Professor Titus Adebayo (Binuyo) Ogunniyi
Titus Adebayo (Binuyo) Ogunniyi, is a Nigerian Medical Parasitologist and Entomologist who spent over three decades in the Faculty of Physical Sciences of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, rising to the rank of Professor. His career combined field epidemiology in rural Nigerian communities with laboratory-based research on parasitic and vector-borne diseases.
- Early Life and Education
Ogunniyi was born on August 18, 1946 and hailed from Odo-Eku in Isin Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. He attended Titcombe College in Egbe, Kogi State, for his Secondary Education (1961–1967).
His higher education took him across the United States and United Kingdom. He studied at Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois (1972–1973), earning a place on the Dean’s List, before moving to Wichita State University in Kansas (1973–1977), where he completed a Bachelor of Science in Biology with an option in Microbiology and was named to the Honour Roll. He went on to the School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore             (1977–1979), earning a Master of Health Sciences in Tropical Medicine, with his dissertation examining urbanization and filariasis in developing countries. While at Johns Hopkins, he also worked as a Research Assistant in Professor Earnest Bueding’s Laboratory.
He then attended the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine at the University of Liverpool (1979–1980), completing a Master of Science in Applied Parasitology and Medical Entomology. His dissertation there investigated the antifilarial drug Pentostam in the worm Brugia pahangi. Finally, studying part-time at Obafemi Awolowo University from 1992 to 1997, he earned a Ph.D. in Zoology, with a thesis on the microbial fauna of ulcers caused by Dracunculus medinensis (Guinea worm).
His scholarships included a Federal Government of Nigeria award for his M.Sc. study (1979/1980), alongside his earlier Dean’s List and Honour Roll distinctions in the United States.
- CareerÂ
Before his academic career, Ogunniyi worked at the Central Bank of Nigeria in Lagos (1968– 1972). After his studies abroad, he served as a National Youth Service Corps member and Research Associate in the Department of Medical Microbiology at University College Hospital, Ibadan, in 1981.
He joined Obafemi Awolowo University in 1982 as an Assistant Lecturer and was confirmed in his appointment in 1991. He progressed through the academic ranks: Lecturer II (1985–1990), Lecturer I (1991–1998), Senior Lecturer (1999–2008), and Reader from 2008 onward, reaching CONUASS Grade Level 06, Step 10.
Within the Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, he taught and coordinated courses spanning medical parasitology, medical entomology, immunology and parasitism, and the clinical aspects of protozoal and helminthic infections, including a course he personally designed, Advanced Parasitology (MMP 603). He also taught parasitology and entomology to Medical Laboratory Science, Community Health, and nursing students, and supervised numerous postgraduate students in the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, working on subjects ranging from oral trichomoniasis and mosquito prevalence to typhoid and cholera geo-spatial mapping.
Beyond the classroom, he held a series of administrative and service roles at OAU, including Hall Fellow and later Hall Master of Angola Hall (1998–2007), Hall Master of the Clinical Students’ Hostel (2007–2010), member of the College Academic Board, and Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee for the College of Health Sciences (2015). He was also invited on three occasions (1998, 2002, 2004) to serve on national review panels for Global 2000-assisted programmes in Nigeria addressing Guinea worm eradication, onchocerciasis control, urinary schistosomiasis, and lymphatic filariasis.
He was a member of the Nigeria Society for Parasitology, the Nigeria Society for Entomology, the Nigeria Association of Medical Scientists, and the Parasitology and Public Health Society of Nigeria, and served as a peer reviewer for several journals, including the Nigerian Journal of Health Sciences and the African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
To God be the glory, Professor Titus Adebayo Binuyo Ogunniyi died on Sunday, 6th September, 2026. He was survived by a wife and children.