NOBEL LAUREATE, WOLE SOYINKA LOSES YOUNGER BROTHER

NOBEL LAUREATE, WOLE SOYINKA LOSES YOUNGER BROTHER

 

Professor Femi Soyinka, the younger brother of Wole Soyinka, Professor of comparative literature and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, is dead.

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka loses younger brother He was a prominent scholar and one-time Provost in the College of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

Professor Femi was reported to have passed on in the early hours of Tuesday at his homestead in Ibadan, Oyo State, by his family.

At the time of his death, he was 85 years old.

Born in 1937, the deceased had a Medical degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Heidelberg in 1964, and a Doctor of Medicine from the same University in 1965. He was a specialist and practising Dermatologist, Venereologist and Allergeologist at the University of Giessen in 1969.

In 1972, he obtained a Master of Public Health degree from Hadassah Medical School, Israel.

He worked for 30 years in academia, holding various positions. He was also involved in extensive research on Tropical Skin Diseases and Sexually Transmitted Infections, in collaboration with the Federal Government and international agencies.

“In Nigeria, he started the Ambassadors of Hope program, which encourages people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) to come out, raising much-needed public awareness about the disease at a time when information was low and stigma was strong.”

He also displayed technical expertise and was active in HIV/AIDS-related programs in Nigeria, such as HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and support, mother-to-child transmission prevention, ARV programs, voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), and home-based care for PLWHAs.

“Through his non-governmental organization, New Initiative for the Enhancement of Life and Health (NELAH), previously known as Network on Ethics/Human Rights, Law, HIV/AIDS-Prevention, Support, and Care, he greatly contributed to the capacity – the building of indigenous organizations across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones” (NELA).

He was the former president of the Society for AIDS in Africa, and in 2005 he managed the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) in Abuja, Nigeria.

He is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Burial arrangements are yet to be announced by the family.