Oloyede to chair IEDPU’s 61st confab
By Abubakar Imam
A former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin and immediate past Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Emeritus Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, CON, will on Friday, December 25, 2026 preside-over the opening ceremony of the 61st annual national conference of the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU).
An invitation letter dated October 12, 2026 and addressed to the former Vice Chancellor, who is also the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), a copy of which was made available to UNILORIN Bulletin, explained that the event would hold at the Union’s National Secretariat, Geri Alimi, Ilorin, beginning at 10.00 a.m.
The letter, which was signed by the National President of the Union, Alhaji Abdulmumini Ayo Abdulmalik, said that the event would also be targeted at raising the sum of ₦2 billion naira needed to complete its ongoing projects including its Central Mosque and re-equipping schools established by it.
Other dignitaries expected at the event, according to Alhaji Abdulmalik, include the Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, CON; and the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, CFR, among others.
Prof. Emeritus Oloyede, whose leadership at the University established the Centre for Ilorin Studies (CILS), is the third former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, who will chair the annual sociocultural programme, several past editions of which he had attended. Former Chief Executives of the University who had played the same role in the past were its 9th Vice Chancellor, the late Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, OON, in 2018 and its sixth Vice Chancellor, Prof. Shuaibu Oba AbdulRaheem, OFR, who served as the Chairman of the 2024 edition of the conference.
Speaking to UNILORIN Bulletin on the development, the Chairman of the Conference Planning Committee, Prof. Aliyu Ajibola Akanbi II, said that the choice of Prof. Oloyede, who is also the Kuliya of Sokoto Caliphate, would also be a means of celebrating his accomplishments in public service by the people of the Ilorin Emirate.
Prof. Akanbi II, who is also the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Basic Clinical Sciences, University of Ilorin, explained that as a member of the Ilorin community for about five decades, the choice of the former Vice Chancellor is also a way of telling the whole world that the Union is not just for indigenes of the Ilorin Emirate but also a platform for good friends of the community such as Prof. Emeritus Oloyede to play their roles towards its development.
The Union, which was established over 80 years ago, is the umbrella sociocultural organisation of the good people of the Ilorin Emirate who are the host community of the University.
