A Nigerian physician and former president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Osahon Enabulele, has emerged as the president-elect of the World Medical Association (WMA), a global association of physicians founded in September 17, 1947.
Mr. Enabulele, 50 years, who currently serves as the president of the Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA) is the first to be so elected from the West African subregion.
He takes over from Heidi Stensmyren of Sweden as the president-elect, as the latter takes over from the association’s incumbent president, David Barbe, of the United States as the WMA President for the 2021-2022 executive year.
In the WMA, a new president first emerges as president-elect and remains in that capacity for one year before taking over as full-fledged president.
Mr. Enabulele is expected to assume office in October 2022.
Mr. Enabulele defeated his opponent, a Pakistani physician and professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Muhammad Nizami, in an online election that was held for about one week.
A consultant family physician at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Edo State, Mr. Enabulele was also the first Nigerian to be elected chairman of the Socio-Medical Affairs Committee (SMAC) of the World Medical Association (WMA).
Mr. Enabulele rose to the position of President-elect after more than 14 years of his involvement in activities at the global level.
In 2019, he also became the first Nigerian physician to be elected as President of the Commonwealth Medical Association since the body’s creation in November 1962.
