Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Gets New Vice Chancellor

The OAU Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University, Owelle Oscar Udoji at a press briefing on Thursday in Ile-Ife announced that Professor Bamire’s appointment is with effect from June 7, 2022.

Mr Bamire was said to have ranked first ahead of a professor of Art and former deputy vice-chancellor at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Razaq Kalilu, and Kayode Ijadunola, a professor of public health and community medicine and former provost of the OAU’s college of health sciences, who ranked second and third respectively.

The tenure of the current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede expired on June 6, 2022.

Who is Professor Bamire?

Born on January 18, 1959, Mr Bamire hails from Oyan in Odo-Otin Local Government Area of Osun State.

He was said to have attended St. Clares’ Nursery and Primary School, Osogbo, for his primary school education and had his secondary education at St. Charles’ Grammar School, also in Osogbo.

He studied Agricultural Economics at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) and bagged his Bachelor of Agriculture in 1985; M.Phil., in 1992, and Ph.D. in 1999.

Mr Bamire’s PhD thesis was said to have won the “National Universities Postgraduate Thesis Award” in 2001.

During the tenure of the university’s 10th vice-chancellor, Bamitale Omole, Mr Bamire had reportedly won the deanship election of the faculty of agriculture by a lone vote.

As the dean, Mr Bamire reportedly had a frosty relationship with the then vice-chancellor, Mr Omole, who was eventually chased out of the campus one month to the end of his tenure in 2016 by protesting workers over allegations of corruption and compromised selection processes of his successor at the time.

The crisis, which led to the balkanisation of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on the campus, eventually led to the appointment of an acting vice-chancellor- Anthony Elujoba.

However, since the appointment of the outgoing vice-chancellor, Ogunbodede, Mr Omole, a professor of History and International Relations, has had it “tough” on the campus.

He reportedly voluntarily retired earlier this year at the age of 68, instead of waiting to attain the 70-year-retirement age permitted by the law governing the university system in Nigeria.