Prof. Roger Makanjuola was born in London on the 4th of April 1946. He attended secondary school at Kings College Lagos. He obtained a BSc and his medical degree the University of Ibadan. He then undertook his postgraduate training at the University of Edinburgh and on the training scheme of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, earning a PhD and MRCPsych. He was elected as a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians in the Faculty of Psychiatry in 1981. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London.
Following his postgraduate training, he spent most of his working life in the Obafemi Awolowo University and its associated teaching hospital. He has 65 peer-reviewed scientific publications. He became a Professor of Psychiatry in 1984. He also served as Chief Medical Director of the associated teaching hospital from 1989 to 1997. He served as Vice-Chancellor of the University from 1999 to 2006, the first two years in an acting capacity. He retired from the university in 2011.
He has served as Faculty Secretary of the West African College of Psychiatry as well as Examiner and Chief Examiner. He was appointed Secretary-General (ad int) in 1989 and Secretary-General from 1990 to 1992.
Prof. Makanjuola was elected as College President from 2007 to 2008. During his two years as College President he embarked on a project to enrol Francophone Specialists and their institutions into the College. A number of new chapters of the College were established by the new Francophone Fellows. Lusophone specialists and institutions followed. The efforts of the Fellows that Prof Makanjuola worked with must acknowledged, including the then Secretary-General, Dr Afolabi Lesi, Dr Yveline Houenou, who with her colleagues in the Cote d’Ivoire established the first Francophone Chapter, and Dr Angela Okolo. Subsequent College executives continued with this project. The result of these efforts of the executive led by Prof. Makanjuola and of the subsequent executives is that the College is now a truly West African organisation. The College Gold medal awarded in 2017 is to an extent a tribute to the achievements of this project.
During his period as College President significant progress was made on the collaboration with a number of the Royal Colleges of the United Kingdom. The efforts of Dr Tumani Corrah, a past College President, must be acknowledged in this respect.
Prof. Makanjuola served as Chairman of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria from 2010 to 2011. During his tenure steps were taken to improve discipline within the medical profession in Nigeria, The system of compulsory Continuous Professional Development was established, and steps taken to improve the standards of training of medical and dental practitioners, including strict control of the numbers admitted into training institutions.
He is a Trustee and founder of this Foundation for the Care and Resettlement of the Mentally Ill (CAREMI).
Prof. Makanjuola is married to Professor Dorothy Makanjuola, a professor of Radiology. They have two sons, two daughters, four granddaughters and three grandsons, in all of whom they take great pride.