Balogun Ganiyu Ayodele Sanni, FIPAN, FICCON, FCSN, was born on September 12, 1948 in Ijebu Imusin to Chief J.A. Sanni (an Ijebu Imusin Merit Award winner and Balogun of Ijebu Imusin Muslims), and Alhaja S.O. Sanni in the royal family of Elesugbon of Esugbon, Ijebu Imusin. His grandfather was the Baale of Esugbon, the Osi Adinni of Ijebu Imusin, and a customary court judge during the colonial era.
He had his primary school education at Muslim Primary School, Ijebu Imusin, and his secondary school education at Ijebu Muslim College, Ijebu-Ode, where he passed the West African Higher School Certificate and General Certificate of Education Advanced Level in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.
In September 1968, he gained admission into the University of Lagos and graduated in 1971, with a Second Class Special Honours degree in Chemistry.
Thereafter, he had a brief experience in paint production at International Paints West Africa Limited, Ikeja, between July 1971 and January 1972 when he joined the Federal Public Service as a Pupil Chemist in the then Chemistry Division of the Federal Ministry of Health. He left the private sector for Public Service in January 1972 because of what he perceived as discriminatory treatment in favour of the European Chemists.
In 1974, he proceeded to the University of Ibadan to read a course leading to the award of a Post Graduate Diploma in Analytical Chemistry in 1975. In 1976, he traveled to the National College of Food Technology of the University of Reading in Weighbridge, Surrey, England, to study for a Master of Science degree in Food Technology. He obtained the degree in 1977, specializing in Food Quality Control.
He came back in 1977 to the newly created Food and Drugs Administration and Laboratory Services Department from the then Chemistry Division and played a significant role as one of the founders of Food and Drug Control in Nigeria.
During his over twenty years of professional life in the Federal Ministry of Health, he specialized in consumer products analysis. It was therefore not surprising that he was made Chief Scientific Officer and Head of the Oshodi Central Laboratory in 1988. He was the Secretary of the Committee that laid the foundation for the creation of NAFDAC by the Federal Ministry of Health.
He has attended many local and international workshops, seminars, and conferences in Chemical Analysis and Food Technology. One of his major contributions to Applied Chemistry is in the field of Chemical Analysis in Nigeria. He co-authored the Manual of Chemical Methods of Food Analysis, which was published in 1982 by the Food and Drugs Administration and Laboratory Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Lagos. The manual is a great asset to all food analytical laboratories.
In 1992, at the age of 44, he voluntarily retired from public service and joined the group of pioneer Public Analysts in practice as the General Manager and later as Executive Director of Alfa Laboratories Limited. In his bid to achieve his ultimate objective as a Public Analyst, he left Alfa Laboratories in July 1997 and started his own Public Analyst practice under the corporate name SAAG CHEMICAL NIGERIA LIMITED, where he offers the physicochemical and microbiological analysis of food, drugs, cosmetics, chemicals, water and environmental services to the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Balogun G. A. Sanni is a Quality Management and Industrial and Environmental consultant to a wide variety of industries. He is the current President of his club of classmates, Ijebu Muslim College Old Students Association 1961 set and Associates, (IMCOSA 61 and Associates), Ijebu-Ode.
Throughout his career, Balogun G. A. Sanni has served several other institutions in the following capacities:
- Chairman, Council of the Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria (IPAN)
- President, Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria (IPAN)
- Member, Board of the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN).
- The consultant to the Federal Ministry of Health on the National Policy on Chemical Safety Management.
- A member of the National Codex Committee of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).
- A member of the National Standards Committee on Fertilizers, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).
- Chairman, Lagos Chapter. Chemical Society of Nigeria.
- Member, Council of the Chemical Society of Nigeria.
- Fellow, Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON).
- Fellow, Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria (IPAN).
- Fellow, Chemical Society of Nigeria (FCSN).
- Member, Pioneer Board of the Nigerian Chess Federation, National Sports Council.
- Pioneer Chairman. Lagos State Chess Association, Lagos State Sports Council.
He was the pioneer Assistant Secretary of the Ijebu Imusin Planning Body and has been an active organizer and manager of Muslim affairs in Lagos and Ijebu. He was the first Assistant Secretary of Ijebu Imusin Central Mosque Committee, and Secretary, of the Mosques Development Committee of the Festac Town Muslim Community, Festac Town, Lagos. He is a member of the Ijebu Imusin Central Mosque Committee, a member of the Ilasamaja Central Mosque Management Committee, and a member of the Islamic Mission Organisation (I.M.O) International Isolo, Lagos. He maintains a mosque (Balogun Sanni Memorial Mosque) in his house in Lagos, where an Asalat group meets every Sunday and young children learn and graduate (Wolimat) in the reading and recitation of the Holy Quran. He is the Balogun Adeen of the Ilasamaja Muslim Community, Balogun Adeen of the Ijebu-East Muslim Community, and Balogun of Esugbon land, Ijebu Imusin.
Balogun Ganiyu Ayodele Sanni has been part of the management of Esugbonland in the past decade and a very useful assistant to Kabiyesi, the Elesugbon of Esugbonland. He is married and blessed with six children.
