A former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, UI, Professor Isaac Adewole has been conferred one of Japan’s highest national awards by His Majesty Emperor Naruhito, the monarch of Japan.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria, Mr Kikuta Yutaka, to the effect that Profesor Adewole is this year’s foreign recipient of the 2020 Spring Imperial Decorations.
According to Ambassador Yutaka, Professor Adewole will receive The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, one of the highest order awarded in the name of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, in recognition of his contributions towards strengthening bilateral relations between Japan and Nigeria, inter Alia, in health sector.
Adewole, who served as the Vice-Chancellor of University of Ibadan from 2010 to 2014, becomes only the second Nigerian to receive such Order from Japan, after Senator Udoma Udo Udoma who received it at the 2019 Autumn Imperial Decorations.
Ambassador Yukuta stressed further that Adewole’s contributions has yielded much positive impact on Nigeria’s healthcare system, which is of critical importance to the lives of Nigerian people.
He also noted that Adewole helped in reinforcing the Japan-Nigeria partnership in the area of health and the procurement of polio vaccines for the National Polio Immunisation Campaign for children under 5 years in Nigeria with support from the Japanese government.
“This action has kept Nigeria free of the wild polio virus since 2016. Again, during his ministerial position, Prof. Adewole made unrelenting effort to receive the approval of the Government of Japan in 2017 and 2018 to donate 48 fully equipped medical ambulances to the Ministry of Health of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“These ambulances were subsequently distributed to every state of the Federation as well as the FCT. Now with the outbreak of COVID- 19 pandemic in Nigeria, the services of these ambulances has become invaluable. For example, in Lagos State the ambulance has been used to resuscitate and transport COVID-19 patients to treatment centres,” Yukuta wrote.
He added that as the Minister of Health, Prof. Adewole led his ministry to play a fundamental role in establishing a partnership between the Embassy of Japan in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). This partnership has since resulted to extension of grants from the Government of Japan to the NCDC for establishment of NCDC’s disease diagnostic centres in Lagos and Abuja as well as donations and distribution of medical equipment to numerous NCDC’s reference laboratories in Nigeria.
“As the Minister of health, Prof. Adewole’ s efforts at improving Japan- Nigeria relationship in the area of health is not just restricted to the national level, but also at the local level. This is evidenced at his ministry’s presence in some GGP’s signing ceremonies that had to do with delivery of quality health care to rural communities in Nigeria,” Yutaka said.
