Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu
Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu, the brilliant Nigerian doctor making waves in the United States was almost frustrated by the ritual of strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. Ogbuagu, an infectious disease expert at University of Yale was among the research team that gave mankind hope pushing out a vaccine with over 90 percent success rate against coronavirus infection.
During a webinar organised by Diaspora Nigeria Commission headed by Mrs. Abike Dabiri, Ogbuagu recounted how ASUU strike kept him at the University of Calabar for eight years for a six-year programme. He graduated with a Bachelor degree in Medicine and Surgery, MBBS, before returning to US.
The son of two professors, young Ogbuagu was born in the US with his twin brother, Chibuzor who is currently the Vice President of a financial institution in the US, when his parents came to America for further professional studies.
He was however brought down to Nigeria when he was only five years old. He did his primary education in Nigeria and ended up at the then high-flying Federal Government College Okigwe, Imo State. “I was in the boarding house in Okigwe and I think I picked all my toughness there, having to stay away from my parents at a tender age.
“At University of Calabar, we didn’t have all the resources to train but our lecturers did their best within the limits of available resources,” he said.
Dr. Ogbuagu, a Nigerian-American is one of the medical masterminds behind the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine breakthrough. Dr. Ogbuagu is a twin son of Professor Chibuzor Ogbuagu, a former Vice Chancellor of Abia State University.
He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, United States when his parents were at the University of Yale for their doctoral programme. Young Ogbuagu would later return to Nigeria where he studied Medicine at the University of Calabar before jetting back to the US. He pursued his specialization programmes and practice at Yale.
He is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine and Yale’s principal investigator on multiple investigational therapeutic and preventative clinical trials for COVID-19 including remdesivir (now FDA approved), leronlimab and remdesivir and tocilizumab combination therapy as well as the Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine trial.
