Invitation to the 592nd Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan
The 592nd Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan will be delivered by Professor Olayinka Olusola Omigbodun, FAS (CoMUI Alumna, MBBS Class of 1985), on behalf of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences in the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.
The general public is invited to the 592nd Inaugural Lecture to be delivered by Professor Olayinka O. Omigbodun, FAS of the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.
The details of the event are given below:
Theme: Our Children’s Mental Health, Our Nation’s Wealth!
Date: Thursday, 11 September 2025
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Venue: Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan
You can also join virtually using the details below:
YouTube: Click here
Zoom: Click here
Meeting ID: 852 0253 4241
Passcode: INAUGURAL
Thank you.
BIODATA OF PROFESSOR OLAYINKA OLUSOLA OMIGBODUN FAS, FNAMed, FAMedS
Professor Olayinka Olusola Omigbodun was born on 11 February 1963 at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, a place that would later become central to her entire academic and professional life. Her father was Lieutenant Colonel Victor Adebukunola Banjo, the Commanding Officer of the Apapa Infantry Division and the first Nigerian Director of the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Corps of the Army. He hailed from Ijebu-Ode. Professor Omigbodun’s mother, Mrs Taiwo Joyce Banjo, née George, was a Creole from Kissy, Freetown, Sierra Leone; she was also a descendant of freed slaves, whose birth certificate records her ancestry as father’s race, Ijesa, and mother’s race, Igbo.
Professor Omigbodun started nursery education at Adrao International School, Victoria Island, Lagos, but the turbulence of the Nigerian Civil War and other difficult circumstances forced her mother to leave the country with her children and return to her homeland. Professor Omigbodun spent her early childhood outside Nigeria, attending Holy Rosary Primary School, Kenema, and St Anne’s Primary School in Freetown. When the family returned to Nigeria after the war, she completed her primary education at the Staff School, University of Ibadan, and entered St Louis Grammar School, Ibadan in 1973 for her secondary education. Professor Omigbodun excelled all round, as she was an athlete at school, winning the 100 metres final in her final year. She also represented the Ibadan/Ibarapa zone in the 200 metres women’s race at the Oyo State level. She also learnt how to play the piano and guitar. Apart from being a member of the school choir, she joined the University of Ibadan Music Circle (along with her music teacher, Sister Galgani) while she was in secondary school. In her final year, when she was Assistant Head Girl, she received the Character and Service Award, a prize awarded by the Ibadan Catholic Diocese to the most outstanding student in character and service. She moved to the International School, Ibadan for her Advanced Levels and from there she gained admission to study Medicine at the University of Ibadan in 1980. She graduated MBBS in 1985, winning the prize in Physiology.
Following her internship at the University College Hospital in 1986 and her National Youth Service Corps year, where she gained direct exposure to psychiatry, she chose psychiatry as her professional calling, with a particular interest in the child and adolescent mental health subspecialty. She began residency training in psychiatry at the University College Hospital, Ibadan in 1987. Between 1990 and 1992, she trained at the Lancaster Moor Hospital, Lancaster, and the Queen’s Park Hospital, Blackburn, in the United Kingdom. During her time in the United Kingdom, she was able to complete her dissertations, and, in 1991, she returned to Nigeria to sit for the final examinations of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and the West African College of Physicians, obtaining the fellowship of both colleges. She also earned a Diploma in Psychiatry from the Victorian University of Manchester in 1992.
In 1993, she travelled to the United States of America with her family and trained in psychotherapy at the Department of Family Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. She was also a visiting scholar at the Bipolar Research Unit of the same institution from 1993 to 1996. She returned to Nigeria in January 1997 and was appointed Lecturer Grade One in the Department of Psychiatry in March 1997.
In 1998, she won the competitive British Chevening Scholarship and returned to the United Kingdom to study for a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds. She graduated in 1999 with a distinction, winning the John Griffiths Prize for outstanding performance. Her dissertation, Integrating Mental Health into Primary Health Care in Nigeria with Clearly Defined Roles for Psychiatric Hospitals: Developing a Pilot Project for Ibadan, obtained the award for the best dissertation of the year and was described by her examiners as the best in recent years. She returned to the University of Ibadan in 1999, combining teaching, research, and clinical work. In 2004, with support from the University of Ibadan’s MacArthur Foundation Staff Development Programme, she undertook further training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Greenwood Institute for Child Health, University of Leicester, United Kingdom.
In 1999, she established a clinic dedicated to children and adolescents with mental health concerns at the University College Hospital, Ibadan. From one clinic, this service expanded into three specialised clinics, a day care centre, an in-patient ward, and liaison services to other departments. This evolved into the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit and later into the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the first of its kind in any teaching hospital in Nigeria. As the pioneer head of department, she laid the foundation for a sustainable subspecialty within Nigerian psychiatry, inspiring many younger doctors to train in this field. She initiated outreach programmes such as mental health care at the Ibadan Remand Home, needs assessments and teacher training in schools across Oyo State, as well as partnerships with the SOS Children’s Village in Owu-Ijebu and the Ibadan School for Children with Disabilities.
Professor Omigbodun’s participation in teaching at the university level dates to 1988, when as a resident doctor, she taught medical students. Since then, she has participated in teaching at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the department. She won the Favourite Lecturer Award for the 2001/2002 Session, presented by the University of Ibadan Medical Students, at the 39th UIMSA Health Week Award Ceremony, August 2003.
She rose through the academic ranks and on 1 October 2008, Professor Omigbodun was promoted Professor of Psychiatry, becoming the first woman in Nigeria to achieve that distinction.
In 2011, she founded the Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CCAMH) at the University of Ibadan, with a US$950,000 Higher Education grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and was Director from 2011 to 2020. This was the first multidisciplinary centre of its kind in Africa, offering diploma, master’s, and doctoral programmes in child and adolescent mental health, delivered by a multiprofessional faculty to a multidisciplinary group of students. The centre has attracted more than 200 students from fourteen African countries. CCAMH has become a continental hub, multiplying her vision across borders.
Her research activities have been consistently innovative, covering subjects such as suicidal behaviour among adolescents, school mental health, maternal depression, autism spectrum disorders, female genital mutilation and its consequences, and the mental health implications of urbanisation. She has conducted controlled trials of school-based psychosocial interventions, including culturally adapted cognitive behavioural therapy, proving their effectiveness in low-resource settings. Her work has attracted significant funding. Over the past five years alone, she has led projects worth over six million dollars, including ACCELERATE (Global Challenges Research Fund Accelerating Achievement for Africa's Adolescents Hub), iCARE (Intensive Combination Approach to Rollback the Epidemic in Nigerian Adolescents), SUCCEED Africa (Support, Comprehensive Care and Empowerment for people with psychosocial Disability in Africa), TRANSFORM (Transforming Access to Care for Serious Mental Disorder in Slums), ARISE&WIN (Advancing Resiliency in Self-Employed Women in Nigeria), SHINE (Supporting Healthy LivIng and Nutrition in School-Age Adolescents) and WEALTH (Women dErive mAthematical modeLs for menTal Health). These projects have been providing inclusive support and empowerment for vulnerable groups in low-income households.
Her service to the University of Ibadan and the University College Hospital has been consistent and intentional. She has served on the university’s Senate since 2008. For over two decades she provided mental health care to staff and students at the University Health Service (Jaja Clinic). She was Head of Psychiatry from 2015 to 2019. In July 2020, she was elected the twelfth and first female Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. During her time as Provost, she steered the College with energy and vision and sustained its ranking as the best medical school in Nigeria and among the top five in Africa.
She spearheaded alumni mobilisation worldwide, working in partnership with the leadership of the Ibadan College of Medicine Alumni Association (ICOMAA) Worldwide. She facilitated the opening of new chapters and a global fundraising drive. This resulted in the Student Hostel Building Project, which will add 664 new bed spaces across six blocks of residence on the UCH campus. She also initiated the Global Sponsor-A-Student Programme (GSASP). By the time she left office, the programme had raised over ₦118,050,600 (USD 78,700) and was providing partial and full scholarships (covering tuition, health levies, accommodation, and upkeep) to 173 students.
Under the new leadership of the College, GSASP and ICOMAA Worldwide, GSASP has continued to grow significantly, now raising over ₦260,102,184.38 (USD 173,400) and supporting 269 students. These initiatives, supported primarily by alumni, have transformed the academic and social environment of the College.
She was recognised internationally early in her career. She was a recipient of the World Psychiatry Association Section on Mental Health Economics Scholarship, the Donald Cohen Fellowship of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists and Allied Professions (IACAPAP) in 2004, and in 2005, she was named the first Presidential Fellow of IACAPAP. In 2010, at the Beijing Congress, she was elected President, the first African to hold the office in the organisation’s history of more than eighty years. She served until 2014. She co-led IACAPAP study groups in Nairobi and Abuja in 2007 and 2009, with Professor Brian Robertson of the University of Cape Town, which gave rise to the African Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, where she served as Foundation President from 2008 to 2014. In 2012, she inspired the creation of the Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions in Nigeria, where she remains a trustee. She was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Association for Women’s Mental Health in 2011 and appointed a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health, Commissioner and Member, International Advisory Board for The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, and Member, Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health.
She has worked with the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the Mental Health Gap Action (mhGAP) intervention guide and facilitated training to several locations, including Asmara, Eritrea. She was a member of the WHO Committee on revisions of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry aspects of the International Classification for Diseases (ICD-11), and on global reviews of maternal and child mental health and the psychological consequences of female genital mutilation. She has also worked with UNICEF on child and adolescent mental health.
She has delivered at least thirty-six named lectures and keynotes at major international conferences and workshops between 2005 and 2025 in places such as Beijing, China; Athens, Greece; Steyning, United Kingdom; New York, United States of America; Helsinki, Finland; Windhoek, Namibia; Lisbon, Portugal; Karachi, Pakistan; Mexico City, Mexico; Arusha, Tanzania; Vancouver, Canada; Taipei, Taiwan; Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe; Madrid, Spain; Yokohama, Japan; Melbourne, Australia; Basel, Switzerland; Berlin, Germany; Nairobi, Kenya; Cairo, Egypt; and Calgary, Canada.
She served as Congress President at the 20th Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP) in Paris, France, from July 21 to 25, 2012, and at the 21st Congress in Durban, South Africa, from August 11 to 15, 2014.
She also served as Coordinator of Courses in the Faculty of Psychiatry in the West African College of Physicians (WACP) from 2016 to 2020, and Revision Course Coordinator from 2005 to 2020 in the same faculty. She was Chief Examiner in the Faculty of Psychiatry for WACP from 2012 to 2016. She led the development of the curriculum for subspecialty training in child and adolescent psychiatry for the National Postgraduate Medicine College of Nigeria in 2021 and worked for the accreditation of UCH, Ibadan, for training in child and adolescent psychiatry, the first site to be accredited in Nigeria. She also prepared and presented the first two candidates for subspecialty training in CAP in Nigeria. She is presently the Chairperson of the WACP Nigeria Chapter Continuing Medical Education (CME) Committee. She was selected by the Faculty of Psychiatry in the WACP to deliver both the prestigious Sir Samuel Manuwa Lecture in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2012 and the Professor John Oluyemi Mabayoje College Lecture in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 2019.
She has supervised 17 dissertations submitted to the West African Postgraduate Medical College in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the fellowship of the WACP in the Faculty of Psychiatry, and 4 dissertations submitted to the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria in the Faculty of Psychiatry in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the fellowship of the College. She has supervised 98 Research Projects submitted to the Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University of Ibadan (CCAMH), in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Master of Child and Adolescent Mental Health (MSc. CAMH).
She has also received several distinguished awards, including recognition as one of the Top 8 Finalists for the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize 2024 for her pioneering work in child and adolescent mental health, the 2023 Innovative Research, Training or Practice in LMICs Award from the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (UK) conferred on CCAMH under her leadership, the 2020 International Contribution Award at the 24th World Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP) for her outstanding promotion of child and adolescent psychiatry in the developing world, and the 2019 Leadership in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Award from the African Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (AACAMH).
She is currently supervising four doctoral students, two at the University of Warwick as part of the TRANSFORM grant and two in CCAMH, UI including one as a part of the African Mental Health Research Initiative II (AMARI-II) West Africa Hub. Professor Omigbodun is a Fellow of the Nigeria Academy of Science, and a foundation fellow in both the Nigerian Academy of Medicine (2020) and the Academy of Medical Sciences of Nigeria (2021). She is the Chairman of the Being Scientific and Strategy Advisory Board, Science for Africa (SFA) Foundation (2024–2026); a member of the International Science Council (ISC) Youth Mental Health Project (2024–2026); and a member of the Advisory Committee, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute (2023–2025).
She has published more than 160 scholarly papers and book chapters, covering all aspects of mental health, especially pertaining to children and adolescents. Her 2008 paper on suicidal behaviour among Nigerian adolescents remains a landmark study, widely cited across the world. She has over 14,000 citations and an h-index of 40 on Google Scholar as of August 2025.
Professor Omigbodun is married to Professor Akinyinka Omokolapo Omigbodun, an obstetrician and gynaecologist and the 8th Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. They are blessed with children, Dr Akinyinka OreOluwa Omigbodun and Drs Kwabena Poku and Iyeyinka AanuOluwahan Kusi-Mensah, with SomNyame Ogoyinka. Professor Omigbodun enjoys music, singing, and playing the guitar. She leads the children’s choir in her church, where she serves as the Superintendent of the Children’s Ministry.
