Professor Abimbola Olugbemiga Osoba (died on March 2, 2018 aged 83)
A more detailed obituary for Professor Osoba can be found in The Punch, Nigeria.
Born in 1934, Abimbola Osoba received his primary school education at St James' Primary School in Oke-Bola, later attending the Ibadan Grammar School before changing to CMS Grammar School in Lagos.
In 1953, he travelled to Ireland, where he studied at Trinity College Dublin earning a BA (1958) and an MA (1959) in microbiology, before moving north to Belfast to undertake a medical degree at Queen’s. He graduated in 1964 with an MB, BCh BAO and again in 1976 with an MD.
Returning to Nigeria in 1965 he took up an appointment as Senior Registrar in the Department of Medical Microbiology, UCH Ibadan. In 1978, after a further spell at Queen’s, he was appointed the first professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Ibadan, the oldest university in Nigeria.
Throughout an illustrious career, Abimbola Osoba held posts at the Royal Wolverhampton and Birmingham General Hospitals in the UK, the Armed Forces Hospital, and at the King Khalid National Guard Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He also enjoyed various international appointments with the World Health Organisation in Africa, India, and the US and in several other countries.
He wrote almost 300 scientific papers on infectious diseases and clinical microbiology and was a visiting professor at the John Hopkins, USA.
Abimbola Osoba is survived by his wife, Professor Nike Osoba nee Ashiru, and five children.
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