The Appointments and Promotions Committee for Academic staff of the University of Ibadan (UI), has approved the elevation of Dr Olubukola Stella Adesina of the Department of Political Science, Faculty of The Social Sciences to the rank of a professor.
This is the third promotion exercise Professor Kayode Adebowale, the institution’s Vice Chancellor is presiding over since he assumed office on November 30, 2021.
Professor Adesina, the second female lecturer of Political Science in the institution specialises in International Relations.
A widely travelled scholar, who has extensively published in both local and international journals is an expert in foreign policy, human security and diplomacy, particularly, digital diplomacy.
Adesina, whose promotion takes effect from 2020 joined the Nation’s Premier University in 2006.
She has both Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the institution after which she proceeded to the University of Natal, now the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where she bagged PhD in Political Science in 2002.
Speaking, she thanked God for helping her to get to the peak of her career, stressing, “Only God can do it”, as she assured, “scholarship has just started. I will not also depart from God who has seen me through the thick and thin of this world. I dedicate this promotion to the Almighty God, my creator and his son, Jesus Christ, my friend and my saviour”
She said, “I will forever be grateful to all my teachers, who are the fathers of the department today. I am thankful to Professor John Ayoade, under whose headship in the Department of Political Science, I was employed. On a lighter note and a demonstration of who a lecturer was in my days, I will like to mention how Professor Eghosa Emmanuel Osaghae, former Vice Chancellor of Igbinedion University, Okada, Nigeria and current Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, influenced my academic career.”
She stated further, “After my NYSC programme, which I observed in Kastina, I decided to stay back in the North to enjoy my aunt, who stays in Kano. So, I decided to go to Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), for a Master’s Degree. I obtained the form for the programme and I asked Professor Osaghae to be one of my three referees. He asked me to bring the form for him to sign. When I gave him the form, he tore it and tongue-lashed me for attempting to take the certificate of the best university in Nigeria to another school.”
“He ordered me to go and obtain a UI form for my Master’s programme. Professor Osaghae owes me the money I used to buy ABU’s form which he tore without giving me money to buy the UI form. I am sure, he will laugh when he reads this. Anyway, I did according to his wish and I did not regret listening to him. He did not allow me to Japa to Zaria for my Master’s programme but he could not stop my japa to South Africa for my PhD programme. His little student then is now his junior colleague, proving right a Yoruba adage which says, “Ibi ti agba ba wa ni omode ti ma ba”, which literarily means, “Where the elder is, the younger one will grow to meet him there”. I talk well about my teachers today because they are good to me. The lesson for me, I must be good to all my students. I must also respect them because, first, they are human beings like me, who must be dignified. After all, they deserve to be respected”, she concluded.
