Erudite Sociology Professor Olurode turns 69 today

A renowned professor of Sociology and astute lecturer, Olayiwola Olurode, has turned 69. He was born in Iwo, Osun State, on November 2, 1952.

Olurode, a former national commissioner of Independent National Electoral Commission, had his primary and secondary education in Iwo; obtained his first and masters’ degrees from the University of Lagos.

After his first degree and being the best graduating student of his set in 1979, he got an automatic employment as a graduate assistant in August 1980 at the University of Lagos.

Olurode obtained his doctorate degree in Philosophy from the University of Sussex, Britain, in 1985.

In 1986, Prof. Olurode returned to the lecture halls, this time for a degree in Law at the University of Lagos. He graduated in 1990 with an LL.B and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1991 after completing the Law School Programme bagging a BL degree.

In 1990, Prof Olurode was promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer and in the year 2000, he was appointed a professor of Sociology specializing in political sociology, gender and social inequality.

He had been head of Sociology Department and later Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the UNILAG.

He was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan as a National Commissioner into the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2010.

Olurode is an author of several publications, a regular face on television and commentator on national and international issues.

He is the Chairman of the University of Lagos Muslim Community and proprietor of The Wings Schools in Iwo.

He is a member of many professional organisations such as Nigerian Sociological and Anthropological Association, Social Science Council of Nigeria, African Association of Political Science and Nigerian Bar Association.

Olurode is a winner of the Commonwealth Scholarship in 1981-1984, the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award in 2007, In 1994, he won the Distinguished Leadership Award of the America Biographical Institute.

He has consulted for the World Bank, the Ford Foundation and CODESRIA.

A social critic, he is an advocate of political restructuring, social justice, power devolution and political inclusiveness.