The Federal Government has appointed Prof. Olusegun Sylvester Ojo as the pioneer Chief Medical Director of the FUTA Teaching Hospital, Akure, Ondo State with effect from March 5, 2025. Up to now, Akure has been the only state capital in the country without a tertiary hospital.
Announcing the appointment along with those of five other Chief Medical Directors, President Tinubu’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, on Friday February 28, disclosed that the appointments are for four years, effective from the respective dates of assumption of office. According to him, President Tinubu congratulated the newly-appointed and reappointed Chief Medical Directors, urging them to uphold the highest standards of professionalism, accountability, and service delivery in their respective roles.
Presenting the letter of appointment in Abuja on Thursday (March 13), the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate also congratulated Prof. Ojo and urged him to ensure that the new Teaching Hospital fulfills the intents of Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu Government and the training needs of the College of Health Sciences of the Federal University of Technology (FUTA), Akure. Until his appointment, Prof. Ojo, was the Provost of the College.
A Professor of Pathology at the Obafemi Awolowo University College of Health Sciences in Ile Ife since 2001, Ojo is also a Consultant Histopathologist to the affiliated Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTHC) since 1990.
He obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, in 1983 and subsequently undertook Postgraduate Residency Training in Pathology, achieving the Fellowship of the Nigerian Postgraduate Medical College in Anatomical Pathology in 1989.
He also obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree in 2021. Since 1990, Ojo has maintained a research and clinical interest in the gastroenterology – study of liver diseases and the disorders of the digestive tract. He has been instrumental in establishing a collaborative network of researchers in this field in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, known as the Gastroenterological Society of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Additionally, he has served as the President of the Society for Gastroenterology in Nigeria (SOGHIN) and the Africa Middle East Association of Gastroenterology (AMAGE), a subsidiary of the World Gastroenterology Organization.
The don, who currently serves as the Chairman of the Faculty of Pathology at the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, is extensively published in Gastroenterology and Anatomical Pathology in international journals.
He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Tropical Pathology, the premier and foremost journal of pathology in Africa.
He authored “Essential Pathology for Clinical Students in the Tropics,” a standard undergraduate text on pathology.
