Professor Ogunsola is New UNILAG VC

 

Professor Folasade Ogunsola has been elected as the acting vice chancellor of University of Lagos. She secured the highest number of votes in the election held by members of the University Senate to choose an acting Vice-Chancellor.

Before her emergence, She was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Development Services at UNILAG .

Ogunsola’s nomination took place on Monday during a Senate meeting attended by 167 professors.

The result of the election was announced by Chairman of the Senate Emergency Committee, Prof. Chioma Agomo, showed that Prof.Ogunsola secured 135 of 167 votes while Prof. Ben Ogbojafor, who was also considered for the post by members of the Senate, secured 31 votes. One void vote was, however, recorded.

The Federal Government last week had directed UNILAG Senate to reconvene to appoint an acting VC  and further directed the university’s Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Chief Wale Babalakin, and Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, to recuse themselves from official duties of the institution, pending the outcome of the Special Visitation Panel set up by the President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

Prof. Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola was born in 1958. She is a professor of medical microbiology who specialises in disease control, particularly HIV/AIDS.

Ogunsola was also an ex-provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, and is reputed as being the first woman to occupy the position.

She became the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Services) of the institution in 2017.

“Her research areas have been centered on the regulation and management of viral diseases, particularly HIV.

“She is the principal investigator at AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria at the University of Lagos.

“She has also been the chairman of the Infection Control Committee of Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Additionally, she is the chairman of the National Association of Colleges of Medicine in Nigeria.

“In 2018, she expressed concern on disease prevention and control in Nigeria. She identified poor hygiene and overuse of antibiotics as practices that foster antimicrobial-drug resistance.

“Providing a solution, she maintained that sustained Infection Prevention and Control infrastructure and programmes should be built around a set of core components which include guidelines, training, surveillance, multimodal strategies for implementing IPC, monitoring and evaluation among others,” the citation added.