Oladele Ajose
{{Short description|Nigerian academic (1907–1978)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2022}}
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{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Omoba
| name = Oladele Ajose
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| birth_name = Oladele Adebayo Ajose
| birth_date = 20 September 1907
| birth_place = Nigeria
| death_date = {{death date and age|1978|7|2|1907|9|20|df=y}}
| death_place =
| nationality = Nigerian
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Oladele Adebayo Ajose (20 September 1907 – 2 July 1978) was a Lagos prince who was the vice-chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University.{{Cite web |title=University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Oladele Adebayo Ajose |url=https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH3007&type=P |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk}} He was an early advocate of primary health care in Nigeria{{Cite web |title=Nigeria {{!}} History, Population, Flag, Map, Languages, Capital, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Nigeria |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} and the first tenured African professor at the University of Ibadan{{Cite web |date=2021-11-12 |title=University of Ibadan |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/university-ibadan |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=Times Higher Education (THE) |language=en}} and in Nigeria.{{Cite web |date=2018-03-23 |title=Remembering Ajose, first OAU VC |url=https://guardian.ng/opinion/remembering-ajose-first-oau-vc/ |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News |language=en-US}} He was one of the earliest Africans to hold a professorial chair.{{Cite web|title=Oladele Adebayo Ajose – DAWN Commission|url=http://dawncommission.org/oladele-adebayo-ajose/|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-27}}{{cite web|url=http://happylagosian.blogspot.com/2009/10/o-mooba-oladele-adebayo-ajose-who-died.html?m=1|title=Prince Oladele Adebayo Ajose. (1907–1978) A Lagosian and a Trailblazer.|website=Happy Lagosian|accessdate=July 23, 2014|date=9 October 2009}}
Education and career
He attended Methodist Boys' High School, Lagos and King's College, Lagos for secondary education{{cn|date=February 2024}}. He later moved abroad and went to study at the University of Glasgow from 1927 to 1932, graduating MB ChB in 1932, taking the Diploma in Public Health in 1935 and proceeding to a MD in 1939.{{Cite web|title=Oladele Adebayo Ajose – DAWN Commission|url=http://dawncommission.org/oladele-adebayo-ajose/|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-26}} His thesis title was Comparative study of Variola & Varicella in Nigeria. It was while in Glasgow that he met his wife: Beatrice Roberts.{{Cite book |last=Adesina |first=Olutayo Charles |url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004276901/B9789004276901-s006.xml |title=Between Colonialism and Cultural Authenticity: Isaac Ladipo Oluwole, Oladele Adebayo Ajose, Public Health Services in Nigeria, and the Glasgow Connection |date=2014-01-01 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-27690-1 |language=en}} The couple returned to Nigeria in 1936, and later raised three daughters and a son.
He started his career as an assistant medical officer for health in Lagos.{{Cite web |date=2018-03-23 |title=Remembering Ajose, first OAU VC |url=https://guardian.ng/opinion/remembering-ajose-first-oau-vc/ |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News |language=en-US}} He was later promoted to the position of medical officer for health. As a health official, he started and promoted the British Red Cross Society of Nigeria, which later became known as the Nigerian Red Cross Society.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mLPBAAAQBAJ&dq=oladele+adebayo+Ajose+as+a+health+official,+he+started+and+promoted+the+British+Red+Cross+Society+of+Nigeria,+which+later+became+known+as+the+Nigerian+Red+Cross+Society&pg=PA97 |title=Africa in Scotland, Scotland in Africa: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Hybridities |date=2014-09-25 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-27690-1 |language=en}} He also established the Infectious Disease Hospital in Lagos.{{Cite web |title=University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Oladele Adebayo Ajose |url=https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH3007&type=P#:~:text=In%201961,%20Ajose%20was%20made,became%20the%20Nigerian%20Medical%20Association. |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk}} In 1948, with the creation of the University College, Ibadan, he left his administrative attire for university drapery and was appointed lecturer, and later professor of preventive medicine.{{Cite web|title=University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Oladele Adebayo Ajose|url=https://universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH3007&type=P|website=universitystory.gla.ac.uk|access-date=2020-05-26}}
=Early promoter of primary care=
He was one of the earliest proponents of primary health care. He believed that public health issues should not only be limited to the rooms of academia but be brought to communities. He based his community health care effort at Ilora, a town in the then Oyo State. There, he made sure the community was involved in every step of decision making and choice of health care service. As part of the project, the community established fish ponds mostly stocked of tilapia fish; the ponds were built to provide ample protein for the citizens. The establishment of fish ponds around swamps later led to the creation of means of eradicating schistosomiasis{{Cite web |title=Search {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/search |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} in Ilora and also introduced a framework for nutrition provision in Nigeria and Africa."Tribute to Late Oladele Adebayo Ajose", Vanguard, Nigeria. 17 July 2003
In 1964, he contested the throne of Oba of Lagos with the eventual winner, Oba Oyekan."Lagos Obaship: Royal Family Petitions Tinubu", ThisDay, Nigeria. 7 May 2003.
His daughter is Ambassador Audrey Ajose.{{Cite web |title=Foreign women married Nigerians, nigerwives, foreign women in nigeria |url=https://nigerwives.wixsite.com/nigeria |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=nigeria |language=en}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- http://www.awori-kitigbe.org/ALSI.htm
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ajose, Oladele}}
Category:Physicians from Lagos
Category:Vice-chancellors of Obafemi Awolowo University
Category:Academic staff of the University of Ibadan
Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Category:Academic staff of Obafemi Awolowo University
Category:King's College, Lagos alumni
Category:20th-century Nigerian medical doctors
Category:Nigerian public health doctors
Category:Methodist Boys' High School alumni