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Ishaq Salako: Meet Nigeria’s new Minister of State for Environment and Ecological Management

Dr. Ishaq Kunle Salako, a prominent medical practitioner and former Commissioner for Health in Ogun State, is the Co-ordinator for the Ogun West Stakeholders Forum.

Dr. Ishaq Kunle Salako, a prominent medical practitioner and former Commissioner for Health in Ogun State, is the Co-ordinator for the Ogun West Stakeholders Forum. Born on July 23, 1959, to Alhaji and Alhaja Ibathllahi Lawal Salako of Oke Oyinbo Quarters in Ota, Ogun State, he is a devout Muslim and a proud native of Ogun State, Nigeria.

With a net worth estimated at around $100,000, Dr. Salako is married to his lovely wife, and together they have children. He began his education at Ansar-ud-deen Practicing School in Ota between 1968 and 1973, followed by two years at Ansar-ud-deen Secondary Modern School in Ota. He continued his studies at Ansar-ud-deen College Offa from 1975 to 1977.

Dr. Salako earned his foundation studies at the former Kwara State College of Technology in Ilorin from 1979 to 1981. He obtained his MBBS from the University of Ibadan in 1986. His early career as a house physician involved stints at the Island Maternity Hospital, Mercy Street Hospital, and Lagos Island General Hospital under the Lagos State Health Management Board between 1986 and 1987. He then fulfilled his NYSC service requirement in Imo State’s Isiala-Ngwa Local Government Area.

Dr. Salako joined the University College Hospital (UCH) Department of Medicine in April 1990 to complete his residency and earn his West African College of Physicians Fellowship. He was subsequently hired as a lecturer and consultant nephrologist in the Department in March 1996, where he also held an honorary position as a Consultant Physician & Nephrologist at UCH. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1999, appointed as a reader in 2003, and became a professor in October 2006.

Throughout his career, Prof. Salako has dedicated himself to advancing knowledge in kidney disease and hypertension. He completed management and certificate programs at the renowned Lagos Business School in 2010, earning the distinction of Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and London in May 2016. His community volunteer work has been recognized with honors, such as the 2004 Brownite of Honor award from the Alexander Brown Hall of the University of Iowa students.

Recently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu nominated Dr. Ishaq Salako for a ministerial position, with the nomination presented by Femi Gbajabiamila, the president’s chief of staff and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, to Senate President Godswill Akpabio. Dr. Salako was appointed Minister Of State for Environment And Ecological Management by the Federal Republic of Nigeria.