By Akin Ogundiran Introduction First, I would like to thank the University Orator for that very generous introduction.
I also want to thank our Chief Host, Professor Adebowale, for his outstanding and selfless service to this institution.
I was here two days ago to be part of the moving valedictory ceremony in his honor.
Congratulations on a job well done! It is a great pleasure to return to my alma mater to deliver this lecture marking the inauguration of the 14th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan.
The first of its kind in the history of this storied institution.
Ko seleri, as my people in Ibadan would say.
When I arrived at this institution as a postgraduate student thirty-seven years ago, I never imagined I would one day stand before an august audience such as this to speak at such an important moment in the life of this great university.
I thank the inauguration planning committee, led by Professor J.
Ajiboye, for inviting me to be part of this joyous occasion.
Please let us give this committee a round of loud applause.
When I told my supervisors at Northwestern University that my alma mater had called me for an important assignment and I had to go, meaning I would miss several classes, they understood.
They reminded me that Northwestern University and the University of Ibadan have enjoyed a long and productive relationship for more than 70 years.
Let me give you two examples: Professor Akin Mabogunje, the African doyen of geography, completed his influential book Urbanization in Nigeria while serving as a visiting scholar at Northwestern University in 1963.
Professor Isaac Adewole, former Vice-Chancellor of this university, former Minister of Health, and now Nigerian Ambassador to Canada, has been an adjunct Professor at Northwestern’s School of Medicine for many years.
These relationships remind us of something that I will return to throughout this lecture: great universities do not flourish in isolation.
They flourish through relationships.
Congratulatory Letters and Gifts from Northwestern University Before proceeding, I have the honor of performing a pleasant ceremonial duty.
Northwestern University’s President, Professor Mung Chiang, through the Vice President for International Relations, Ms.
Dévora Grynspan, and the Dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Professor Adrian Randolph, sent formal congratulatory messages to Professor Peter Olapegba on his inauguration as the 14th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan.
They also sent gifts to mark this important occasion and recognize the longstanding relationship between our two universities.
Professor Olapegba, on behalf of Northwestern University, I am pleased to present these letters and gifts to you.
[Presentation of congratulatory letters and gifts.] I hope that once you have settled into office and begin reviewing UI’s relationships with its international partners, you will make Northwestern University one of your early visits.
We look forward to welcoming you to Chicagoland.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me now turn to the business of my lecture.
This inauguration lecture celebrates a change in leadership.
An inauguration lecture of this kind typically asks where society is going, what is changing in the world around us, and what kind of institution the university must become if it is to meet that world with confidence.
In his speech at the last United Nations General Assembly in New York, His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, called for UN Security Council reform, saying, “The authority to speak for humanity carries an obligation to represent it” and “the world of 2026 cannot remain captive to the distribution of power in 1945.” He invited the rest of the world to recognize Africa as a partner, not a supplicant.
He insisted that Africa must control its technological future and pursue partnerships on its own terms, turning its youthful population, the ingenuity of its people, natural resources, and expanding markets into engines of growth.
President’s speech echoes the rumblings of a changing world order, one that can no longer be contained within the grip of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Taking a cue from President Tinubu’s call to action at the UN General Assembly, my central question this afternoon is: What must the African university become to help Africa achieve the goals Mr.
President presented to the United Nations General Assembly through Vice President Kashim Shettima? To answer this question, I have titled this lecture: The African University in a New World Order: Imperatives of Knowledge Sovereignty and Relevance.
I chose this title because I strongly believe, as do all of us in this room, that the university is a critical agent of African development.
What happens here matters for the world.
Africa cannot fully achieve its potential without strong universities that produce knowledge, educate citizens, solve problems, develop human talent, and expand what society believes is possible.
Economic and Social Impact of the University of Ibadan Public discourse often treats universities as mere consumers of public money: salaries, infrastructure, and operational costs.
Those costs matter, especially when government subventions remain precariously limited.
But let us for a moment set aside the usual question: “What would it cost Nigeria to maintain the University of Ibadan?” Instead, I want to ask, “What would it cost Nigeria not to have the University of Ibadan?” This university gives back more than it takes.
My preliminary estimate puts its annual economic footprint in Ibadan alone at nearly N70 billion.
But more importantly, the University’s greatest contribution is human and social capital, and we cannot put a currency value on this.
University research heals the sick, prevents disease, improves crops and livestock, produces informed citizens, raises living standards, preserves heritage, and informs public policy.
UI has produced over 320,000 graduates since its inception 78 years ago.
These graduates have transformed our institutions, communities, and society through their expertise, creativity, and civic engagement.
Professor Olapegba’s own journey illustrates this point.
Today, the first Vice Chancellor from the Faculty of Social Sciences at this 78-year-old institution will take office.
This gentleman arrived at UI 34 years ago as an undergraduate student.
Then he was simply known as Peter (or Pita/Peteru as my people in Igbo-Ora and Ibadan would say).
He was much older than most of his peers when he arrived here.
His journey might tell us why.
After a mobile childhood from Ibadan to Ilutitun in Ondo State, then to Lanlate, where he completed his secondary education, he moved to Lagos and worked as a sales boy at Oke Arin Market for 7 years before gaining admission to the University of Ibadan to study Psychology in 1992.
Professor Olapegba earned his BSc in Psychology in 1997, and after completing his National Youth Service, he returned to his alma mater to pursue his Master’s degree, which he earned in 1999.
After a brief stint at the National Examination Council (NECO) as a Research Officer, he joined the University of Ibadan on June 1st 2000, as an Assistant Lecturer.
It took him 8 years to earn his PhD in Applied Psychology.
But it took him only 6 years after his PhD to be promoted to professor at this prestigious university.
That is a record.
By the time he was promoted to professor, he had published more than 100 articles in journals, conference proceedings, and books.
Today, this accomplished scholar, who has done impactful research in Applied Social and Health Psychology, and is also an astute administrator and a committed civic leader, will formally become the 14th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan.
His story tells every young person: the circumstances of your beginning do not set the limits of your future.
Another moral of his story is that a university admitted a sales boy and created the environment in which he became an excellent student, a lecturer, a professor, an administrator, and eventually a Vice-Chancellor.
This personal success is our collective success.
It is social mobility made possible by an institution, mentors, professors, parents, guardians, friends, colleagues, and wife.
The story of the incoming VC should also remind the university to look beyond polished beginnings.
The next outstanding scholar may arrive late, come from a small town, lack social connections, or need financial help.
Mentoring, scholarships, and institutional confidence can change a life’s direction, and that of a family.
Universities build people.
Eventually, those people are called upon to build universities.
That is the responsibility before our new Vice Chancellor.
I make two arguments in this lecture.
First, the world order is changing.
The post-Cold War global system is fragmenting, and power is becoming more widely distributed.
Artificial intelligence is reorganizing knowledge.
Demographic change is shifting a growing share of the world’s future population, labor force, and markets toward Africa and the wider Global South.
Climate change is reshaping livelihoods, intensifying resource pressures, and driving displacement and conflict.
Second, the changing world order presents Africa with a choice: continued dependency or productive power.
African universities must help determine that outcome by pursuing knowledge sovereignty and relevance together.
Knowledge Sovereignty and Relevance Let me start with the second argument: Knowledge sovereignty is the capacity to decide which questions matter, produce reliable answers, own the institutions through which knowledge circulates, and enter partnerships as an intellectual equal.
Knowledge sovereignty does not mean isolation.
It means learning from others without ceasing to think for ourselves.
It also requires infrastructure.
Ideas need libraries, laboratories, reliable electricity, digital access, archives, publishers, ethical review, and well-trained technicians and administrators.
Relevance means that the university must be committed to advancing the needs of the society it serves.
Some research may solve an urgent problem today.
Others may preserve a language, explain a historical process, or create an idea whose practical importance is not yet visible.
Relevance should not be confused with immediate popularity, immediate material benefits, or “What can you do with that course? question.
Universities are not vocational schools.
They exist to cultivate minds that can think, create, adapt, and lead.
Relevance means preparing graduates for meaningful, productive lives—not merely their first jobs.
A perennial question on our campuses and beyond their gates is: Can the African university decide what is worth knowing, produce that knowledge with authority, and turn it into meaningful change? History of the University of Ibadan and How Relevance Has Been a Consistent Goal Before we answer this question for the University of Ibadan, let us first turn to history, to understand where the University of Ibadan came from and where it has been.
This will give perspective on the legacy Professor Olapegba will build upon.
As a Yorùbá proverb reminds us, bí ọmọde ò bá bá ìtàn, yóò bá àròbá; àròbá sì ni baba ìtàn.
“If the young person does not encounter history directly, he/she will encounter what has been handed down about it.” The University of Ibadan is a product of grand vision and methodical planning.
It emerged from two colonial commissions for higher education.
The Asquith Commission considered what university education should look like across Britain’s colonies, while the Elliot Commission addressed British West Africa’s needs for universities and where such institutions should be located.
Established in 1948, University College Ibadan prepared students for University of London degrees.
Its curriculum emphasized liberal arts, basic sciences, and medicine, excluding applied science and technology.
Although geographically African, its institutional DNA was substantially British.
On the eve of independence, the Federal Ministry of Education appointed the Ashby Commission to investigate Nigeria’s higher-education needs.
It recommended a more responsive university system and supported transforming University College Ibadan into a fully autonomous university.
Professor Kenneth Dike’s appointment as Principal of the University College Ibadan in 1960 and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan in 1962 marked a decisive turn.
With Professors J.
Ade Ajayi and Saburi Biobaku, Dike pioneered the Ibadan School of History, establishing African societies as subjects of historical inquiry.
Oral traditions, archaeology, linguistics, and written records became complementary sources for reconstructing Africa’s past.
The decolonization of the university began in earnest.
Professor Bolaji Idowu’s Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief explored African religious thought.
Professor Ayo Bamgbose connected African languages with technological development and national unity.
At University of Ife, Professor Akinsola Akiwowo’s Àṣùwàdà Theory of Sociation sought to Africanize sociology.
I see a related aspiration in Professor Peter Olapegba’s emphasis on developing culturally validated psychological methods.
Whether investigating widows in Enugu, mental illness in Ibadan, or youth sexual behavior on university campuses, he has insisted that the psychological theories and measurements must fit the worldviews, culture, and ontology of the populations they seek to explain.
But decolonization is a process.
Its final stage is indigenization, and we are not there yet.
For the university to be a transformational institution, our quest for knowledge sovereignty and relevance must be tied to the indigenization of the university.
This will involve placing Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing at the center of education and inquiry; recovering and using our ancestral epistemology and ontology as the basis of theorizing and developing new instruments of measurement.
Indigenizing the university also means rediscovering the contributions of deep-time Africa’s intellectual traditions to the idea of the university, so we can better understand what the university has been—and more clearly envision what it could become.
It is true that the European Enlightenment gave us the distinctive modern features of the university as we know it: organized faculties and bounded disciplines, degrees, scholarly self-governance, and some degree of institutional autonomy.
However, the university has not always been like this, and it did not emerge only in Europe.
The university as an idea developed gradually from several older academic traditions across Europe, Asia, and Africa.
At its core, the university in ancient and pre-modern times was an organized center of advanced learning; an academy or a community of masters and students who organized themselves around the creation, dissemination, and certification of knowledge.
Africa played many roles at different times and places in the evolution of such academies.
These academies, such as the House of Life at Heliopolis, House of Life at Memphis, and House of Life at Abydos, powered the intellectual, scientific, social, and political life of Ancient Egypt.
The Greeks benefited from those academies.
The European father of history, Herodotus, traveled to many of those Egyptian academies around 454 BCE.
Fast forward to the Medieval period.
The most famous of those academies in Europe were located in Bologna, Paris, and Oxford in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Scholars have pointed to Timbuktu as a comparable advanced center of learning that privileged Western and Saracenic thought in Arabic script.
This afternoon, I am pleased to share that just 80 km from here, many centers of advanced learning also developed as early as the 11th century and flourished through the early fifteenth century.
There, they studied astronomy.
Masters and students discussed philosophical questions about what it means to be a person and whether a person differs from a human being.
Master thinkers debated systems of governance and the principles of transcendental humanism (Ọ̀nìyàn) 700 years before the European Enlightenment.
They gave us the concept of democratic monarchy and Orisa philosophy.
Kings, scientists, and priestesses cultivated and supported inventions and innovations in glass, iron, and city-planning technologies.
All of this happened in Ile-Ife between the 11th and early fifteenth centuries.
Mhat is more, it is the only place in....
