G.O. Olusanya

Gabriel Olakunle Olusanya (1936–2012) was a Nigerian academic, administrator and diplomat who was the Nigerian ambassador to France from 1991 to 1996. In academia, many of his scholarly works focused on contemporary Nigerian history and foreign relations.

Life Olusanya attended Methodist Boys' High School, Lagos and studied history at the University College, Ibadan (now University of Ibadan). He furthered his studies at the University of British Columbia and later earned a doctorate degree from University of Toronto.

After completing his studies, he took up a teaching appointment in the Northern Nigerian region at Ahmadu Bello University, where his former history teacher, Abdullahi Smith was developing ABU's history department. However, political and ethnic conflict preceding the Nigerian civil war precipitated his movement to University of Lagos in 1966. In 1984, he was appointed director-general of Nigeria's foremost foreign relations think tank, the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs.

Selected works

The Second World War and politics in Nigeria, 1939-1953 (Evans, 1973) The evolution of the Nigerian civil service, 1861-1960 : the problems of Nigerianization (University of Lagos, 1975) The West African Students' Union and the politics of decolonisation, 1925-1958 (Daystar Press, 1982) Memoirs of a disillusioned patriot (Afremac, 2003)