Wahab Olasupo Egbewole has emerged as the 11th Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin.
This was made known in an address by the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University, Mallam Abidu Yazid late evening on Thursday.
According to Yazid, the council began the process leading to the selection of the new VC in March, with the placement of advertisement in national newspapers and also through the university’s website.
The announcement said the council constituted a Selection Board, in accordance with the laws, and in the end 13 candidates fulfill the advertised criteria and other conditions, from which a new VC has now been selected.
“I am glad to inform you that the Council, after rigorous selection procedure, approved the appointment of Professor Wahab Olasupo Egbewole as the 11th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin,” Yazid disclosed.
Egbewole, 61, has had a progressive academic career in the University of Ilorin spanning over 2 decades, beginning in 1997 as a lecturer in the institution’s department of jurisprudence and international law. He became a Professor in 2012, after which he was conferred with the prestigious rank of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 2018 by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC).
A member of several professional bodies, including the Nigerian Society of International Law and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), Egbewole has also occupied several administrative positions within the university, notably the sub-dean of the Faculty of Law for a three year period from 1999 to 2002 and the Acting Head of department of international law and jurisprudence between 2004 and 2010. He was thereafter appointed the Acting Dean of Faculty of Law from 2010 to 2012 and subsequently the Director of the General Studies Division of the University from 2015 to 2018.
A well-travelled scholar, Egbewole was appointed external examiner by the University of Pretoria in October 2013 and as academic auditor by the university of Cape Coast, Ghana, in May 2013. He also served as an assessor in several universities across the country.
With research interests in diverse areas such as human rights and humanitarian law, electoral disputes, comparative law, legislative-executive relations and good governance, the new VC has undertaken several commissioned research for government and other reputable organizations, including the Osun State House of Assembly, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Osun Investment Company Limited, Delta State Government, Ekiti State Ministry of Justice, among others.
He has won grants and sponsorships to several conferences and seminars, including the University of Ilorin grant to attend the Society Association Conference held in New Orleans, USA, the Law and Society Research Grant for annual conference in Mexico as well as the University of Ilorin Grant for International Bar Association Conference in Rome. He was also the winner of the prestigious $80,000 dollars Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) Grant for a disability project of the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law of the University of Ilorin.
Egbewole would be taking over from the outgoing Vice Chancellor Suleiman Age Abdulkareem, a professor of chemical engineering who was appointed on 28th August, 2017 as the 10th Vice Chancellor. He is billed to leave office on the 15th October, 2022 after the completion of his five years tenure.