Prof. Dike Ojiji

Dike Ojji, MBBS, PhD, FWACP, FACP, FRCP, FNCS, FESC

Dike Ojji had his basic medical education at University of Ibadan, which is Nigeria’s premier university. He had his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and General Cardiology at University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria and the Royal Brisbane, Brisbane, Australia. He also holds a PhD in Cardiovascular Medicine from University of Cape Town, South Africa.

He holds the fellowship of West African College of Physicians, American College of Physicians, Royal College of Physicians, European Society of Cardiology and Nigeran Cardiac Society.

Dike is the immediate past Head of Department of Internal Medicine and Professor of Medicine and Preventive Cardiology at College of Health Sciences, University of Abuja. He is also the Lead Investigator, Cardiovascular Research Unit, University of Abuja and the Director, Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training in the same institution. In addition, Dike holds an Honorary Visiting Professorship position at Cape Heart Institute, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. He has also had the opportunity of delivering lectures in different universities globally including Kings College, London, University of Cambridge, Johns Hopkins University, Washington University in Saint louis, University of Michigan and New York University and the National Institute of Health.

His work spans defining the spectrum of hypertensive heart disease and hypertension pharmacotherapy in the black population, to establishing a system for hypertension and cardiovascular care in the primary care level in low- and middle- income countries, to informing national dietary sodium policy. He currently leads one of the largest hypertension treatment programme in Africa (the Hypertension Treatment Programme in Nigeria) which enrolled over 22,000 participants from 60 public primary healthcare facilities in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria in the first phase, and now scaling up to five different states in 5 geopolitical regions of the country. The preliminary data of the phase 1 study was presented in one of the late breaking clinical trial session of 2023 American Heart Association Meeting. In addition, data from the Hypertension Treatment in Nigeria study has been instrumental in the inclusion of hypertension management in the revised Nigeria Tasksharing Policy. Data from the study has also led to the inclusion of single pill of long-acting calcium channel blocker and angiotensin receptor blockers into Nigeria Essential Medicine List.

He leads the Nigeria Sodium Study with data from the study driving policy on sodium reduction in Nigeria and production of the 2025 Nigeria Sodium Reduction Guidelines.

He is a member of the technical working groups of the Nigerian Non-Communicable Disease National Multisectoral Action Plan and Sodium Reduction Policies. He is the chair of the Hypertension Taskforce of Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) and represented in the Scientific Committee of World Heart Federation from 2019 to 2024. He currently sits in over three World Health Organization committees and Writing Groups including the group on Development of Standard Consensus Hypertension Protocols for the African Region; the External Review Group of Automated BP Monitoring Devices and the Guideline Development Group on Dyslipidaemia.

He has been involved in the development of different policy documents and protocols including the Nigeria Sodium Reduction Guidelines, the Nigerian policy on Task shifting and Task Sharing for Control of Noncommunicable Diseases, the Nigeria Hypertension Treatment Protocol and the inclusion of single pill antihypertensive medications in the updated Essential Medicine List. He was one of the authors of the successful 2025 application that led to the inclusion of triple pill antihypertensive medication into the World Health Organization 24^th Model Essential Medicines List.   

He has also been involved in several multi-centre studies and led the Comparison of Three Combination Therapies in Lowering Blood Pressure in Black Africans (CREOLE trial) in 10 sites in 6 sub-Saharan African countries, the result of which was presented at the 2019 American College of Cardiology Congress Late Breaking Clinical Session and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine. He also led the VERONICA trial in 3 Nigerian sites, the result of which was presented in Hotline Session II of the 2024 European Society of Cardiology Congress and published simultaneously in JAMA.

He is currently the principal investigator for a number of NIH and NIHR research and training grants, and currently the principal investigator for the Hypertension Treatment Programme, the Managing Hypertension in Persons Living with HIV, and the Nigeria Sodium Study amongst others.  He is the Editor-In-Chief of New Nigeria Journal of Clinical Research. He has published >190 manuscripts in peer reviewed journals.