Professor Wale Oyemakinde was on born on the 22nd of December, 1942 in Ibadan.
He attended the University of Ibadan for his Bachelors degree and Ph.D and also earned a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin. He also got professional qualifications and diploma from the Fellowship of the Historical Society of Nigeria in 2005 and the Associateship of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 2014
Professor Oyemakinde is a member of various learned societies including Historical Society of Nigeria since 1962, Nigerian Economic Society since 1967, National and International Panel on Advanced Level Economic History Syllabus Review 1970 and 1971 respectively as chairman, he was installed the Asiwaju of Awaye in January 1993 and the Aare Ago Baroyin of Ibadanland in February of 1993. He was chairman, Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State 1992-1993, Water Corporation of Oyo State 2011-2013. He was editor-in-chief for The Journal of History & Diplomatic Studies OOU since 2004 and Babcock Journal of History & International Studies since 2014.
In over forty-seven years of university teaching, the first six as Lecturer, the next six as Senior Lecturer, the next five as Reader, and the last thirty as Professor, he has handled various courses in quantitative methods, economic development, economic history of Africa, international relations, international law, political ideas, history of industrial societies, Nigerian history and African history at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. He has been a pioneer in the field of African Economic History.
He was generally in charge of post-graduate studies in the department of history at the university of Ibadan and he directed the post-graduate workshop which provided a forum for training our post graduate students in historical research and writing from 1975-1980
He has written many scholarly books and learned articles in the area of Economic History. He has done extensive research on topics which include: The Nigerian Railway Labour Force, Agricultural Development in Nigeria, Haulage and Mobility by Rail in Nigeria, The Growth of Markets in Nigeria and Nigeria’s Earliest Indigenous Banks
He has also written twenty two published books from 1980 to 2015 and twenty six articles in learned journals.
With all these achievements, his approach went beyond considering historical research merely for the sake of knowledge to seeking relevance in terms of utilization for policy prescription particularly from the perspectives of Economic History, Political Economy and Finance.
Professor Wale Oyemakinde was the Guest Lecturer at the 8th Edition of the DAWN Yoruba Historical Conversations held on Friday 23rd February, 2018. His paper was titled “Zero Tolerance for Unemployment and the Yoruba Nation.”
We celebrate you sir and wish you many more years in good health.