OOU'S PIONEER BEST GRADUATING STUDENT EMERGES ALMA MATER VC

The Ogun State Government has approved the appointment of the Deputy Vice- Chancellor, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Prof. Adewale Olaitan, as the substantive vice chancellor of the institution.

Forty five-year-old Olaitan, a professor of Political Science, succeeds Prof. Soga Sofola, who has acted in that capacity since April 2009. Sofola took over from Prof. Odutola Osilesi, who was sent on compulsory leave following the re-organisation of the institution.

A statement by the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Sina Kawonise, in Abeokuta on Friday, stated that the appointment of Olaitan, the best graduating student in the first graduating set of

the institution in 1986, was to consolidate the 'repositioning and re-enginering' of the university.

Kawonise said, 'Olaitan was the first best graduating student of

Olabisi Onabanjo University (then Ogun State University) and the first

alumnus to be appointed professor.
'He was also the first alumnus to become a Dean of Faculty in the University. He is also the first alumnus to hold the position of the Deputy VC.'

The statement added that Olaitan, after graduating from OOU, also studied Political Science at the University of Ibadan between 1988 and 1998 to bag a Ph.D in the course.

The new VC, a member of the Nigerian Political Science Association, African Association of Political Science, Nigerian Society of International Affairs and Association of Nigerian Authors, according

to the statement, has many academic awards and distinctions to his credit. Kawonise added that the Visitor to the university, Governor Gbenga Daniel, had expressed appreciation to Sofola for 'his courage,

diligence, resourcefulness and ingenuity in seeing OOU through its most trying times and helping to lay the foundation for the re-positioning of the university.'