His appointment followed a rigorous screening exercise conducted by the government to select the most qualified candidate for the position, which is equivalent to that of a Permanent Secretary in the Public Service of the State of Osun.
The appointment of this Osun State University Professor is part of the efforts of the state government to improve its statistical system for informed decision-making, research and collaboration with other agencies of government and the private sector.
The Statistician-General will be the Accounting Officer/Chief Executive Officer of the State Bureau of Statistics, which shall be an autonomous parastatal under the State Ministry of Budget, Economic Planning and Development.
As part of his official duties, Professor Gbolagade will Coordinate the State’s entire Statistical System and advise Federal, State and LGA Agencies as well as Tertiary Institutions in the State on issues relating to their Statistical Activities. He will be involved in decision making on the appropriate methods of collecting, processing and analysing State’s data for Statistical purposes.
He will also represent the State in International, National and Local Statistical meetings; organize development, support and promotion of the bureau of statistics organizational culture; supervise and discipline the Bureau of Statistics staff. He is also to present to the Government for approval, annual budget, work programmes, and other programmes to develop the State Statistics and remains the authority to conduct Statistical Surveys while private institutions wishing to conduct same shall obtain approval from the Statistician- General.
Prof. Alagbe Wasiu GBOLAGADE, a Professor of Mathematics, obtained the Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) degree in Mathematics with Second Class Honour Upper Division from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin in 1986 and Masters of Science (M.Sc) degree in Mathematics from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 1990. He obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso in 1994 and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree in Mathematics from University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State in 1997. His area of specialization is Fluid/Solid Mechanics and Computational Mathematics.
Professor Gbolagade had received several academic scholarship and fellowship awards including the Federal Government of Nigeria Postgraduate Scholarship (1988); Obafemi Awolowo University Fellowship award (1989); UNU-IIST Visiting Fellowship at the University of Calgary, Canada (2005).
He had supervised undergraduate and postgraduate research works. He had also served in several administrative capacities within the University system including membership and chairmanship of several Academic Committees and as Head of Department of Mathematics. He was also an External Examiner of Postgraduate Programme in Mathematics at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State. In Osun State University, Osogbo, he served as the Head of Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (2009-2010); Director of Foundation Degree Programme (2010-2011 Academic Session), Provost of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology and Provost of Postgraduate College. He is currently an internal member of the Governing Council of Osun State University.