to several initiatives nationally and internationally. These include directing the development of the first homegrown undergraduate competency-based medical/dental education curricula in Sub-Saharan Africa (the 2010 University of Ibadan MBBS and BDS curricula) was has been adopted as the template for medical and dental curricula in Nigeria.
In the international arena, Professor Olapade-Olaopa is a member of the WHO-AFRO Advisory Committee on Health Research Development, and has been the chair of the Surgery Final Examination of the University of Buea, Cameroon since 2011.
He was a member of the Expert Advisory Committee on the Sub-Saharan African Medical Schools Survey, and an Adviser to the Coordinating Center of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (for Sub-Saharan Africa) of the United States Government and the MEDUNAM II Project of the Norwegian Government at the University of Namibia.
Professor Olapade-Olaopa’s contributions to academia have resulted in over 100 publications in book chapters and papers in major peer-reviewed journals. He has also edited several major medical education and surgical training books including the 2017 WHO Manual for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care in Sub-Saharan Africa.
He is the recipient of numerous prizes, awards, distinctions and honours including the elite Fellowship of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences. He is the current Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan and the Chairman of the Association of Medical Schools in Africa (ad interim).
He is also a member of the Councils of the National Open University of Nigeria and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.
PROF. REMI RAJI-OYELADE
Prof. Aderemi Raji-Oyelade (aka Remi Raji) is a University of Ibadan Professor of English and Africana Studies.
He is a Salzburg Fellow and Visiting professor and writer to a number of institutions including Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Universities of California at Riverside and Irvine, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Cambridge University, UK.
Raji-Oyelade’s scholarly essays have appeared in journals including Presence Africaine, Research in African Literatures, Wasafiri and African Literature Today.
His book – Playful Blasphemies: Postproverbials as Archetypes of Modernity in Yoruba Culture (2012) has received acclaim as a seminal work in contemporary African studies.
Raji’s first collection of poems – A harvest of laughters (1997) has won national and international recognitions. In 2005, he served as the Guest Writer to the City of Stockholm, Sweden.
His other volumes of poetry include Webs of remembrance (2001), Shuttlesongs America: A poetic guided tour (2003), Lovesong for my wasteland (2005), Gather my blood rivers of song (2009) and Sea of my mind (2013).
His works have been translated into French, German, Catalan, Swedish, Ukrainian, and Latvian. Professor Raji-Oyelade has been External Examiner and Resource Person to a number of institutions in Nigeria, Ghana and Germany.
He was member (and later Chairman), of the Literature Committee of Nigerian Universities Joint Admissions & Matriculation Board, between 1997 and 2001.
In 2004, he was appointed by the Nigerian National Commission for UNESCO to serve as a member of the National Jury for the “Bridges of Strugga” International Poetry Award. Winner of the Alexander von Humboldt 2017 Alumni Award for Innovative Networking Initiatives, and recent recipient of the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Staff Mobility for Teaching Award.
Raji-Oyelade teaches Literature of the African Diaspora, Creative Writing and the New Media in the Department of English, University of Ibadan.
Remi Raji is the pen name of Aderemi Raji-Oyelade, author of six volumes of poetry including A harvest of laughters (1997), Lovesong for my wasteland (2005), Gather my blood rivers of song (2009) and Sea of my mind (2013).
His poetry has been translated into French, German, Catalan, Swedish, Ukrainian, Latvian, Croatian and Hungarian. A multiple award-winner and professor of English at the University of Ibadan, Raji-Oyelade was a former President of ANA (2011-2015).
PROF. GEORGE OLUSEGUN ADEMOWO
Professor George Olusegun Ademowo is a Professor of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Basic Medical Science, University of Ibadan. His interest is in Malaria, Chemotherapy, Drug Disposition, Ethnopharmacology, Molecular and Pharmacology. He is a member of several learned societies.
PROF. OLUYEMISI ADEFUNKE BAMGBOSE
Professor Oluyemisi Adefunke Bamgbose SAN, is a Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology and the First and presently the only Female Professor of Law in Nigeria to be conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
She was born in Ibadan on June 26, 1961 to Chief A.A.K. Degun, CON and Otunba (Mrs) C.M. Degun of Ijebu Ode. She started her primary education at University of Ife Staff School, Ibadan branch, now The Polytechnic Ibadan Staff School.
From there, she proceeded to Queens School, Apata, Ibadan. She obtained her A Levels at Adeola Odutola College, Ijebu-Ode and was subsequently admitted into the University of Lagos to study law. After obtaining her LLB, she proceeded to the Nigeria Law School, Lagos for her BL and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984. She obtained her Master of Laws Degree from the University of Lagos in 1990 and became a Professor of Law in 2003. In September 2018, she was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
Prof. Bamgbose SAN started her early career with the Oyo State Ministry of Justice during her one year compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. She then proceeded to Ogun State Ministry of Justice where she became a state counsel and rose to the position of senior state counsel and DPP. In 1987, she was employed by the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, as an assistant lecturer and rose through the ranks to become a Professor of Law in the School.
At the University of Ibadan, Prof. Bamgbose SAN served as Dean of Faculty of Law, between 2009 and 2014. She was the first female Head of Department in the Faculty of Law and served two tenures between 1997 and 2003. She was also the Sub-Dean, Faculty of Law. She was an Assistant Hall Warden and Acting Warden, Nigeria of Queen Elizabeth 11 Hall, University of Ibadan and currently the Director of the Women’s Law Clinic (a specialized law clinic), at the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan.
She is an internal member of the Governing Council, University of Ibadan and an external member of the Governing Council, Chrisland University, Owode, Abeokuta and many other committees within the University.
She is a Fellow of Salzburg Seminar Austria and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She served as Chairperson of “The Study Group on the Death Penalty for the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
She was a Member of Nigeria’s National Committee on the Reform of Discriminatory Laws against Women and was also the Chairperson of the Constitutional Review Committee for Oyo State Nigeria.
She was a Member of the Technical Working Committee of the NHRC/ Ford Foundation Project “Fair Trial and the Right to Effective Participation in Governance: Independent Review of Evidence of Gross Violations of the Rights to Participate in Government and Fair Trial through the Election Petition Process in Nigeria”. She has recently been appointed by the NBA as Chairman of its newly established NBA Women Forum.
She has published many articles, books and technical reports in English language and translation into other languages in both national and international outlets. She is the author of the book “Law and Practice on Disaster Issues” and Co-author of the book “Criminal Law in Nigeria”. She is a widely travelled scholar who belongs to many national and international bodies.
She has a strong interest in women and children issues and has spoken at many conferences on issues relating to women and children. She was the Guest speaker at the Celebration of 100 years of Women in Law at Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA in 2008, the 3rd Professor Jadesola Akande Memorial Lecture organized by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Lagos in 2014 and at the 2nd Grace Foundation Lecture in 2014.
Professor Oluyemisi Bamgbose SAN, is happily married to a jurist and author of The Digest of the Judgments of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Honourable Justice Olatokunbo John Bamgbose and they are blessed with three children who are all legal practitioners.
PROF. TEMITOPE ALONGE
Professor Alonge is the immediate past Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.
He was born at Oka Akoko, Akoko South West LGA of Ondo State on the 16th March 1959.
Professor Alonge had his West African school certificate (Grade 1) in 1975 from Owo High School, Owo, and later proceeded to the college of medicine, University of Ibadan where he obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Degree (MBBS) in 1983.
In April 1991, he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCS) Edinburgh, and Fellow, West African College of surgeon, FWACS (Orthopaedics and Trauma) in April 1994). His passion for the care of the patient in his country prompted him to return to Nigeria in 1995 on completing his post-graduate training in orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery in England.
He popularized the concept of plate and screw fixation of fractures using the AO techniques and also designed the Alonge –Wale intra-operative antibiotic bead makers which made the beads making easier.
Prof. Alonge also formulated the ceftriaxone-polymethyl methacrylate antibiotic beads and initiated the treatment of chronic bone infection with the Belfast technique in Nigeria as well as the concept of state emergency medical services at a two-day workshop which was conduct at the British Council in 1996 and has since been adopted by many states of the federation.
As a professor of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, he initiated the basic trauma care course in Ibadan for reducing the number of preventable trauma-related deaths.
-Dare Adeniran
With additional info from the web
