By Abubakar Imam

The pioneer Provost of the College of Health Sciences,  Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, Prof. Salihu Moyosore Ajao, has acknowledged the impressive positive impacts of the University of Ilorin on the growth and development of medical and allied training and practise in Kwara State and beyond.

Prof. Ajao, who is also the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Ilorin, made this assertion last Monday (October 20, 2025) in a chat with UNILORIN Bulletin.

The renowned medical scholar observed that since 1977 when the UNILORIN Medical School was founded, the story has not been the same considering the calibre and number of medical doctors and trainers the University had produced who are exerting great influence on medical practice in Kwara and other neighbouring states and beyond.

Prof. Ajao said that most of those who have served as Chief Medical Directors of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital and Medical Directors of other Hospitals across Kwara State were trained at the University.

He also said that the establishment of Medical Colleges by sister universities in Kwara State such as KWASU, Thomas Adewunmi University (TAU), Oko; and Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, were mostly facilitated by medical teachers from the University of Ilorin who played one significant role or the other in bringing them to light.

The Provost added that it was a former Director of Academic Planning of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Sulyman Alege Kuranga who midwived the Committee that birthed the establishment of the KWASU and TAU Medical Schools.

He also recalled that the founding Provost of the College of Medicine of the Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila Orangun, Prof. Aishatu Ahmed Gobir, is a staff member of the University of Ilorin as he also noted that the pioneer Chief Medical Director of TAU Teaching Hospital in Omu-Aran, Prof. Ademola Popoola, is also a staff member of the Better By Far University.

Prof. Ajao, who also recalled the pioneering research of a former Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), University of Ilorin, Emeritus Professor Luke Edungbola, which led to the eradication of guineawtorm disease in Nigeria and attracted global applause as well as the award-winning rollback Malaria efforts of a former Director of the Centre for International Education, University of Ilorin, Prof. Olugbenga Ayodeji Mokuolu, as two of the several  groundbreaking researches enabled by staff members of the University of Ilorin Medical School.

The former UNILORIN ASUU Chairman commended the Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, CON, for his love and support for the expansion of medical education and practice in the state as he also hailed the Kwara State Commissioner for Health, Dr Aminat Ahmed El-Imam, who is a staff member of the University of Ilorin, for her impacts on the development of medical practice across the state.

Prof. Ajao added that the establishment of three additional medical schools in Kwara State would lead to the production of more medical practitioners who would help the state and humanity. He enjoined proprietors of those universities to ensure proper funding of the schools to enable them produce high quality medical manpower and greater access to quality health care and service delivery to the people. He said that their functional existence would reduce pressure on the University of Ilorin Medical School and the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital.

He assured that the KWASU Medical School, which he currently runs, would not only be modelled after that of the University of Ilorin but would also produce outstanding medical doctors whose impacts would be felt across the globe.