1) Obafemi Awolowo University is formerly known as University of Ife
2) University Of Ife was renamed to Obafemi Awolowo University on 12 May 1987 in honour of Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1909–1987
3) The first financial grant provided for the takeoff of the university was £250,000 from the Western regional governmen
4) On September 22, 1962, OAU was opened to 244 pioneer students at its temporary facilities, the previous college of arts and sciences, Ibadan
5)Oladele Ajose, was nominated as the first Vice-Chancellor of the university and the university began with five faculties:Agriculture, Arts, Economics and Social Studies, Law, and Science.
6) In February 1966, Lt-Col Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, the first Military Governor of the Western Region, appointed Hezekiah Oluwasanmi as the new Vice-Chancellor, and Chief TT Solaru as the pro-chancellor and gave them money and marching orders, to relocate to the permanent campus by October 1966
7) Fajuyi was killed in the military mutiny of July 1966 at Ibadan, and did not witness the movement he orchestrated. Fajuyi Hall, a residential hall for undergraduate male students was named to honor his contributions in perpetuity.
8) Movement to its new campus at Ile-Ife began in January 1967
9)OAU started the first Faculty of Pharmacy in West Africa, the first Department of Chemical Engineering and the first Electronics component in addition to Electrical Engineering
10) In 1975, a new military government effected decrees making University of Ife a federal university
11) The first vice-chancellor of the new university was Professor Oladele Ajose (MD, PhD) a Glasgow University graduate and Nigeria’s first professor of public health recruited from the University of Ibadan ..He served from 1962 to 1966, until political upheavals and military coups led him to be replaced
12) On 10 July 1999 members of the Black Axe Confraternity murdered the secretary-general of the students’ union, George Iwilade, and several other student activists in the Obafemi Awolowo University massacre.
13.The first structure completed in January 1967 are three blocks of four floors each named the Humanities building, these blocks have interconnected walkways to the other faculties within the quad
14) OAU has 9 halls of residence include:Awolowo Hall , Angola Hall , Alumni Hall ,ETF Hall ,Fajuyi Hall , Ladoke Akintola Hall , Moremi Hall , Mozambique Hall , Murtala Muhammed Hall
15.) Nigeria’s only Nobel prize-winner (in literature) and the first African laureate, Wole Soyinka, served as professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Ife from 1975 to 1999.
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