By Abubakar Imam
Thursday, June 5, 2025 wouldn’t be an ordinary day in Ilorin. It is going to be a day like no other. This anticipation is premised on a series of events scheduled to coincide with the date.
While Muslims in Ilorin and other parts of the world would be engaging in various spiritual acts and preparing for the Eid-el-Kabir festival, a great daughter of Ilorin and Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (KWSPHCDA), Ilorin, Prof. Nusirat Elelu, would be delivering her Inaugural Lecture at the University of Ilorin right inside the institution’s expansive Auditorium.
The Inaugural Lecture, which is titled “The Public Health Veterinarian Through Ticks, Snails and Community Service”, would be the 283rd in the series that started on February 15, 1979. This particular Inaugural Lecture, like many others, will certainly bring the town and the gown together.
Without an iota of grandstanding, Prof. Elelu’s lecture would be positively unusual. It is going to be an amalgamation of varied experiences garnered from the classroom, laboratory and the real world of public health.
The lecture is the first to be delivered from the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine of the University. It is also the third from the entire Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. She is only preceded by a former Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Suleiman Folorunso Ambali, and its current Dean, Prof. Oyebisi Mistura Azeez.
So many Professors of Ilorin Emirate origin in the services of the University of Ilorin have at one time or the other delivered Inaugural Lectures on different issues. I should believe that “the late Magaji of the Ilorin community at the University”, Prof. Shehu Ahmad Jimoh, OON, was the first indigene of the University’s host community that delivered the Inaugural Lecture. He did a few weeks before his retirement from the services of the University, which he earlier joined in 1978. Prof. Ibraheem Adeola Katibi also delivered his at the University over a decade ago.
The second Vice Chancellor of the Kwara State University, Malete, Prof. Muhammad Mustapha Akanbi, SAN, also delivered a thought-provocking Inaugural Lecture at the University. I was also part of the one ably delivered by the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the Kwara State University of Education, Ilorin, Prof. Medinat Folorunso Salman. I also witnessed the one delivered by Prof. Sulyman Alege Kuranga.
I equally attended that of Prof. Suleiman Funsho Ambali, the University’s immediate past Deputy Vice Chancellor (Management Services). I was also seated when the current Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Nimah Modupe AbdulRaheem, delivered hers.
Yours sincerely also graced that of Prof. AbdulRazzaq AbdulMajeed Alaro, mni. It was the same when Prof. Aishatu Ahmed Gobir delivered hers. I also remember being a member of the audience when the Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences, Prof. Baba Abdullahi Alafara, mounted the podium to deliver his. Prof. Abdulfatai Sambo’s Inaugural Lecture was also delivered in my presence just as that of Prof. Abdulrasaq Owolabi Abdulkadir, which was the last delivered by a Professor of Ilorin Emirate at the nation’s most sought-after University, among others.
In shaa Allahu, the next Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ilorin that would be delivered by Prof. Nusirat Elelu, a proud daughter of Ilorin, would also be graced by yours sincerely. It is an act of patriotism as I need to be there to join other relations, friends, students and colleagues and well-wishers in giving Prof. Elelu all the support she requires.
Prof. Elelu’s Inaugural Lecture would certainly rank among those delivered by young Professors in the annals of the University (at least by date of promotion). This is because she was just elevated to the prestigious rank last year.
She may be relatively new in the professorial rank but her experience in the field of veterinary medicine is gagartuan and intimidating and worth-sharing. Her lecture would be intellectually-exciting and professionally-stimulating. It is going to be a very rich excursion into her experience as a veterinary doctor and as a teacher of veterinary medicine at the University of Ilorin and elsewhere.
The event, which would be presided over by the hardworking Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, would also attract the presence of the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, CON, the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, CFR; and the founder of the Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Chief AbdulRaheem Oladimeji, OFR. I am also sure that the Balogun Alanamu of Ilorin, who is also an Associate Professor at the University’s Department of Mathematics, Dr Usman Atolagbe Akanbi-Jos, would also be there in honour of “an Ilorin woman who totally belongs to Alanamu Quarters”.
The National President of Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU), Alhaji Abdulmumini Ayo Abdulmalik, is prepared to lead other indigenes of the southernmost emirate from far and near to the event. The Union has always done this to solidarise, identify and associate with Inaugural Lecturers from the Emirate, particularly at the University of Ilorin and Kwara State University, Malete.
I am also sure of the overwhelming presence of the leadership and members of the newly-formed Ilorin Women Association (IWA). The Inaugural Lecture is going to be the first of such a programme by an Ilorin woman and a member of IWA since its formation last year.
We all need to be there to encourage one of us. We need to be there to tell the rest of the world that our women are our pride.
Born on Sunday, April 6,1980 to parents who are indigenes of Ilorin, Prof. Elelu attended the Command Children School, Bauchi, from 1987 to 1991. She was also educated at the Federal Government Girls’ College, Bauchi, between 1991 and 1997.
In 1997, she was admitted into the University of Maiduguri, Borno State, for her first degree in Veterinary Medicine, which she successfully completed with Distinction and subsequent induction as a Veterinary Doctor in 2005.
Prof. Elelu was further trained at the University of Ibadan from where she earned her Master’s degree in Public Health with specialisation in Field Epidemiology. She earned a Ph. D. in Epidemiology from the prestigious University of Bristol, United Kingdom in 2016.
Prof. Elelu equally attended the School of Health, Sports and Bioscience, University of East London, United Kingdom, for her postdoctoral training and as a visiting lecturer between 2017 and 2019. She was also awarded the highest professional qualification in Veterinary Medicine as a Fellow in Public Health Specialty by the College of Veterinary Surgeons of Nigeria (FCVSN).
This Inaugural Lecturer is also an alumnus of the prestigious Harvard School of Public Health, USA, as well as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom.
Prof. Elelu’s professional journey began as a member of the National Youth Service Corps at Guards Brigade Clinic, Presidency in 2005 where her excellent service delivery earned her the prestigious NYSC Honours Award. She later joined NUDAMS Consult Limited as a researcher before taking up a role as Assistant National Project Coordinator at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. She was a laboratory teaching and postgraduate Note-Taker at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, between 2012 and 2016.
This Inaugural Lecturer transitioned into the academic profession when she joined the services of the University of Ilorin in 2010 as a Lecturer II. She rose through the ranks and was ultimately promoted to her present status in 2024.
In 2020, she was appointed as the Executive Secretary of the KWSPHCDA by His Excellency, the Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, CON. She has since been recording substantial positive impacts to the benefit of the government and the good people of Kwara State.
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As Prof. Elelu prepares to deliver her groundbreaking Inaugural Lecture, I wish her a very fascinating and positively memorable event.
Imam is National Secretary, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union.
