A Historian, Professor Yakubu Aboki Ochefu, is the Convocation Lecturer for the 29th and 30th combined convocation ceremonies of the University of Uyo scheduled for Wednesday 6 November, 2024 by 2:00pm at the 1000-seater capacity TETFund Auditorium, Nwaniba Campus, University of Uyo.
The Professor of History and Development Studies of Benue State University extraction, who will speak on “Ignoring the Cassandra: The Fate of University Education in Nigeria,” is the third historian that will stand behind the revered glass lectern of the University of Uyo to deliver a Convocation Lecture – the first being Professor Okon Edet Uya (2009), who had served as Deputy Vice Chancellor and Acting Vice Chancellor in the University of Calabar; and the second being Professor Philip Afaha (2023), who is resident as Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration) University of Abuja.
Professor Yakubu Ochefu; Fellow, Historical Society of Nigeria (FHSN) and Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letters (FNAL), had served as Deputy Vice Chancellor Benue State University; and pioneer Vice Chancellor Kwararafa University, Wukari, Taraba State (2012-2017). This appeared to have followed the tradition of providence bestowing the principal responsibility of managing a university on historians starting with Professor Kenneth Dike in 1962 at the University of Ibadan.
The University of Birmingham-trained economic historian, is show-glass ready to point to instances where history, through the mythical Cassandra, has acted as a persistent early-warning signal to the Nigerian university system. With his depth of knowledge of man and his institutions of civilization in the past, Professor Ochefu will confidently engage the gown, crown and town relying on functional experience as Secretary-General of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities and Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities; National Chairman of the Conference of Alumni Association of Nigerian Universities; member, NUC resource verification and accreditation teams to various Nigerian Universities; Chief Reviewer for the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) for BA History programmes for Nigerian Universities; Chairman of the Implementation Committee of the TETFUND-sponsored National Academic Research Repository Development Committee; and member of the Governing Councils of Pan Atlantic University, Lagos; Wesley University, Ondo; and Maduka University, Ekegwe.
Professor Ochefu who serves as a Visiting Professor at the School of Management and Social Sciences, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom; a consultant to the World Bank, UNDP and DFID; and at the fore of applying digital tools for the reconstruction of the vast past of Homo Sapiens; is 6th November prepared and 2:00pm ready to reconstruct the cause, course and consequence of changes, continuities and contradictions that define the fate of university education in Nigeria.
May it please everyone, drawn from the gown, crown and town, to avail their coveted presence down town at the 1000-Seater Capacity TETFund Auditorium of the University of Uyo and take a seat for a sip of this historic lecture that will be delivered by a professional historian.
Ubong Essien Umoh
Associate Professor of Military History
Ag. Head of Department
History and International Studies
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