Eminent personalities, scholars, professionals present as Prof. Ojoawo celebrates golden birth anniversary
PanNigerianNews
8 min read
Eminent personalities, including scholars, engineers, other professionals, cllleagues, families and friends recently convereged on Jodeb Event Centre, adjacent Ayelowa Prayer Ministries, Ogbomoso, Oyo State to felicitate amazing Prof. Samson Olakunle Ojoawo as celebrates his golden birth anniversary.
The event, which immediately followed the 58th inaugural lecture of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, presented by Prof. Ojoawo, drew the creme de la creme of academics, engineering, administration, to mention just a few within Ogbomoso, Oyo and the country at large. His colleaques at different educational institutions, professional bodies, Christian bodies, alumni associations, traditional rulers and his parents – Deacon Samuel Olalere Ojoawo JP and Deacon Esther Olatorera Ojoawo JP as father and mother of the day resoectively.
Most importantly, the Soun of Ogbomosoland, Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye, Orumogege 111 was ably represented by some members of the Soun-in-Council. In attendance, also, were the Pro-Chancellor and Governing Council Chairman of LAUTECH, Professor Deji Omole; Vice Chancellor, Professor Rasaq Olatunde ROM Kalilu; members of the Council; Deans; Members of the Senate of LAUTECH, staffs of different organisations and institutions as well as students too numerous to mention.
Professor Samson Olakunle Ojoawo of the Deparrment of Civil Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso is a scholar and professional of Civil Engineering (Water Resources and Environmental Engineering) with fellowships and memberships of nan professional bodies.
After delivering the 58th inaugural lecture titled “Water Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink” at the Great Hall, LAUTECH, Ojoawo, together with his wife, Dr. Olubunmi Ojoawo, clad in flowing gown (agbada) expressed joy and thanks to God for creating and protecting him in different areas.
The feted Ojoawo told pannigeriannews.com that God’s grsce was sufficient for him in his journey of 50 years amidst many feats recorded, saying “There is no way I can reciprocate the avalanche of favours and supports I received from God, the Giver of life, and other accomplishements. I thank the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of LAUTECH Governing Council, Prof. Deji Omole; Vice Chancellor of LAUTECH, Prof. Rasaq Olatunde ROM Kalilu; members of Council; Members of Senate of LAUTECH; Deans at LAUTECH and other institutions; HODs at LAUTECH and other institutions; the royal fathers; religious bodies, among others.
“I thank my darling wife and lovely children; My father, Deacon Samuel Olalere Ojoawo JP and mother, Deacon Esther Olatorera Ojoawo JP; all our extended families; friends and all well wishers.
“I sincerely thank my wife and my children, my colleagues at both the departmental and faculty levels. The list is unending. Let me add that all of them made my day and I have not taken you for granted.”
Engr. Dn Prof. Ojoawo, a fellow of many professional bodies, including the Nigerian Society of Engineering (NSE) hailed from Tede, and was born on Monday July 1, 1974 into the family of Deacon Samuel Olalere Ojoawo and Deaconess Esther Olatorera Ojoawo of Osi Oba Onitede’s Compound, Tede, the headquarters of Atisbo Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria. The young and brilliant Olakunle completed his elementary education at Baptist Primary Day School Tede in 1984 as the Time Keeper Prefect, and then attended Progressive Secondary Grammar School Tede where he was the Senior Prefect Boy when he obtained his WASC in 1989, and was the overall Best Graduating Student. In 1991/92 academic session, he gained admission into the great Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso as part of the 2nd Set and completed his B.Tech degree programme in 1998, also as the Best Graduating Civil Engineering Student. He then proceeded to the University of Ibadan where he had his M.Sc degree in Civil Engineering in 2003, and he also bagged his PhD in Civil Engineering from there in the year 2010. In 2014, under the Indian’s Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP II) Scholarship, he was a 12-month Post-Doctoral Fellow at Department of Civil Engineering of the prestigious NMAM Institute of Technology Nitte, of the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum, Karnataka State, India. Having been appointed at LAUTECH Civil Engineering Department as a Graduate Assistant on December 28, 1998, through the grace of God and dint of hard work, he rose through the ranks to become a Professor of Civil Engineering effective from 1st October 2016. All through these uninterrupted 26 years in the University academic system, he has been imparting knowledge in Civil Engineering courses and related disciplines both at the Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels.
As of last count, Professor Ojoawo has authored (and co-authored) over eighty (80) publications in form of articles in learned journals, conference proceedings, monographs, chapters in books and books. According to Google Scholar as at the last check, he has 339 citations, h-index of 8 and i10-index of 8 while on ResearchGate his papers read stands at 33,897, he has 358.2 Research Interest Score; 279 Citations and h-index of 8. He has successfully supervised over 250 Bachelor’s degree and Postgraduate Diploma final year projects, and completed 11 Masters and Ph.D research theses supervision, while 5 others are on-going, all in Civil Engineering. His research activities centre on Water Resources and Environmental Engineering. He has studied the pollution levels and remediation measures to surface and groundwater resources, and wastewater systems extensively in Nigeria and abroad. He coordinated the establishment of a Mini-Environmental Laboratory in the Department, which is now functional for both undergraduate and certain postgraduate research activities. He has presented academic papers at nearly 30 International Conferences, Seminars and Workshops in continents like Africa, Asia and America. Particularly, he was a Speaker at the International Conference on Hydrology and Ground-water Expo, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A in 2012. In 2014, he was Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker at International Conference on Modeling, Optimization and Computing at N.I. University, Kumaracoil, Tamil Nadu State, India. Again in June 2023, he served as the Facilitator at Advanced Reservoir Engineering Training Workshop for Senior Staffers of Nigerian National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) held at Kigali, Rwanda. Just last week (June 24-28, 2024), he was one of the 3 Nominees of Oyo State Government that participated in the Capacity Building Workshop on Power Sector Regulation in Africa held at Accra, Ghana.
Prof. Ojoawo has served and still serving LAUTECH in several capacities at Departmental, Faculty and University levels. He was the Acting Head of Civil Engineering Department (2006-2008); a University Senate member (2006 – 2008, 2019 till date); and Departmental Postgraduate Programme Coordinator (2017). He was elected unopposed as the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology for two terms (2017/2018 and 2018/2019 Sessions); he was appointed as Acting Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology LAUTECH between April 1 and July 31, 2019. He was an elected University Senate Representative (also unopposed) at the Appointments and Promotion Committee (A & PC) between 2021 and 2023. He was appointed as the Chairman, University’s Projects Monitoring and Implementation Committee (2021 till date). His present schedules of professional duties involve monitoring and supervision of all the University construction projects at the Ogbomoso Main Campus and Iseyin Satellite Campus under development. In May 2024, he was elected by the University Senate and served as one of her two Representatives on the Governing Council’s Joint Selection Committee for the appointment of University Librarian.
As touching his contributions to National and International growth, he was Team Leader for the U.S.A’s Global Funds NGO Committee for Joint Programme on Malaria Commodity Storage Facilities Assessment and led the Team to visit the FCT Abuja, Cross –River, Akwa Ibom, Imo and Benue States of Nigeria (2010). He was the INEC Collation Officer at Iwajowa and Irepo LGAs of Oyo State for 2011 General Elections. He served as Supervisor of JAMB for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, (2009–2013). He has equally served and still serving as External Examiner and Promotion Assessor for Professorial Cadres in many Universities within and outside the country such as Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka State, India; University of Ibadan, Ibadan; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; University of Ilorin, Ilorin; University of Osun, Osogbo; Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti; Kwara State University, Malete; Ogun State University, Ago-Iwoye; Bells University of Technology, Ota; Landmark University, Omu-Aran; Adeleke University, Ede; among others. He is a Reviewer of some International Journals and he is current the Deputy Editor-in-Chief, LAUTECH Journal of Civil and Environmental Studies (LAUJOCES), an International Journal resident in the Civil Engineering Department, LAUTECH. He served as the Pioneer General Secretary for the Mother Chapter of LAUTECH Alumni Association in 2004 and subsequently elected and served as the Chairman of same Chapter in 2006.
In the Professional field, he became a Registered Engineer with Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) in 2004, and also a Registered Consultant with COREN in 2013. He is currently a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (FNSE), of the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers (FNICE), of the Nigerian Institution of Environmental Engineers (FNIEE) and an Associate Member of American Society of Civil Engineers (AMASCE). As an accomplished Registered Civil Engineering Consultant with COREN who has been involved in the engineering design, construction/supervision and monitoring of over one hundred (100) public and private functional infrastructures within and outside Nigeria. He served as the Pioneer General Secretary of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) Ogbomoso Branch (2015-2016), he is the current serving Chairman of the NSE Ogbomoso Branch for 2023/2025 tenure and a member of NSE National Council, the very first LAUTECH Alumnus to occupy the exalted position in the Branch. On other Community Services, he is an ordained Deacon of the Nigerian Baptist Convention at Mercyland Baptist Church Ogbomoso, a Board Member of Salako Maven Foundation, and a member of the Rotary Club International. He is serving as the Secretary to the Governing Council of the LAUTECH Interdenominational Chapel/LAUTECH Christian Community (2023 till date).
Professor Ojoawo has won many academic and professional awards locally and internationally. He won the Commendation Award of Exemplary Dedication by Kano State N.Y.S.C. 1997/1998, Batch A, in the area of Corps Liaison Officer [C.L.O.] in 1998. He had his Post-Doctoral Fellowship through Indian’s Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme, TEQIP-II Scholarship Award in 2014; he won the Best Paper Award, International Journal of Civil Engineering, International Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, IASET Global Research Forum, U.S.A in 2014, and also won TETFUND-Institution Based Research Grant of Federal Government of Nigeria in 2016. He was the Day 27 of 31 awardee, Inside LAUTECH Media’s 31 Days of Ovation Recognition, in celebrating LECTURERS who are Heroes in the classroom tagged ‘A standing Ovation for being a Lecturer per excellence, a model worthy of emulation and a father figure to his student’ in the year 2021. Again he won the Best Research Paper Presentation Award at the International Conference on Civil Engineering Trends and Challenges for Sustainability, (CTCS-2022, Virtual), Nitte, India, NMAM Institute of Technology, of the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum, India in 2022, among many others.
Engr. Professor Samson Olakunle Ojoawo’s hobbies include Public Oratory, traveling, and listening to music. He is happily married to his amiable and beautiful wife Dr. Mrs. Olubunmi Titilayo Ojoawo, RAS, MNIAS also an academic staff in the Department of Animal Production and Health, LAUTECH and an ordained Deaconess of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, and they are blessed with three lovely children: James, Rosemary and Sharon.
