Professor Wale Sulaiman
Professor Wale Sulaiman, CON, has lived a truly extraordinary life, exemplified by his service to humanity. The trailblazer is an indigene of Ajase-Ipo, Kwara State, born and raised in Lagos in a polygamous family to uneducated and illiterate parents. Within a span of 50 years, the young boy from the slums of Lagos has established himself as an accomplished Neurosurgeon and Researcher, a Professor of Neurosurgery, a Skilled Physician Executive, a Philanthropist, and a successful Entrepreneur. He is the CEO and Chairman of RNZ Global Limited and President of RNZ Foundation.
Professor Sulaiman’s life story illustrates how education, persistence, and hard work can transform any child’s life. After completing his secondary school education at the prestigious St. Gregory’s College, Lagos, his parents could not afford his university education. However, the brilliant 19-year-old was fortunate to receive a scholarship to study medicine at the Medical University, Varna, Bulgaria through the Bureau for External Aid, a Nigerian government program that offers scholarships to exceptional Nigerian students to study abroad. The Scholarship was a cornerstone in his career journey.
He completed his medical degree at Medical University, Varna, Bulgaria, during which he also completed an MSc. degree. His brilliance and academic excellence took him to Canada, where he also won Canadian government scholarships for his postgraduate PhD. degree in Neurosciences at the University of Alberta and training scholarships for his Neurosurgery residency, which he completed with a board-certification by The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He then secured two additional Fellowship awards for sub-specialty trainings in the USA in complex spine surgery and nerve reconstruction surgery.
Professor Sulaiman is recognised as one of the best Neurosurgeons and Spine Surgeons in the world, skilled in the application of minimally invasive techniques to treat spine disorders, and one of only a handful of Neurosurgeons with expertise in nerve repair surgeries and microsurgical resection of nerve tumors. In addition to his clinical expertise, Prof. Sulaiman is a Neuroscientist with extensive research experience in both nerve and spinal cord injury and regeneration and has authored several peer-reviewed publications and book chapters in these areas. He is an Ad-hoc Reviewer for many neurosurgery and neuroscience journals. Recently, he was appointed as a member of the International Advisory Board of the most prestigious Neurosurgery journal, NEUROSURGERY.
Prof. Sulaiman is fully committed to giving back to his home country, Nigeria. While working as the Chairman of Neurosurgery at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, USA, he negotiated a reduction in his annual salary by 25% to free up time for him to travel to Nigeria every month to participate in education, training, and provision of medical care to Nigerians, including free neurosurgery and spine care. Through his position in the USA, he has trained hundreds of medical students, resident doctors, and fellows, as well as facilitated the training of Nigerian Doctors at his hospital by providing scholarships. Furthermore, he has facilitated the involvement of prominent American healthcare companies in Nigeria by providing hands-on training and education to Neurosurgeons, Orthopedic Surgeons, and Resident Doctors. He has also been involved in countless medical missions where thousands of Nigerians benefited from free medical and surgical care. He was appointed as the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman Governing Council of the University of Health Sciences, Ila-Orangun, FUHSI, on 13th June, 2024 by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.
He was shortlisted as one of the sixty (60) most influential Nigerians at the “Your Views” Nigeria at 60th Diamond Jubilee Series (Morayo, 2020), in recognition of his selfless humanitarian services and career achievements at home and abroad. He was conferred with the Distinguished Citizen Award in 2019 by the Nigerian Canadian Association of Calgary (NCAC), presented by H.E. Amb. Adeyinka Olatokunbo Asekun, the Nigerian Ambassador to Canada; the Nigerian Diaspora Merit Award for Healthcare and Humanitarian Services from the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM); the Outstanding Leadership Award from the Kwara State Association of Nigeria North America (KSANG); and was recently recognised as an Exceptional African Genius by the African Genius Awards.
He was also conferred with the National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, in recognition of his patriotism and humanitarian service.
In recognition of his humanitarian services, he was given various traditional titles namely, The Asiwaju Ewe of Ajase-Ipo, Jangunmolu of Esie Kingdom, Bobagunwa of Oro Kingdom, Aare Tayese of IsanluIsin, and Aare Madekun of Obbo-Ile by His Royal Highnesses. Prominent recognitions and awards for his exemplary leadership, philanthropic and humanitarian activities includes, the Lions Clubs Metropolitan award of excellence (2022), patriotic personality award by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS, 2022), Ewa Igbomina Icon Award and personality of the year (Ewa Igbomina Cultural fiesta,2022), Youth and Community Development Award by Igbomina Youth Assembly (IYAss, 2021), Legends Award (FIBAN Kwara State, 2021), Humanitarian and Philanthropic award by Unity and progressive forum Aran-Orin (2021), ICON of Hope Award by Ekiti State University (Ekiti Uni, COED 2021), Outstanding Youth Ambassador and Philanthropist of our time by Kwara South Youth Movement (2021) amongst others.
Prof. Sulaiman strongly believes that every child should have the opportunity to manifest his or her full potential, regardless of socio-economic background, race, religion, tribe, or gender. He is an eternal optimist about the greatness of Nigeria’s future, so much so that he and his family relocated to Nigeria in 2017 to contribute their quotas to the development of our beloved country. He has been with his lovely wife, Patricia, for 25 years, and they are blessed with 3 marvellous children: Rahim, Zaynab, and Najeeb.