Obafemi Awolowo University (
OAU) is a federal government owned and operated
Nigerian university. The university is in the ancient city of
Ile-Ife,
Osun State,
Nigeria. The university was founded in 1961 and classes commenced in October 1962 as the
University of Ife by the regional government of Western Nigeria, led by late chief
Samuel Ladoke Akintola, and was renamed
Obafemi Awolowo University on 12 May 1987 in honour of Chief
Obafemi Awolowo (1909–1987), first premier of the Western Region of Nigeria, whose brainchild the university was.