U.S. varsity appoints Nigerian executive director of Global Partnership for Africa

By MILLICENT IFEANYICHUKWU

Morgan State University (MSA) in the U.S. has appointed a Nigerian, Prof. Hakeem Tijani, Executive Director in-charge of Global Partnerships for Africa.

The appointment was announced by the President of the university, Dr David Wilson, and published on the university’s website.

MSU is the State of Maryland’s Pre-eminent Urban Public Research University and a leading institution in the number of applications received from African-American high school graduates.

Tijani is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Member of the Nigeria Academy of Letters, who had worked in Nigeria as a Director of National Open University of Nigeria’s Special Study Centre, Abuja.

He was also the pioneer Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Education, and Director of Research, Grants and Linkages at Adeleke University in Nigeria.

Tijani has served as the Director of Strategic Partnerships at MSU.

With his role as the Executive Director of Global Partnerships for Africa, Tijani will serve as the bridge between MSU and tertiary institutions, state and government education agencies in Africa.

According to Wilson, Tijani’s role is pivotal to the agreement between Tertiary Education Trust Fund and MSU in May 2020.

“His mandate includes focus on training PhDs in STEM and non-STEM disciplines, master’s in critical areas, benchworks for research, postdoctoral fellowship, joint research and development,” Wilson said.

Tijani is the first Asante Distinguished Research Fellow of the University of Georgia, Athens.

“A scholar, administrator and educationist with over three decades experience in both traditional and e-learning institutions, he has published widely in referred journals and authored and co-edited eight books.

“Notable among his scholarly works are Nigeria’s Urban History: Past and Present (University Press of America: Baltimore, 2005) and Britain, Leftist Nationalists and the Transfer of Power in Nigeria,

1945-1965 (Routledge: London, 2006).

“Others are, Africa and the Wider World (Pearson: Boston, 2010), The African Diaspora: Historical Analysis, Poetic Verses and Pedagogy (2009),” Wilson said.

Tijani’s works also include Union Education in Nigeria: Labour and Empire and Decolonisation since 1945 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

Tijani is on the Advisory Board of the National Coronavirus (COVID-19) Research Consortium (NCRC). He is a co-Lead of its Social Science Research Working Group.

He is a Commonwealth scholar, Bernadette Schmidt scholar, Harry S. Truman Research awardee, a member of the Nigeria Academy of Letters and Fellow, Royal Historical Society, United Kingdom.

Tijani has extensive knowledge of national and global education, experiential learning, e-learning and pedagogy.

He is a Foundation Editor of International Journal of Migration and Global Studies. (NAN)