Former Vice-Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, Professor Wale Omole, is dead. He was aged 84.
According to family sources, the distinguished academic and former university administrator died in the early hours of Wednesday, November 11.
He served as the Vice-Chancellor of OAU, then known as the University of Ife, from November 1991 to 1999, becoming the first alumnus of the institution to occupy the position.
Born on August 14, 1942, Omole attended Ilesa Grammar School before proceeding to the University of Ife, where he obtained degrees in Agriculture and Animal Science. He later earned a doctorate in Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of Alberta, Canada.
Authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University, reacting to the demise, said on Wednesday that they received the news of Professor Omole’s death with sadness.
The university, in a statement, described his demise as a great loss to the Great Ife community, the Nigerian university system and the larger academic community considering his contributions to scholarship, university administration and the advancement of higher education in Nigeria.
“His service as vice-chancellor, from 1991 to 1999, represented a significant chapter in the university’s continuing pursuit of academic excellence, institutional development and the preservation of its reputation as one of Nigeria’s foremost centres of higher learning,” the university said in a statement on Wednesday.
