Nigerian academic; first female professor of physiotherapy in Africa
Arinola Olasumbo Sanya (born 1953) is a Nigerian professor of physiotherapy at the University of Ibadan and a former commissioner of health in Oyo State, Nigeria. Arinola was appointed professor in 2000, making her the first female professor of physiotherapy in Africa, and the second ever professor of physiotherapy in Nigeria.
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Physiotherapy started as an area of need after the Second World War.The British government sent about two physiotherapists from the UK to Nigeria to treat World War victims. And what they did was to gather few people who had school certificate and train them. Those trained were called physiotherapy technicians; they were trained at Igbobi Hospital. For a long time, these were the ones rendering services. But then, some Nigerians went to the UK to obtain the same qualification the Europeans had. The first ones that got there qualified in 1953 and came back to University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. We can say that was when we started properly.
UCH has more than 50 physiotherapists. But that particular hospital has 10 physiotherapists. So there is no way there can be effectiveness, because the few physiotherapists have to cover outpatient department and inpatients. We are talking of a hospital that has more than 500 beds capacity. So, we are missing.
Remember that there was an era of brain drain in 1988 to 2000. And physiotherapy was one of most affected professions. It was as if we were training for export. There was a particular set of my students in 1990. Only one out of over 20 of them is left in Nigeria practicing. And they are doing great abroad.