“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.”
After a year of celebration, the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex (OAUTHC), Ile-Ife, closed its 50th anniversary on Thursday, 5th November, 2026, with a colourful grand finale. The event honoured five decades of healthcare delivery, medical education, research and service to humanity.
The hospital turned 50 on 1st November, 2025. Over the year, it marked the milestone with the unveiling of an anniversary logo, a press briefing, indoor and outdoor games, football competitions, a staff medical in-reach, musical auditions and a career talk for senior secondary school students in Ile-Ife.
A Weekend of Celebration
Chairperson of the OAUTHC@50 Planning Committee, Prof. Macellina Ijadunola, thanked the hospital management, committee members and staff for making the celebration a success. She outlined the finale programme: a thanksgiving service, Walk for Life, trade fair, raffle draw, radio programme, medical check-up and novelty football match. She also reaffirmed the hospital’s reputation as a centre of excellence in cardiac and renal care.
Voices from the Podium
The Chairman of the Day, Chief (Dr.) John Agboola Odeyemi, MFR, urged guests to live purposefully and serve others. He described OAUTHC as a source of pride in healthcare and human development, credited its achievements to its workforce, and stressed the importance of personal health.
The Special Guest, former Deputy Governor of Osun State, Otunba (Sen.) Christopher Iyiola Omisore, CON, praised the management’s integrity and commitment to institutional growth. He pledged continued support through meaningful partnerships, calling education and healthcare drivers of societal development.
Royal fathers also sent goodwill messages. The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, was represented by the Obalufe of Ife, Oba Idowu Adediwura, who urged management and staff to sustain excellence and quality care. The Owa Obokun Adimula of Ijesaland, Oba Clement Adesuyi Haastrup, was represented by his Chief of Staff, Barrister (Lady) Dupe Ajayi Gbadebo. She acknowledged the hospital’s contribution to healthcare in Ijesaland and said the people were ready to deepen their collaboration with it.
Fifty Years in Numbers
In his anniversary address, the Chief Medical Director, Prof. John Okeniyi, described the jubilee as a celebration of fifty years of healing, teaching and research. He thanked the individuals and institutions that helped build the hospital and reaffirmed integrity as its guiding principle.
He highlighted several milestones:
- 2002: the first fully indigenous kidney transplant in a Nigerian public hospital
- 2004: Nigeria’s first tissue-typing laboratory
- 2025: 187,037 patients attended to
- Specialist care: paediatric open-heart surgery, gynaecological oncology and hepato-biliary surgery, among others
- Fistula repair: 137 women treated at Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa
- Infrastructure: 115 piped oxygen outlets, and solar-powered electricity for theatres and intensive care units
- Free treatment: a programme for patients with blood malignancies and lymphomas
- Training: 26 fully accredited programmes in specialist medical and dental fields, nursing, health information management and community health
Prof. Okeniyi credited these achievements to the combined efforts of all categories of staff. He appealed to partners and well-wishers to support dialysis for indigent patients, the training of nephrologists and the completion of ongoing projects.
Keynote: Measuring Healthcare by Its Impact on People
The keynote address was delivered on behalf of the Special Guest of Honour, Mr. Seyi Tinubu, by Chairman of Grassroots Mobilisation for Tinubu–Shettima Continuity 2027, Alhaji Lawal Isiyaku Umar. He congratulated OAUTHC on its anniversary and on the relaunch of its Renal Replacement Programme.
The address argued that healthcare success should be judged by people’s access to affordable, quality care rather than by policies and buildings. It listed reforms in primary healthcare, insurance, maternal and child health, immunisation, emergency and specialist services, workforce development and local pharmaceutical production. It also acknowledged challenges: high treatment costs, unequal distribution of facilities and personnel, health-worker migration, inadequate power, water and medicines, preventable maternal deaths and declining public confidence. Real success, it said, is measured in lives protected, families spared financial hardship, children immunised and mothers surviving childbirth.
Honours and Commissioning
Eight friends and benefactors were honoured for their support of the hospital:
- Chief (Dr.) John Agboola Odeyemi, MFR
- Otunba (Sen.) Christopher Iyiola Omisore, CON
- The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, CFR, Ojaja II
- Mr. Matthew Olusanya Gbonjubola, FCA
- Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi
- Alhaji (Chief) Lateef Akande Bakare, FCA
- Mr. Olakanmi Rasheed Sarumi
- Pastor Enoch and Pastor (Mrs.) Folu Adeboye, through His Love Foundation of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, for the Enoch and Folu Adeboye Dialysis Centre at Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa
The day’s highlight was the unveiling and commissioning of the Renewed Renal Facilities, followed by a guided tour of selected hospital facilities. Chief Odeyemi also commissioned the renovated Emergency Medicine Department, which his donation made possible.
As OAUTHC begins its next chapter, its Golden Jubilee stands as a testament to a legacy of excellence, resilience and innovation, and to a hospital that intends to achieve even more in the years ahead.
