Professor Hakeem Fawehinmi has been named as the substantive Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja (now Yakubu Gowon University),
The Governing Council of the university announced this during the 80th Extraordinary Meeting of Council on Friday, according to a statement by the institution’s acting spokesperson, Dr. Habib Yakoob.
“The appointment takes effect from Tuesday, February 10, 2026 and is for a non-renewable tenure of five years,” Yakoob said in the statement.
Fawehinmi is currently the VC of the Nigerian British University.
His appointment as a substantive VC ends months of the leadership of acting VCs who were appointed by the Federal Government as a result of controversies which trailed the appointment of the former VC, Prof. Aisha Maikudi.
Meanwhile, the Council has approved the extension of the tenure of the Acting VC of the university, Professor Mathew Adamu,to February 10, 2026.
Adamu was first appointed on August 11, 2025, by the Federal Government.
Fawehinmi, who is a Professor of Clinical Anatomy and Biomedical Anthropology, has been two-time Head of Department of Anatomy (2005 – 2007; 2007 – 2009), Associate Dean (2010 – 2012) and Dean (2012 – 2014) Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences and two terms Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) (2016 – 2020) of the University of Port Harcourt.
He has been a member of several statutory and ad hoc committees and boards.
He was Secretary-General and member of the National Executive Council of the Nigerian Medical Association, Rivers State from 1999 to 2000, Editor–in–Chief of the Journal of Anatomical Sciences and President of the Society of Experimental and Clinical Anatomists of Nigeria (2014-2016).
He has won many academic and community service awards and prizes and is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Specialties of Nigeria.
He invented the Federal Government Patent for the Design of the AMRG Anthropometry Chair for Dimensional Body Measurements.
