Olarinde, a Nigerian Professor of Law is the incumbent Vice Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ekiti state.
Professor Smaranda Olarinde, mother of Cool FM personality, Ifedayo Olarinde, popularly known as Daddy Freeze, has been elected as a member of the prestigious Association of African Universities (AAU) Board.
Olarinde, a Nigerian Professor of Law is the incumbent Vice Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ekiti state.
AAU is headquartered in Accra, Ghana, and is an apex organization for all African Universities.
The association provides a platform for research, reflection, consultation, debates, co-operation and collaboration on issues pertaining to higher education.
It provides a range of services to its members and serves African higher education in a variety of ways.
Also elected into the association’s board is Professor Abiodun Adebayo, the Vice Chancellor of Covenant University.
Professor Olarinde has over three decades of cumulative experience as a law teacher, academic, researcher and legal practitioner.
Her legal background, in both civil law (Romania) and common law (Nigeria) systems, adds to her diverse multidisciplinary profile.
Her focus has been on women, children and young adolescents’ rights and protection. In 1989, she was a legal researcher for IDRC on land tenure and access to land for women. She also served as a legal researcher for the World Bank on law development and the status of women (1990) and towards a gender strategy in Nigeria (1992).
She was a member of the “think tank” for the legal protection of children in Oyo State and the coordinator of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA).
Professor Olarinde carried out several multidisciplinary researches on reproductive rights, women and children's rights, HIV/AIDS and participated in the collaborative effort between researchers from Israel, the Netherlands and Nigeria.
She is actively involved in training law students at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as law clinicians for participation in community services involving pro bono legal advice.