Abdulraheem Olarongbe Mahmoud, UNILORIN Best Researcher of the year 2012 is a golden proof of University of Ilorin’s Better-by-far mantra.
That mantra is not a fluke. UNILORIN continues to sustain this globally acclaimed standing in teaching, learning and research by consistently churning out well sort after products at both graduate and postgraduate levels, and the current award as the best research institution in Nigeria.Masquerades that dance dexterously obviously have some artful humans behind the masks.
.Prof Mahmoud, the pioneer professor of Ophthalmology and the first Inaugural Lecturer from the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Ilorin, is one of the highly respected eggheads behind the consistent successes being recorded by the University locally and globally.
As Olarongbe, the Ilorin, Centre of Learning born Consultant Ophthalmologist and Vitreo-retina Surgeon at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital celebrates his 68th birth anniversary, he had a chat with the UNILORIN BULLETIN, and this revealed evergreen lessons and reasons why the celebration should be amplified.
Prof. Mahmoud is not merely celebrated for turning 68, he is being celebrated because he appears to be the reason the Romans came up with the phrase, primus inter pares.
Whether as the young pupil who started formal schooling at the Ansarul Islam Primary School, Oke-Aluko, Ilorin in 1964, or the extra brilliant medical student at the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria between 1976 and 1981,
Abdulraheem qualifies to be addressed as first and best among equals.Mahmoud, an avid reader of books of general interest and watcher of sundry documentary films joined the service of UNILORIN as a Lecturer 1 in the year 2000, after he had been involved in medical practice at various levels, especially in a role as the National Coordinator for the Prevention of Blindness in Nigeria between 1994 and 1999.
.In the past quarter of a century, Mahmoud had contributed immensely to the growth and smooth running of UNILORIN. As a consummate academic, he attained the respected peak of academics by evolving as the pioneer professor of Ophthalmology in the University of Ilorin in 2011.
Thereafter and barely five months after his promotion, he delivered the first Inaugural Lecture from his Department in 2012.
He has not merely served as the Head of the Department of Ophthalmology; he has indeed given the department quality academic leadership that had culminated in the production of other seasoned professors of Ophthalmology. Prof Mahmoud has supervised or co-supervised several Doctor of Medicine, Ph.D and Residency fellowship dissertations within and outside the University of Ilorin.
A well-grounded medical practitioner, Mahmoud had his residency training between 1986 and 1992 at the Guinness Eye Unit, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospita, Zarial and a clinical attachment in Ophthalmology at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, England between June 1992 and April 1993.
As a professor of Ophthalmology, he has served as external assessor or interviewer for a dozen and a half professorial appointments.Mahmoud did not emerge as the Best Researcher in UNILORIN with the gift of a brand new car in 2012 as a favor, he worked hard for the uncommon achievement.
His research outcomes are well published via over a hundred publications in national and international journals including the 200 years old Lancet, a world leading medical journal. Apart from his over 100 publications, he has several discoveries/inventions to his credit also.
Principal among his discoveries is what he described as his ‘international and national collaborative research that led to the adoption of once-a-year mass chemotherapy with Ivermectin (Mectizan) drug for the elimination of River Blindness disease worldwide’ .
Another of his pioneering collaborative discovery efforts is the adoption of a more affordable diode laser ophthalmic equipment for use in retino-vascular diseases in most ophthalmic units in Nigeria.Prof. Mahmoud, who holds the prestigious academic fellowships of the West African College of Surgeons (FWACS) and that of National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (FMCOph), has served the University in many areas outside his medical teaching, research and consultancy activities. He is currently the Chairman of UNILORIN Committee on Examinations, Scholarships and Endowment.He had earlier served as the Chairman, Board of Management of the Unilorin Press, after serving as a member of the Board for close to a decade.
His entrepreneurial sagacity and skill as a manager of men and resources saw to the enhancement of the Press where he collaborated with the UNILORIN Management towards attracting a #300 million TETFUND intervention that the Unit only missed by some whiskers.
Mahmoud had earlier attracted a #75 million TETFUND, STEP B World Bank Project fund in collaboration with University of Ilorin IGR for the procurement of vitreo-retinal surgical instruments and equipment for sub-specialty retinal research and surgery at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH). Within the same year,
Mahmoud attracted another seven million naira grant from Sight Savers International of the United Kingdom for a commissioned research project titled Ocular Morbidity Survey in Asa Local Government Area of Kwara State.Prof.
Mahmoud has also served externally to make UNILORIN proud on several national and international committees. He became an internationally certified University Accreditor by the NUC from October 2021.
He has also served as either member or chairman of accreditation panels of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and the West African College of Surgeons for the accreditation of Ophthalmology Residency Fellowship program in seven Nigerian University Teaching Hospitals.Abdulraheem, an internationally sort-after and cited researcher is well travelled.
He has visited 18 countries across four continents, 10 in Africa, four (4) in Europe, three (3) in Asia and the United States of America, attending training programs and conferences that have culminated in his quality research outputs and production of first-rate ophthalmologists globally.
A tribute to Mahmoud at 68 will fall short of expectation if his contributions to the fast-paced information technology world are omitted.
He is a charter member of the National Association of artificial Intelligence Practitioners (2024) and the Association of Cyber Security Practitioners (2025)Prof. Mahmoud is the country coordinator of a UAE-based research consortium that is currently involved in an international multi-centre research study across 55 countries on medical students’ perceptions of trust in Artificial Intelligence for automated assessment scoring.
Mahmoud, born into the respected Alkali family on the 15th day of November, 1958, is an active lover of his immediate community. To commemorate his appointment as a professor, he founded the Alkali Mahmoud Foundation in 2011 as a mark of honor to his late father. He continues to impact his community via this Foundation in providing scholarships to inner-city indigent students and procurement of relevant tools to indigent artisans.
As a family man, Mahmoud is the epitome of abiyamo tooto, and a doting husband.
He is blessed with equally erudite, successful and well-behaved children. One of them, a senior lecturer in this University, Dr Rilwan Mahmoud of the Department of Public Law is one of the recipients of Unilorin Merit Awards at the just concluded 2026 Convocation Ceremonies.
That is simply a seamless way of passing the baton of research excellence and the tradition of family legal pedigree to his next generation.
Here is wishing this erudite intellectual many happy and healthy returns of his birth anniversary celebrations in his service to God and humanity.
