Oladipo Olujimi Akinkugbe

Oladipo Olujimi Akinkugbe (17 July 1933 – 15 May 2020) popularly known as Baba or Prof was the first Nigerian professor of medicine at the University of Ibadan. He specialised in hypertension and nephrology. He was a former chairman of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), former vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the foundation Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin. He obtained his first degree in medicine from the University College Ibadan and University of London in 1958 and did his internship at the London Hospital and King's College Hospital, London. he studied the role of angiotensin in hypertension and obtained the degree in 1964. In 1968, he obtained his professional Medical Degree from King's College of London based on his thesis titled "Observations on High Blood Pressure in the West African".

Career Akinkugbe returned to Nigeria in 1961 and worked with Government Specialist Hospital, Adeoyo, Ibadan. He went back to England to further his studies and later returned to Nigeria in 1965. He became Professor of Medicine at the age of 35 in 1968, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ibadan in 1970 and head of department in 1972 In 1975, he was a visiting professor of medicine at the Harvard University, University of Oxford in 1981 and University of Cape Town in 1985. In 1997, he became an emeritus professor.

Awards and honours Ladipo Akinkugbe received the Commander of the order of the Niger in 1979, Officer de l'Ordre National de la Republique de Côte d'Ivoire in 1981, Searle Distinguished Research Award in 1989, Nigerian National Order of Merit in 1997, Boehringer Ingelheim Award from the International Society of Hypertension and Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria were received by him in 2004. He was also honored with D.Sc. in seven Universities. In 2020, he received the International Society of Nephrology's pioneer award. Akinkugbe, O. O., Nicholson, G. D., & Cruickshank, J. K. (1991). Heart disease in blacks of Africa and the Caribbean. Cardiovascular clinics, 21(3), 377–391. Akinkugbe, O. O., & Ojo, O. A. (1969). Arterial pressures in rural and urban populations in Nigeria. British medical journal, 2(5651), 222. Akinkugbe, O. O., & Ojo, A. O. (1968). The systemic blood pressure in a rural Nigerian population. Tropical and geographical medicine, 20(4), 347–56. Akinkugbe, O. O., Lewis, E. A., Montefiore, D., & Okubadejo, O. A. (1968). Trimethoprim and sulphamethoxazole in typhoid. British Medical Journal, 3(5620), 721. Akinkugbe, O. O. (1978). Nephrology in the tropical setting. Nephron, 22(1–3), 249–252. Akinkugbe, O. O., Akinkugbe, F. M., Ayeni, O., Solomon, H., French, K., & Minear, R. (1977). Biracial study of arterial pressures in the first and second decades of life. British Medical Journal, 1(6069), 1132. Akinkugbe, O. O. (1968). The rarity of hypertensive retinopathy in the African. The American journal of medicine, 45(3), 401–404. Akinkugbe, O. O. (1996). The Nigerian hypertension programme. Journal of human hypertension, 10, S43-6.