Professor Isaac Adewole

Professor Isaac Adewole, former vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan, was sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari 30 years ago, when he was Nigeria’s military head of state.

Sixty year old Adewole was then the secretary of the  Association of Resident Doctors at the University College Hospital in Ibadan.

Declared wanted by the Buhari regime, Adewole ran out of Nigeria and was on exile in Britain for 15 months. He returned to Nigeria following the pardon granted him and others by the Babangida administration.

But being in exile also changed the career path of Adewole. In an interview with TheNEWS on the occasion of his 60th birthday last May, he explained how this happened:

“I was away for about 15 months. But the experience I had at a research laboratory in London also influenced what I am today and helped me when I returned because while I was there, I wrote four papers. The then president, Ibrahim Babangida, gave us pardon. He said he was granting pardon to all the dismissed doctors so that they could participate in the national political discourse.

” I must thank some of my teachers who believed in me, especially Professor Ladipo who took active interest in me and brought me up. He was from Ogbomoso and I am from Ilesa. Many of the things I have achieved today happened through my interactions with him. He was among those who encouraged me to come back. I almost didn’t want to come back. Coming back means I am now in the academic line. Sometime in 1984/85, someone prophesied that Adewole would become a lecturer and a professor and I said, Throw it into the bin. I came back and from lecturer one, I rose through the ranks and became a professor, became head of department, provost, member of council, and vice-chancellor. Over the last 60 years, I have been the product of some divine interventions at various junctions.”.

Read the Full interview on Adewole’s life story here: I was born into a happy family and I am a lucky son of lucky parents