BREAKING: UNILAG confirms first female VC Folasade Ogunsola

The University of Lagos Governing Council, led by the newly appointed interim chairman, Dr John Momoh, has confirmed Prof. Folasade Ogunsola as the acting Vice-Chancellor of the institution.

The Governing Council at a virtual meeting on Tuesday approved her nomination. The inauguration of the visitor’s panel will hold in Abuja on Wednesday.

There was jubilation at UNILAG on Monday when she emerged the acting VC at the emergency Senate meeting.

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 Muhammadu Buhari.

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.

A professor of Clinical Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria, Folasade Ogunsola’s research interest and work profile has 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 programs in institutions around the country.

She has a strong interest in the application of Infection Control principles for the prevention of disease transmission and antimicrobial resistance in low resource settings. She is a member of the Global Infection Prevention and control Network.

As a child, Ogunsola mimicked medical practitioners by using dolls as patients, while offering medical care to them. Between 1974–82, Ogunsola obtained her first degree from University of Ife. She got a master’s degree from College of Medicine, University of Lagos, then proceeded for her doctorate at University of Wales between 1992–97.