The announcement by the University of Lagos that Professor Toyin Falola, the eminent scholar and public intellectual, will deliver the Convocation Lecture has been met with wide acclaim. The event will be held on Monday, January 15, at noon, at the J. F. Ade Ajayi Hall located on campus. “One of the best choices ever made,” declared a professor who spoke with us. Staff and students in the Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences are excited. The title of the lecture, as officially announced by the University, is “Decolonizing African Higher Education for Transformational Development.”
Convocation lectures offer the graduates an opportunity to integrate their knowledge into the practical experiences of intellectuals who speak to the audience, and this informs the reason why those whose operational success in academia is intimidating are always invited to handle such a huge responsibility. Their wide experience and deep understanding of how society functions generally stand to assist new graduates in the best way by which they can activate their talents and then navigate their lives in the competitive market awaiting them in the outside world.
Choosing Professor Falola is a collective decision inspired by his global name and the importance that he has accomplished in over 40 years. In terms of global experience, it is accurate that such an academic enigma is invited so that he would use his wealth of experience to help and prepare the minds of our graduates on how best they can prepare themselves to meet the demands of the fast-growing human world. Convocation lectures allow invited speakers to address topical issues that will assist in the installation of insightful information, which naturally stands to help newly graduated students improve themselves in the practical world where their acquired skills, theories, and knowledge are expected to be translated into concrete results. It remains indisputable, therefore, that the invitation of such an intellectual giant is to continually improve the tradition of raising the bar of the University’s graduates to continue to produce effective results in our global world.
Congratulations to the University of Lagos on this stellar choice.
