The senate of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has elected Folasade Ogunsola, the institution’s deputy vice-chancellor for development services, as acting VC.
The senate committee had convened on Monday to elect an acting vice-chancellor as recommended by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ogunsola secured 135 votes to defeat Ben Ogbojafor, a professor, who polled 31 votes.
A vote was declared void, making the total votes cast 167.
Ogunsola, a former provost of UNILAG College of Medicine, is the first woman to occupy the number one position in UNILAG.
She is the principal investigator at AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) at UNILAG and has been the chairman of the Infection Control Committee of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
Ogunsola played a major role in assisting Nigeria overcome the Ebola outbreak in 2014.
She has also contributed to the health sectors of other African countries, including Uganda.
Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, the suspended VC of the institution, was earlier removed by the varsity’s governing council during a meeting presided over by Wale Babalakin, its pro-chancellor and chairman.
The council had thereafter named Omololu Soyombo as the acting VC.
Buhari had directed Ogundipe and Babalakin to step aside and allow the senate of the university to nominate an acting vice-chancellor.
Reacting to the directive in a statement on Saturday, Soyombo said he had stepped down “with immediate effect” in obedience to the directive of the president.
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. She has also been the chairman of Infection Control Committee of Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Additionally, she is the chairman of the National Association of Colleges of Medicine in Nigeria.
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. “Between 1974–82, Ogunsola obtained her first degree from then University of Ife.
“She got a master’s degree from College of Medicine, University of Lagos, then proceeded for her doctorate at the University of Wales between 1992–97,” her Wiki citation added.