UNILAG’s Acting VC Folasade Ogunsola breaks 58-year record

Professor Folasade Ogunsola on Monday emerged as the Acting Vice -Chancellor of the University of Lagos .

She was elected by members of the Senate at an emergency meeting held on Monday .

While Ogunsola polled 135 of 167 votes, her closest fellow contestant , Prof. Ben Ogbojafor , secured 31 votes.

The Federal Government had , last week , asked UNILAG Senate to reconvene and nominate an acting VC following the crisis between the varsity ’s Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council , Wale Babalakin, and Vice -Chancellor , Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe .

The FG also asked Babalakin and Ogundipe to recuse themselves from official duties , pending the outcome of the Special Visitation Panel set up by the President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari ( retd .) .

With her emergence, Ogunsola broke UNILAG ’s 58 – year record by becoming the first female to be appointed as an acting VC of the institution since it was founded in 1962 .

She is also the first female provost of the College of Medicine , University of Lagos .
She became the Deputy Vice -Chancellor ( Development Services ) of the institution since 2017 .

Sixty -two -year – old Ogunsola is a Professor of Clinical Microbiology .
According to her citation on Havard ’s website , Ogunsola ’s research interest and work centered around the diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance .

She has , for two decades, been involved in raising awareness on Infection Control in Nigeria .

She was a founding member of the Nigerian Society for Infection Control in 1998 and has assisted in setting up infection control programmes in institutions around the country .
She is the principal investigator at AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria at UNILAG .