Although academia is generally accepted to have been on a downward spiral across Nigeria, the discursive space is bustling with sharp, inviting topics being handled by well-established names in scholarship. Intervention is, for instance, in receipt of two such activities in the week and month ahead.
All other things being equal, Prof Nuhu Yaqub will be taking on “How Variants of Banditry Have Adversely Impacted on the Development and Consolidation of Democracy in Nigeria”. That will be taking place on the campus of the Usmanu DanFodiyo University (UDU) in Sokoto in the Northwest of Nigeria. It will be the university’s 31st Inaugural Lecture. Prof Yaqub is a UK educated political scientist who has been a Vice-Chancellor twice.
Nearly a month after Prof Yaqub, it will be the turn of Prof Isaac Olawale Albert, this time of the Peace and Conflict Studies programme of the University of Ibadan (UI). But Prof Albert will be speaking in Lagos where the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) is up with its 25th Convocation.
At the University of Lagos (UNILAG) on August 10th, 2023, Prof Albert will be speaking on “Historical Trends in the Management of Inter and Intra-Ethnic Relations in Nigeria”. Unlike banditry, this is a much older typology or source of conflict in Nigeria. Interestingly, Prof Albert, the resource person, is both a trained Historian as well as a scholar of conflict. So, the lecture should be the story of one who has got beans and doesn’t also lack oil, implying a great meal.
