Obafemi Awolowo University
It was renamed "Obafemi Awolowo University" on 12 May 1987, so by the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida led military administration, in honour of Obafemi Awolowo (1909–1987), the first premier of the Western Region of Nigeria, who initially thought of the idea of establishing the university.
A commission was established by the Federal Minister of Education in 1959 to study the nation's projected needs for university graduates between 1960 and 1980.
[10] Before a final report was submitted in October 1960, the Western government began preparations for the establishment of a university in the region.
[10] The decision to establish the University of Ife[11] by the ruling Action Group party of the Western Region of Nigeria was in protest at the recommendations of the Ashby Report.
The Ashby Commission, which was set up by the British, was to review the tertiary education needs of the soon-to-be-independent nation of Nigeria.
The University at Ife was founded as a rebuttal to the perceived politicization of higher education opportunities in Nigeria and the Western Region and was designed to fill the gaps in manpower needs.
The final site chosen, a 13,000 acres (5,300 ha) of land, was donated by the people of Ile-Ife for the proposed university.
[13] On 22 September 1962, the university was opened to 244 students at its temporary facilities, the previous College of Arts and Sciences, Ibadan.
Oladele Ajose was nominated as the first Vice-Chancellor of the university, which began with faculties of agriculture, arts, economics and social studies, law and science.
[10] In February 1966, Lt-Col Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, the Visitor of the University of Ife and the first Military Governor of the Western Region, appointed Hezekiah Oluwasanmi as the new Vice-Chancellor, and Chief TT Solaru as the pro-chancellor, and gave them money and orders to relocate to the permanent campus by October 1966.
Education Minister Tunde Adeniran issued a statement acknowledging the incident and saying the ministry will treat the case with "utmost concern".
Upon completion, these structures resembled inverted pyramids or huge boats but the design was chosen because of the country's humid tropical climate that way, each floor protects the one below.
[18][10] There are pedestrian walkways and pergolas around the campus, providing movement within offices around the quadrangle, and there are also piazzas, gardens and terraces.
[21] JUPEB offers A-Level programs to students seeking admission into Obafemi Awolowo University via direct entry.
The library collection includes over 300,000 titles and 762,000 volumes of monographs, government publications, theses and audio-visual material, in addition to the subscription of over 1,000 journals in hard format.
297,352 records have been converted to electronic format and the digitization of its newspaper collection has been done by online Computers Library Corporation, Inc. of Ohio, US.
[25] Obafemi Awolowo University has a well-developed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) system with its own V-SAT access to the Internet and an efficient Intranet.
[15] The Information Technology and Communications Unit (INTECU) is responsible for developing Obafemi Awolowo University into Nigeria's leading ICT University with a campus-wide network consisting of a fibre optic backbone, 23 intra-networked subnets and wireless access clouds (WiFi) distributed across the site.
[32] The university's staff has included one Nobel Laureate and six Nigerian National Merit Award winners and has pioneered kidney transplants in Nigeria.
[47] Obafemi Awolowo University is known as the "Jerusalem" of Aluta because of the antecedents of her students in vibrant and radical unionism over the years.
The union has produced vibrant unionists and political leaders, including but not limited to the famous lawyer, Femi Falana, Paul Alaje, Olorunwa Adeleke, and many others.
In April 2022, a case of fraud came to light by the former president of the union, Dr Ibk, who was remanded by a court of law after stealing 700,000 shortly after the swearing-in of the new executives.
