FG honours Olutoye, world-renowned surgeon, for outstanding contribution to medicine

The federal government has honoured Oluyinka Olutoye for his outstanding contribution to medicine.

The renowned surgeon is one of three professors who were honoured with the Nigeria National Order of Merit Award for 2020 and 2021.

Shekarau Yakubu, chairman, governing board of the Nigerian National Merit Award, announced the winners at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.

Yakubu said the federal government found the awardees worthy because they had distinguished themselves in various areas of their chosen careers.

Olutoye was named winner in medicine 2020, Charles Chidume got the award in science 2020, while Godwin Ekhaguere emerged winner in science 2021.

Olutoye, an alumnus of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), was selected for the award for his role in the groundbreaking surgery that saved a 23-week old foetus from a life-threatening tumour. 

Chidume, a professor of mathematics at the African University of Science and Technology, Abuja, was selected for the award for introducing a new and powerful interactive algorithm. This algorithm is the only one in the literature that does not involve the resolvent for approximating a zero of the maximal monotone map.

Ekhaguere, a mathematician, was selected for creating new directions in mathematics and deploying the outcomes to solve outstanding problems in a branch of mathematical physics called axiomatic quantum field theory.

According to Yakubu, they were selected out of 46 nominations by specialised committees, including external assessors, and considered by a committee of chairmen and the governing board of NNMA before the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari.