PROFESSOR OLAOFE OLURIN AND PROFESSOR OLAJIDE AJAYI: TWO MEN WHO DARED TO DREAM

The Association of Resident Doctors, University College Hospital, Ibadan has a very rich history. 2023AD marks the 55th year of the founding of the association.1 Today, the association has evolved into more than seventy-three of its type and it was the springboard of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors.1 Unfortunately, very little is known about the founding and the roles of Professor Emmanuel Olaofe Olurin and Olajide Ajayi in the evolution of the association.

The founding of the association was fortuitous rather than intentional.1–3 The University College Hospital had specifically been designed for the training of undergraduate medical student of the University of London in the anglophone countries of West Africa.4 With the effort of great medical scholars and the prominent role of Professor Victor Anomah Ngu, the Association of Surgeons of West Africa (ASWA) was birthed in December 1960.1,5 The question of  postgraduate training of doctors gained increasing importance due to subcontinental pro-independence consciousness, culminating in the formation of the West African College of Surgeons in 1969, and a merger of the association and the college in January 1973.5,6