Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has appointed Dr. Lawal Olalekan Olohungbebe as Senior Special Assistant on Community Development, again underscoring the administration’s commitment to sustainable, people-focused development.

Dr. Olohungbebe, public intellectual and teacher at the Kwara State University Malete, 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), Master of social work-community development from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, and bachelor of sociology and anthropology from 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 trainings 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 Community Development programme in 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 currently enjoy state government’s scholarships up to their first degree.

Dr. Olohungbebe was until his appointment the Coordinator of the KWASU’s Centre for Community Development.