Professor Folasade Ogunsola on Monday emerged as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos.
She was elected by members of the Senate at an emergency meeting held on Monday.
While Ogunsola polled 135 of 167 votes, her closest fellow contestant, Prof. Ben Ogbojafor, secured 35 votes.
The Federal Government had, last week, asked UNILAG Senate to reconvene and nominate an acting VC following the crisis between the varsity’s Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Wale Babalakin, and Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe.
The FG also asked Babalakin and Ogundipe to recuse themselves from official duties, pending the outcome of the Special Visitation Panel set up by President Muhammadu Buhari.
With her emergence, Ogunsola broke UNILAG’s 58-year record by becoming the first female to be appointed as an acting VC of the institution since it was founded in 1962.
She is also the first female provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos.
She became the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Services) of the institution since 2017.
Sixty-two-year-old Ogunsola is a Professor of Clinical Microbiology.
According to her citation on Havard’s website, Ogunsola’s research interest and work centered around the diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance.
She has, for two decades, been involved in raising awareness on Infection Control in Nigeria.
She was a founding member of the Nigerian Society for Infection Control in 1998 and has assisted in setting up infection control programmes in institutions around the country.
She is the principal investigator at AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria at UNILAG.
She has also been the chairman of Infection Control Committee of Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Additionally, she is the chairman of the National Association of Colleges of Medicine in Nigeria.
She has a strong interest in the application of Infection Control principles for the prevention of disease transmission and antimicrobial resistance in low resource settings.
She is a member of the Global Infection Prevention and Control Network.
“Between 1974–82, Ogunsola obtained her first degree from then University of Ife.
“She got a master’s degree from College of Medicine, University of Lagos, then proceeded for her doctorate at the University of Wales between 1992–97,” her Wiki citation added.
In an interview with The PUNCH in August 2018, Ogunsola narrated her experience as a provost and how she became a DVC.
“One of the major decisions I took while I got into office was to be myself. I know that in general, women lead slightly differently from men.
“I do not like giving orders; instead, I like building bridges because I love things working in harmony.
“My administrative style is to enable people because I do not like to micro-manage people,” she said.