obituary
org
Oladipo Olujimi
Akinkugbe, DPhil, FRCP,
CON, CFR, FAS (1933–2020)
Rasheed A. Balogun1,
Fatiu A. Arogundade2,
Joyce Popoola3,
Ebun L. Bamgboye4 and
Solomon Kadiri5
1
Department of Medicine,
Division of Nephrology,
University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, Virginia;
2
Department of Medicine,
Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria;
3
Department of Nephrology
and Transplantation, St
George’s University Hospitals
NHS Foundation Trust, London,
UK; 4Saint Nicholas Hospital,
Lagos, Nigeria; and
5
Department of Medicine,
University of Ibadan, Ibadan,
Oyo State, Nigeria
Correspondence: Rasheed A.
Balogun, Division of
Nephrology, University of
Virginia School of Medicine,
Apheresis Unit & Extracorporeal
Therapies, Division of
Nephrology, P O Box 800133,
University of Virginia Health
System, Charlottesville, Virginia
22908, USA. E-mail: rb8mh@
virginia.edu
800
In memoriam: emeritus professor
Oladipo Olujimi Akinkugbe, DPhil, FRCP,
CON, CFR, FAS (1933–2020)
Kidney International (2020) 98, 800–801; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kint.2020.07.017
ladipo Olujimi Akinkugbe, fondly
O referred to as “Prof ” by multiple
generations of medical professionals,
and by society as a whole, passed away
peacefully in Ibadan, Nigeria, on Monday,
June 15, 2020. He was an Emeritus Professor
of Medicine at University of Ibadan, and over
the years, a Rockefeller Visiting Fellow (Johns
Hopkins, Yale, Washington), a Fellow of
Balliol College University of Oxford, and a
Visiting Professor at Harvard University.
Professor Akinkugbe was born in Ondo, a
historic city in southwestern Nigeria on July 17,
1933. He attended Government College, Iba-
dan, Nigeria, and did his medical school pre-
clinical years at University College, Ibadan, and
his clinical years at the Royal London Hospital.
His medical degree was awarded by the Uni-
versity of London in 1958. He also gained a
diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
from the University of Liverpool, United
Kingdom, in 1960. He obtained his Doctor of
Philosophy at the University of Oxford, where
he studied the role of angiotensin in hyper-
tension in 1962 to 1964. In 1965, he returned
to Nigeria to become Professor of Medicine and
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1970–1974).
He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Phy-
sicians of Edinburgh, the Royal College of
Physicians of London, the National Post-
graduate Medical College of Nigeria, and the
West African College of Physicians. At various
times he was a visiting Fellow or visiting Pro-
fessor at several prominent institutions in the
United States (John Hopkins, Yale, Washing-
ton, Seattle Medical School, Harvard), the
United Kingdom (Oxford), and South Africa
(Cape Town). He was also Secretary to the
World Health Organization (WHO) Technical
Discussions on Universities and Health for All,
Geneva (1983–1984), and member of the
WHO Advisory Committee on Health for
Research (1990–1994).
Professor Akinkugbe is best known for his
pioneering work in the specialty of
www.kidney-international.
hypertension and nephrology, not only in
Nigeria, the country with the highest popula-
tion of black Africans in the world, but also
across Africa. In one of the earliest studies of
hypertension in Africa,1 he reported on the
various phenotypes associated with hyperten-
sion in indigenous black Africans, including
urban and rural differences in hypertension
prevalence. He made significant contributions
to the medical literature on kidney disease and
hypertension. In addition, he pioneered the use
of acute peritoneal dialysis for patients with
acute kidney injury in Nigeria in the mid-
1960s, well before hemodialysis became
readily available in the continent.
Professor Akinkugbe was Principal and
Foundation Vice-Chancellor of the University
of Ilorin, and at different times Vice-
Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria, Pro-Chancellor of the University of Port
Harcourt, Chairman of the Management
Board of University College Hospital, Ibadan,
and Chairman of the Planning Committees of
Ondo State University and University of
Abuja. He embraced these roles with an
eagerness to improve the quality of health
care, research, and medical education, having
argued for governments to establish and pro-
vide more support for teaching hospitals in
developing countries.2
Professor Akinkugbe trained the first gen-
eration of indigenous nephrologists in Nigeria,
many of whom have now become leading fig-
ures in nephrology. He also mentored several
nephrologists from the West African region. He
established the Nigerian Association of
Nephrology with a few other colleagues in
1987, an association that has now grown to
over 400 members and is one of the strongest
in Africa. He was the Foundation President of
the Nigerian Association of Nephrology and
Nigerian Hypertension Society and was also a
foundation member of the African Association
of Nephrology. Professor Akinkugbe received
the 2019 International Society of Nephrology’s
Kidney International (2020) 98, 800–801

Pioneer Award, which was conferred to him on
18 February 2020 in Ibadan, Nigeria. He is
survived by Professor Mrs. F.M. Akinkugbe (an
icon at University of Ibadan in her own right),
their two children, and grandchildren.
Kidney International (2020) 98, 800–801
obituary
REFERENCES
1. Akinkugbe OO, Ojo OA. Arterial pressures in rural
and urban populations in Nigeria. Br Med J. 1969;2:222–
224.
2. Akinkugbe OO. Role of teaching hospitals in a
developing country. Br Med J. 1973;1:474–476.
801