By Yusuf Adua
A Professor of English at the University of Ilorin, Professor Mahfouz Adedimeji has been appointed as the first Vice Chancellor of the newly licensed Ahman Pategi University in Kwara State.
The young Professor is a holder of Unilorin’s first, second and third degrees in English Language.
Professor Mahfouz Adedimeji’s Profile
A former Deputy Director/ Head of the Directorate of Corporate Affairs of the University of Ilorin, Professor Adedimeji is the immediate past Director of the Centre for Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin. Apart from serving as Rappouteur-General to the Presidential Committee that organised the 2017 Federal Executive Council’s Retreat on Education in Nigeria, he has consulted for the Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC), the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence and Corps (NSCDC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). For years, he had been a Coordinator of the Executive Management Course of the Nigerian Army Education Corps (NAEC) and Editor-in-Chief of the “Journal of Peace, Security and Development”, University of Ilorin.
He is a recipient of several awards and honours including those of the American Biographical Institute, National Congress of Nigerian Students (NACONS), Union of Campus Journalists, University of Ilorin, the Nigerian Army Education Corps, Postgraduate Students Association, UNILORIN, Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), UNILORIN, Students’ Union, UNILORIN, and National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS), just to mention a few.
A Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Administration, Nigeria, and Member of the Governing Council of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA), Professor Adedimeji is a Member of the Executive Councils of both the University of Ilorin Alumni Association and English Scholars Association of Nigeria (ESAN). He is also a Fellow of both the Society for Peace Studies and Practice and World Institute for Peace and he is a member of the Fulbright Alumni Association of Nigeria and the Association of Nigerian Authors, among others. He has written, co-written, edited and co-edited about a dozen books.
Aptly described by the Independent newspaper as “a man of many parts”, Professor Mahfouz A. Adedimeji is a Fulbright scholar, interdisciplinary researcher, university don, public affairs analyst, language specialist, communication consultant, peace advocate, interfaith worker and public intellectual. He obtained his academic degrees from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, where he is an Associate Professor of English (Pragmatics and Applied Linguistics). He started his academic career in 2000 at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, shortly after which he joined the services of his alma mater, the University of Ilorin.
A man of eclectic academic background, Professor Adedimeji was educated in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Markaz Shabaabil Islam, Iwo, Osun State and Markaz Ta’aleemil Araby, Agege, Lagos. He obtained advanced training in Education, Political Science, Communication and Media, Research and Peace Studies at the National Universities Commission’s (NUC) Virtual Institute for Higher Education Pedagogy (VIHEP); the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Virtual Institute for Higher Education in Africa (VIHEAF); Governors State University, University Park, Illinois, USA; University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana; and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana, USA.
Apart from serving as a cultural ambassador to the US under the auspices of the Institute of International Education (IIE), New York, Professor Adedimeji has won or co-won the research and conference awards/grants of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) of the National Research Council, Nigeria, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU). He has written extensively for a wide range of newspapers and periodicals including “Unilorin Bulletin”, “Unilorin Watch”, “DeLight”, “National Pilot”, “Daily Independent”, “Newswatch Times” and “New Telegraph”, among others.
A versatile academic, Professor Adedimeji has attended academic conferences and undertaken research in several universities across Nigeria as well as in Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Malaysia, Sierra Leone, Australia, France and United States of America, among others. His hundreds of academic, Islamic and general/opinion articles have been published across outlets in Nigeria and beyond. He has also facilitated and participated in seminars and workshops both nationally and internationally.