Following the retirement of the pioneer Executive Director of the BCCC-Africa, Professor Oladele Osibanjo, the Honourable Minister of Environment of Nigeria, in consultation with the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions has appointed Percy Onianwa to that position with effect from 1 January 2016.
Percy ONIANWA obtained the BSc degree in Chemistry from the University of Ibadan in 1978. He subsequently obtained the MSc in Analytical Chemistry and PhD (Analytical/Environmental Chemistry) from the same University in 1980 and 1985 respectively. He was appointed Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan in 1980 and attained the rank of Professor in 2001. He currently coordinates the Analytical/Environmental Chemistry unit of that Department. His research interests focus on monitoring and assessment of pollutants, modelling the migration of toxic substances, and development of analytical techniques for environmental samples. He has worked on various aspects of waste management and impacts on the environment, and has been consultant to many governmental and private sector establishments in Nigeria.
At the University of Ibadan, Percy has taught several graduate courses on national and global environmental issues, and chemical analysis of environmental and other samples. He has supervised many MSc and PhD students, and was the Coordinator of the University of Ibadan’s Multidisciplinary Central Research Laboratory from 2008 to 2015. He has published widely in international journals of environmental sciences and analytical chemistry, and is an Editor of Elsevier’s Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.
He is also involved with regulatory issues, and currently holds the positions of Chairman of the Technical Committee on Chemicals and Cosmetics of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (2004 to date), as well as Expert on the Technical Harmonisation Committee 05 (Chemistry/Chemical Engineering) of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO). He has previously served on expert committees of UNEP and ECOWAS. Percy has for many years been associated with the work of the BCCC-Africa on chemicals and hazardous wastes management as Senior Research Associate, and is a member of the Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment (PACE).