Professor Oyewale Tomori FAS Elected as the Inaugural President of WANNAS

At its Constitutive General Assembly, held in Abuja from Tuesday 26th till Thursday 28th March, 2024, the member academies of the West African Network of National Academies of Science (WANNAS) elected Professor Oyewale Tomori, FAS as the network’s President. The network was established to promote science, technology, and innovation in West Africa, as well as serve as a collective organ for the provision of science advice to decisionmakers in the region. The creation of WANNAS was driven by the ECOWAS Commission, and its current membership includes the national science academies of Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Republic of Guinea, Senegal, and Togo.

The General Assembly, chaired by Professor Ekanem Braide, FAS (President of NAS) also saw the election of the first board of WANNAS and a decision to locate the WANNAS secretariat in Cote d’Ivoire.

Other NAS delegates at this meeting were Professor Mosto Onuoha, FAS(immediate Past President), Professor Friday Okonofua, FAS(Vice President), Professor Abubakar Sambo, FAS(President-elect), Professor Jonathan Babalola, FAS,(Public Affairs Secretary), and the Academy’s Executive Secretary (who was represented by Ms. Anjie Olanipekun, Senior Program Officer).