AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the Kwara State Governor, on Sunday, approved the appointment of Dr. Lawal Olalekan Olohungbebe as Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Community Development.
In a statement by Rafiu Ajakaye, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, said the appointment was to underscore the government’s commitment to sustainable, people-focused development.
Dr Olohungbebe, a lecturer at the Kwara State University Malete and a public intellectual, joins the government well-recommended as a renowned community development expert, a household name in Ilorin, including among the millennials, and a respected stakeholder in the state’s civic space for years.
Olohungbebe holds a doctoral degree in community development from Bayero University Kano (BUK), a Master of social work-community development from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, and a bachelor of sociology and anthropology from the University of Maiduguri. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in law (LLB) from the University of Ilorin.
Dr. Olohungbebe comes to the job with rich professional pieces of training locally and internationally, including World Bank Environmental and Social Framework organised by the World Bank Group; Learning Theories-Adult Education Approach (University of Wurzburg, Germany); Facilitating Community Change (St. Francis Xavier University Canada); Project Management (Knowledge Train Institute, UK); Security, Peace and Conflict in International Relations (University of Wurzburg, Germany); Gender and Intersectionality; Community Participation in Social Development, Ogun State; Facilitating Community Through Institutional Engagement, Kwara State; and Issues in Community Development Practice in Nigeria, Kaduna.
Dr Olohungbebe, who hails from Ilorin West, has won several awards and grants for his development works, including the McEwan University Global Education Fund (2012). He pioneered the introduction of a certificate course in the Community Development programme at KWASU in 2014.
The new appointee is the brain behind the Countryside Emerging Leaders Fellowship (CELF), a platform that brings together teenagers from rural Kwara for mentorship, life coaching, and educational advancement through scholarship. Some outstanding CELF fellows enjoy state government scholarships up to their first degree.
Dr. Olohungbebe was, until his appointment, the Coordinator of the KWASU’s Centre for Community Development.
