KEY POINTS

• Professor Hakeem Fawehinmi assumes full leadership after months of interim oversight.

• The council extends the acting VC’s tenure until February 2026 to maintain stability.

• Professor Hakeem Fawehinmi brings a strong academic and administrative record to the role.

After months of temporary administration and political squabbling over the top position, the University of Abuja, which was recently renamed Yakubu Gowon University, has appointed Professor Hakeem Fawehinmi as its next substantive vice chancellor, bringing stability to the institution’s leadership.

Professor Hakeem Fawehinmi takes office

Habib Yakoob, the acting head of information for the organization, said in a statement that the governing council made the announcement during its 80th special meeting on Friday. The appointment has a single five-year term and starts on February 10, 2026.

Fawehinmi comes with a decades-long academic background in Nigeria’s medical and scientific sector and is currently the head of the Nigerian British University. His appointment puts an end to a protracted period during which the university depended on acting VCs chosen by the federal government in the wake of controversy surrounding the appointment of former VC Aisha Maikudi. Decision-making across important campus units became more difficult during those weeks of uncertainty, and several administrative tasks were put on hold.

The council has given Professor Mathew Adamu, the acting vice chancellor, an extension till February 10, 2026, as Fawehinmi gets ready to take over next year. Since taking up the position in August 2025, Adamu has guided the organization through a difficult transition.

Fawehinmi spent a large portion of his academic career at the University of Port Harcourt, where he taught clinical anatomy and biological anthropology. From 2005 to 2009, he led the anatomy department twice before becoming assistant dean and then dean of the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences. From 2016 to 2020, he served two terms as deputy vice chancellor (academic). Throughout the university system, he has served on numerous committees and on statutory boards.

Transition focuses on Professor Hakeem Fawehinmi

In addition, he has held important positions in professional associations, such as secretary-general and member of the Nigerian Medical Association’s national executive council in Rivers State. From 2014 to 2016, he headed the Society of Experimental and Clinical Anatomists of Nigeria and was the lead editor of the Journal of Anatomical Sciences.

Accordign to Punch, He has a federal patent for his AMRG anthropometry chair, a tool created for dimensional body measurements, Fawehinmi has drawn lucrative research funds both domestically and internationally. In addition to his numerous academic and community honors, he is a fellow of the Academy of Medicine Specialties of Nigeria and the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.