This has always been the problem.

The grid has to be decentralised. Of course since it's a centralised grid the trip of that major line means that the capacity of the grid is seriously reduced hence the need to shut down Egbin (imagine). If the grid were decentralised and generating stations didn't have to pay homage to Osogbo it would have been easy to create islands and redistribute power.

This isn't rocket science but for Nigeria where we have round pegs in square holes it is undoable.

And these are the clowns talking of feeding renewables into the grid. If you are lacking capacity for conveying power now, what happens when you feed in intermittent power and Egbin drops out or any other n-1 or n-2 fault occurs?

This is the fault and responsibility of the federal government since TCN is owned solely by Nigeria still.

Martinez39:
@Chukwuka16

Thank goodness you didn't do your post graduate study in Nigeria.

The God that lives in heaven delivered me from falling into that trap. Do you know that I actually nursed the idea of turning down my fully funded MSc scholarship in England for MSc in UI? God in heaven thundered on those familiar spirits after my parents went into marathon fasting and prayer. I even thought about coming back to that same UI for PhD after my masters before God re-wired my head to accept full funding in South Africa. It seems something was doing me back then. The Msc in UI is a frustrating period that allows the lecturers to further indoctrinate into students fear and subservience. MSc period that should allow a student develop some independent research capacity and jump-start their research career is spent publishing papers to facilitate the promotion of their supervisors. How can people be so heartless?

CodeTemplar:


I hope the Payne you are referring to isn't the one that worked in CU around 2007 in Maths dept. If he is the one, then I really hope he changed his ways before anything bad happened.

Can't really say. The late Payne is a big black guy who walks with a limp (if I can remember). And of course, he was in Maths dept.

asuustrike1:

Minimum is 3 years maximum 5 years

No sir. PhD takes different formats depending on the nature of research and institutional policies.

If you do the normal thesis style where you have to write up from abstract through succeeding chapters to conclusion then 6 semesters is usually common. You find this method in Nigeria and the UK.

The PhD by publication route can be 1 year or 2 years (or less) depending on the policy in play. The requirements are a number of excellent publications, an introduction/co-ordinating chapter, maybe a linking introduction to each paper (half a page) and a conclusion. You just bundle your papers and the introduction chapter and you submit. Mine followed that route and took me 17 months. This is common in South Africa and some countries in Europe. In the UK some universities offer this route too. The papers however must be top notch (high impact factors and well ranked using SJR/ABS). The assumption is that since the papers have been peer reviewed and accepted by the academic community, the candidate can be said to have been assessed.

For the UI issue, forget them. I visited Unilag recently and I cant just continue to thank Oluwa who lives in heaven for delivering me and my generation yet unborn from frustration. So I would have been a frustrated academic at this young age in a system that has decided within itself not to work? And it's so bad that in a short time you get lost in the useless culture they have created that you do not even realise after a while that time has gone. Imagine a department have 7 senior lecturers who have not been able to get promotion in at least 2-3 promotion cycles because they have mostly conference papers and now find it difficult churning out the required 18 journal papers. How will a young L1 hope to get promoted if his interviewers are still stagnant on SL? That is when you would hear something like "cant you see that your seniors are not moving? Go and respond to external advert."

I have seen students being bullied by lecturers. I have even seen lecturers being bullied by senior lecturers/profs. The system promotes mediocrity alot that the good eggs get suffocated. My advice to anyone joining the academic system in Nigeria - government or private is to be careful. Colleagues from both divides have stories of woes to tell. Ah, God I thank you that I didn't make that decision to go and perish in Nigeria. It would have been a disastrous one. Today, I appreciate what it means to be an academic and have what is called somebodiness. No one is there threatening me or exercising some jurisprudence over my career/future. How and when I progress is entirely my responsibility. I am respected for my achievements and given all the resources I need to function well.

It is only in Nigeria especially UI that a MSc student will write a paper and be third author. How will that paper ever count in his academic sojourn? It's only in that Nigeria that you would see students afraid to approach lecturers because they have turned themselves into tin gods. They thought I was a dead case. They didn't know I was a seed. When they buried me, I germinated. Today, I'm like that proverbial bone that cant be swallowed or vomited. They imagined that I would come begging cap in hand. Today I see their messages and just laugh. Kai, humans can be funny. Who do these lecturers think they are sef?

Look at Ayoola talking. If trumpet blows now baba knows that he will be on Express train to hell! Has he finished terrorising us to buy that his plagiarized textbook for ODE? Nonsense. Hypocrite of the highest order. And you have the efforntery to call God? Bloody hypocrite. If Zubair delayed his PhD, the late Payne also delayed his promotion too abi? Liars.

One of the painful problem of folks I see on this platform especially the guys promoting CU is that they think that by much speaking of high sounding words and razzmatazz folks would just swallow hook line and sinker all they say.

They forget that like the Berean Christians, there are people who still study to sift out thrash from contents.

Now you argue that funding is a problem and that age matters but yet you are the first people to populate the internet with your so called exploits - first uni in Nigeria to budget xyz for research, first uni to do this and first uni to do that.

All of a sudden, age now matters but you lack respect for UI as she is always continuously bashed by you guys all in an attempt to project a false representation of yourselves.

I would not dignify you again by responding. I believe your subsequent posts show you are bereft of basic and well grounded knowledge that can enable you make sensible contributions on this subject matter.

Do have a splendid morning.

CodeTemplar:

UI has been there for decades and it is only natural that they accumulate more good works. CU becomes strong when you look at their growth rate or work rate as a whole school for the past few years.

You are deliberately skewing the arguments from quality of research to age of institution.

In academics, age is irrelevant. Mind you UI or CU can't even compete with many post 1992 universities on the UK. What about NTU or KAUST who though young are boasting impressive publications?

Don't just spew stuff. Not all readers on nairaland are gullible.

spectroscopic:


Thanks for bringing this to my attention. It must either be a new development, or I completely missed it. I have been on ResearchGate (RG) for more than 9 years now and never noticed that until now. Thanks, Man. We learn everyday.

Anyways, the links for UI and CU (the supposed best universities) show clearly that the quality of research from Nigeria is near-zero. Divide the total RG score by the number of RG members from each school. For UI you get an average RG score of 3.3 (12,896.98/3879); for CU you get an average RG score of 1.5 (4730/3150).

That of UNN is also a paltry score of 2.1 (14,114/6751). See link https://www.researchgate.net/institution/University_of_Nigeria2

However, an institutional RG score of 14111 for UNN and of 12896 for UI indicates that UNN as an institution has more quality research than UI. But a few specific UI professors are doing more quality research than specific professors from UNN. In other words, the good quality research at UNN is diluted by the number of too many poor quality research.

At Ife (OAU), the research quality is very poor (compared to UI and UNN) at an institutional RG score of only of 8610. https://www.researchgate.net/institution/Obafemi_Awolowo_University. But then, the fewer number of researchers there at 1818 increases their average RG score to 4.74. This also means that with that few number of researchers compared to UI and UNN, many professors at OAU are simply not doing any research.


Now, compare UI, CU, UNN and OAU average scores with my own individual RG score of 32.43 (I covered my photo and name, and deleted part of my university identity for privacy) beginning from 2008 when I started independent science publishing. If I was an institution I am far better than them. Lol. Of course, a few researchers in these schools, like the ones you mentioned (I looked then up), have better RG scores than the average for their schools. But overall, it shows the extent of poor quality research from Nigeria. Now I understand why the country is not progressing.

Bottom line: when your president is a sub-school cert holder, how can you do any meaningful research that will help develop your country?

Ah, let me start by doffing my hat to your RG score. Even my late advisor's RG score is about 5pts less yours. As for mine it is still in the 18 pts league.

I appreciate your approach but permit me to call it an 'unfair' one. Reasons being that:

1. The number of academics in many Nigerian universities suffers from rapid turnover especially in migration due to incentives. In the US and Europe, it is more common to have academics spend more time committed to their starting universities. At least they get tenure and rise to AP level before jetting off to Asia and the middle east and most recently Australia to earn big bucks. Additionally, it looks 'sexy' having such affiliations on your paper. Academics in such known universities would easily get co-authorship requests without much hassles since they would definitely be editors in many top rated journals thus giving them some leeway in getting their papers published.

2. We must agree that the US and EU dominate the top journals since they own them, and find it easier pushing their works through. For instance, I'm just discovering that many special issues led by scholars here in Europe are simply avenues for them and their cronies to increase their publication counts. In fact, the number of SI's I've seen has increased recently as REF draws near. In one of them I recently stumbled across, the guest editor was bold enough to admit that despite the SI addressing Africa, there was no African among the guest editors neither was there any contribution from an African author. You can imagine the nonsense going on.

3. Researchers in Nigeria are not progressive in thinking. For instance, many journals especially Elsevier, Taylor and Francis and the bad guys like Nature Energy and Science would not publish a strictly based Techno-Economic based paper that analysis some variants of energy (access, mobility or sufficiency) without socio-economic considerations. However, researchers from SSA are yet to start aligning their research along those tracks - considering new concepts like energy justice, energy bricolage and energy mobility including socio-institutional processes and their impact. The end results is countless rejections by the bad guys.

4. External collaborations rarely exist between scholars in Nigeria and abroad. I find it funny when researchers in Nigeria during such collaborations expend more energy in wanting to travel than in actually acquiring and sharing knowledge. They thus stall their research and make it difficult for the partnering scholars to assist them intellectually. One of my top collaborators and I have done 5 papers together in 3 top journals in the field of energy especially for SSA and one for the global north and yet I have not met her. We started off together via researchgate when I was in South Africa. She is the expert on energy justice while I'm the expert on core energy systems modelling and analysis and the relationship has been an enjoyable one.

5. Publications in academia unfortunately has now almost become a cult at least in my field and within Europe. For instance J Yan (editor on chief for Applied Energy) rejected a paper of mine last year on the basis that it did not utilise papers from APEN and was not within the scope of APEN. Well between then and now, he has been accepting papers on that same topic - energy justice from known names. Matter of fact, APEN is now off my list of journals I'd publish for now. I don't think Nigerian authors can grapple with the politics now emerging in the journal publication sector. China and Saudi are getting around this by launching their own journals and having them hosted by Elsevier to give it credibility. Even in South Africa, they have a couple of journals launched and maintained to allow their local researchers push their ideas through to a global platform.

6. When you have future potential leaders like the OP celebrating mediocrity like scopus based publications, that gives you an insight as to what you should expect when someone like the OP becomes say a VC.

Sir, with all due respect, your RG score means that you are probably more ranked than 99.99% of researchers (including their VC) in CU. Well for UI you would have stiff competition from the UCH guys. Even Adewole (current health minister) has an impressive outing on RG. Recently the OP posted a list of some 'international scholars' hired by CU. A simple check on RG and Google Scholar presented me with shocking results. These are folks with basic publications or even no profile at all in the research space. Their only resume is that they are in 'the abroad'. I'm not also surprised that the recruitment is like a recycling of some sorts since some of the recruits have links with researchers within CU. With regards to salary, I laughed because profs from Europe and North America are being poached from the middle east and Asia and Australia with salaries as high as $25k-$35k monthly. How will CU cope with that. Until we have academics who can distinguish merit from chaff, research in Nigeria would go no where.

I'm guessing you are in the medical field or Astrophysics field. Those are the two common fields that can produce such fantastic RG score. You must also have a very good collaboration network in terms of research and be quite prolific. I'm glad to make your acquaintance.

Let me just reiterate here that I'm quite disappointed with the comments bandied here by folks. I am disappointed. The OP makes a post and folks can't intelligently take him on and with facts and that's disappointing.

Any one can write anything and get it published. That's academia for you and in Nigeria where pay to publish and predatory publications and plagiarism run wild, it isn't difficult having such a publication in public space.

The OP would like us to believe that researchers in CU and Lautech are doing great. I agree to an extent. However, we must not be railroaded into that wrong perspective of ever equating quantity with quality which is what you find common among researchers in these institutions.

How can someone be a professor in CU with an RG score of say 11 or 14 or even 10 and have over 60 papers. Where are these papers being published? Again, I read and sincerely in my field only 2 or 3 researchers from CU stand out - Sunday Oyedepo, Olayinka Ohuakin and Adaramola. The others are in UI (3 of them), Futminna, UNN and one in Unilag. Co-oncidentally, I have collaborated with the folks in UI, Daniel in Unilag and Lanre in Futminna. It's a small world and we know ourselves and the truth.

Let's not get over excited or bamboozled. When information is made available, let's search the internet and understand international best practices to gauge if the information we are being fed or made to believe measures up. That CU is really trying isn't in doubt, however, the road to excellence is still far away.

spectroscopic:


The bolded is false. Researchgate does not have any information about the number of publications from a university. What it has is information about individual author publications record, regardless of which university the papers were published from. For instance, if you were with UNN and published 5 articles, and then transferred to UI and published another 5 articles, Researchgate does not indicate which are from UI or UNN. It shows that you have published 10 papers and it gives you an RG score based on the quality, citation, reads, and other indices of your papers and your overall research profile.

Sir, did you know that the boldened is false. See
https://www.researchgate.net/institution/University_of_Ibadan
And
https://www.researchgate.net/institution/Covenant_University_Ota_Ogun_State_Nigeria
The above shows that UI has a research impact that is about 200% that of CU based on quality!

HigherEd:

Now you are no longer talking like an academic. Researchgate is a compilation of research work done since a university was founded. The oldest private university in Nigeria was founded in 1999. The oldest public was founded in 1945. How would you actually compare the two systems and think public universities wouldn't rank higher?

Regarding academics it is still a matter of normalization. 32 departments in CU producing 3 high rated academics is equal to 100 departments in UI producing 10 high rated academics. What about the fact that certain fields are more funded and researched than the other? UI with medical offerings would definitely produce more cited research papers.

Only an expert consultant can give you a full proof assessment of universities. And Times higher is one of such organizations. And from its verdict CU is more research relevant than UI and UNN.

Like someone down the trail said, try and research about researchgate to know how it operates. It is an indication of individual researchers majorly and then universities. So for instance, I can access to see the research impact of CK Ayo or Sunday Oyedepo or Olayinka something based on the quality of their publications. Again, I can see the cumulative impact of research done by researchers in CU or UI. In terms of impact/quality, scopus doesnt give any indication. Matter of fact, conference proceedings like IEEE NIGERCON are scopus indexed but ARE NOT ISI INDEXED.

When you talk about publication output from CU based on scopus you make me laugh. You talk about recruiting international scholars and I laugh.

Bro, slow your roll. I'm no newbie in academic. Matter of fact I pull my own weight despite having a PhD less than a year ago. What is assessed isn't number of publications but (1) quality/rigour of analysis/discussion and (2) engagement of publication gauged through citations. If you want to hype the so called publication that generated this result you posted, tell us the IF of the journal and its scimago position among its peers (let's even see if its listed).

CU is gathering momentum which I appreciate. However, the road ahead is one that is quite arduous and is not solved with money alone. When a system really wants to change, it will do away with mediocrity and embrace real excellence. When you guys start embracing excellence, we in academia would know. It's not noise, its results and for now, you guys don't have it. Just so you know, when I was turning in my PhD thesis, I had 10 Q1 journal papers already published/accepted and all done within the PhD period (17 months). Minimum IF was 2.68, max IF was 9.82 and average IF was around 4.5-5.0.

Good evening.

Again,

I always laugh when I see posts like these.

Can the OP kindly browse Researchgate and Google Scholar just to highlight the RG score and h/I-index of leading scholars across UI, UNN and CU/Lautech. I believe the difference will be clearly seen.

The quality of outputs from the federal universities and some state universities is miles ahead of private universities.

Matter of fact, academics from these mainline universities output excellent papers in very top rated journals from Lancet (those UCH guys) to Science to Nature (collaborations) and the normal elsevier versions (typical IF around 4-10) without much fuss.

It's great to celebrate small successes but let's not over hype something that isn't really quality. Scopus in 2019? Let's do better.

Let's start having very high benchmarks especially with regards to the quality of research papers we output.

When we push out news like this, the meaning is that we are celebrating mediocrity. We are not in a competition. Let's settle down and work hard. Others would be the ones to recognise us.

I'm an academic and news like this unsettle me. HEI's in the UK are currently preparing for REF and the requirements are top notch. Quality papers with profound impacts. Anyone with excellent papers (3* and above or Q1) would be poached without any moments hesitation. If we are now celebrating scopus then we have a long way to go.

While Scopus is a way of measuring research impact, it is pertinent to highlight that many Scopus indexed journals are not ISI indexed.

A better research approach will be to measure the cumulative impact factor and citation index for each university. This way you get to know which universities are doing actual research that is globally recognised.

In the days when predatory journals are now being Scopus indexed, IF (Thompson Reuters) is one way to distinguish publications based on rigour (not fully bullet proof I must concede).

Alternatively, what classes of journals (Q1-Q4) or the ABS ranking for business schools (1* - 4*) do these publications belong to.

You have a nice write up, but if HEI's in the UK are being funded strictly based on 3*-4* journals, talking Scopus in 2019 may not be ideal.

If the argument that we must start somewhere should somehow pop up, I'd argue that such proposition is untenable considering the brilliant performances of HEI's across Africa (excluding Nigeria).

Metucity:


With your certificate, you can apply for your PR in SA but I think you should be in the country to that.

Oops that's a tough one considering that work won't allow and even if holidays came calling, 10 hours flight one way this period is not an adventure I'd want to undertake.

I'd make further inquiries.

Thanks alot baba.

Dear sirs,

Please how do I go about processing PR outside SA. I had my PhD in CS last year from SA and figure I should have it just in case.

Thanks in anticipation of your kind responses.

seyewest:


You passed the test with fly color....

LoL. Thanks baba. It's nice to be able to eat local food without much hassles. It is priceless.

seyewest:


Good news all the way.

Thanks baba.

andrew444:



Lols

No problem bro

I'm so so so sorry. I didn't even realise it until you pointed it out.

Please don't be offended.

andrew444:


You quoted the wrong person sir

Sincere apologies.

This mistake is highly regretted. I'll correct ASAP.

olamitodotun14:


.

Ah please kindly return to the country on the date you indicated.

Don't start denting your record with overstay. You will be shocked the lasting effect it can have on you.

Facts you can't argue with:
1. When applying for the Visa you indicated clearly your entry and exit.
2. You may also have your flight tickets and hotel booked to cover the dates for which the Visa is valid.
3. There is no unforeseen circumstance except adverse health effect like an accident that would warrant you overstaying and that is another complication on it's own.

Now that they have trusted you with a little (5 days) why not come back and relish the experience. Tomorrow when you need 10 or 15 days for valid purposes, you will have a good track record that can serve as evidence to your being a responsible traveller.

Beautyaddy:




Hmmm...was it enough?

Ah, more than enough. I left on the 6th day (one day after the workshop ended). I'm in Nigeria enjoying my holidays. It's a multiple entry Visa. So if a valid need arises for travel, I can always do that.

groovychik:
Were you stamped in for 15 days or the normal six months?

15 days.

Many thanks to folks on this platform. You give alot of information freely. Only God will reward you guys. My recent Visa renewal was a little harder than before. It will shock folks to know that it was my CV that bailed me out. Funny enough when my colleagues went next day for theirs (3 married and 1 unmarried) their interviews were mere formality. Like oh you are married and is he also going with you to the workshop. I realised that the Visa officer matters and one should just be calm answering questions. Visa interview was around February and location was London.

VO: hello
Me: good morning (can't remember if I handed passport or it was already collected).
VO: what are you going to the us for?
Me: to attend xyz workshop.
VO: are you a student here?
Me: No. I work as an academic.
VO: are you going to work there?
Me: No.
VO: why are you attending this workshop?
Me: to develop capacity in abc and lead research in that area for my lab.
VO: why are you attending this workshop?
Me: repeats answer with a little explanation.
VO: not satisfied why you should attend this workshop.
VO: are you going to work there?
Me: no. I'm attending a workshop.
VO: are you presenting a paper there?
Me: No, it's a workshop with training sessions.
VO: do you have anything with you that shows the kind of work you do?
Me: just my CV.
VO: can I have it?
Me: presents CV
VO: oh you have a PhD in Computer Science. That's what I meant.
Me: I just shrug like I'm confused.
VO: your Visa has been approved. You will have your passport in Bleep days. Hands me a card with some info and I'm out.

3 years ago the interview was more seamless and the questions were not like this. Also, I could relate with the questions and not be a mind reader. Maybe because my sponsor then was an IOC compared to an HEI in this instance.

All in all I thank God for favour that day.

Many thanks to folks on this platform. I have gleaned alot from you guys who just post things freely that should cost money. May God almighty bless you guys abundantly. My recent POE was Boston, March 17 from LHR. The encounter was maybe 2mins.

CBP: stretches hand for passport
Me: hands passport with a hello.
CBP: what are you here for?
Me: workshop
CBP: how long?
Me: 5 or 6 days?
CBP: looks at me with that smh feeling (disclaimer: I was first tired and had to psychologically position myself to enjoy the mandatory workshop as I was supposed to be on holidays).
CBP: will 15days be okay for you?
Me: sure.
CBP: stamps passport and hands it over to me

I did notice that landing cards were no longer filled in flight. Seems alot has changed since 2016.

HigherEd:
All that "for better for worse, in sickness and in health", that people recite as marriage vows is unscriptural! It is a curse!

Dr David Oyedepo


https://www.facebook.com/444807728996437/posts/1620543638089501/

It is unfortunate that Christians today believe that the salvation package excludes us totally from life's vicissitudes.

One wonders what breed of Christians are now being bred.

Heros of faith from time immemorial have suffered one hardship or the other for purposes only God has the answer.

Many have died in accidents and others have been claimed by sicknesses. We cant question God why He chooses for such to happen, we can only pray to find mercies before Him.

The vicissitudes of life do not prevent us from exercising faith but then we must be balanced Christians especially when it comes to our expectations and perspectives.

The vows have a way of evoking commitment from the parties and has survived over time. Is the bishop acknowledging that he has been wrong over time or is he just waking up to this so called realisation?

May God give us understanding and occupy us profitably.

Thank you for this. Thank you. We have a difficult task ahead especially in educating our youths to embrace knowledge. The rising emptiness and crass foolishness on display nowadays especially with regards to electioneering makes me wonder if we do not need an electoral college system to help safeguard the future of the country.

Just imagine how the folk you responded to is displaying emptiness and foolishness publicly who knows maybe for some pittance.

Please keep educating and calling them out. The task ahead is an arduous one.

Thanks.

ionsman:


Now you have deviated from the fact that the money is too small to why is the VP in charge of disbursement.

Choose a struggle and stop being silly. You're obviously the oaf here.

I logged in just to comment on your post. You made my morning. When I see posts like yours it gives me hope that all hope is not lost for Nigeria.

Thank you for your intelligent response. The folk you replied needs our continued care. When one is devoid of knowledge it becomes an impossible task educating foolishness.

Thank you once again, thank you!

ivandragon:



And a lot of you are unrealistic, unreasonably daft & prefer to reason out of context.

Why would the VP even be going around in the name of launching the vote buying scheme?

Why not let SMEDAN or another govt agency handle the matter so that it has a far better socioeconomic integrated structure & policy backing?


Anyway, like PMB said, lazy louts everywhere, especially brainless ones...

Thanks. All the best!

Wagasigiungu:


Love the way you write and pen down your thoughts. You have definitely earned my followership on NL. It's been a while i read such a nice writeup. Thumbs up sir!!!

Life goes on prof., I’m a research fellow and enjoying the responsibilities. I’m daily evaluating my long-term plans to make sure I’m on track. Don’t feel sad for how the department you left is turning out, such is life!

Say me well to folks over there prof., I still have a lot to do down here. Keep balling, when it’s my time, I’ll surely transit so we can compare scoresheets – I must beat your RG score!

“Remembering the folks we have lost,
Gone for good, gone with a blast,
Forever free but with unfulfilled dreams,
Always in our thoughts,
But life must go on.”

Rest in peace prof., I’m still on course to fulfilling our dream – researchers with impact for Africa. I’m on course with your legacy – consider me your torch bearer informing everyone about your exploits. Don’t worry prof., we even have a 2019 paper (lol)– remember that one I talked with you about in Dec. 2017 when I visited to check up on you, well, it got published in a top Q1 journal. Did I tell you prof., I got a paper accepted without revision! One of the co-authors is even a Nobel co-recipient!

I’ll drink a toast to you tomorrow prof., relax, it won’t be an alcoholic drink! It was a privilege having you in my life. I appreciate all your efforts and struggles and coping with my exuberance. Sometimes when it pops up, I just smile and remember your reaction – always coded.

I’ll pop in to South Africa this year to say hello to your wife and the kids – I’ll tell them, “your dad is the reason I’m where I am today.”

He wanted me to do my MSc with him, but I had a fabulous scholarship to England and chose it – another great decision in my life. Finished my MSc and turned down a PhD scholarship in the UK for NRF’s scholarship in South Africa – another fantastic and great decision in my life. Joined him and had a swell time.

Before starting off, my PhD with him, we met at Unilag (March 2017) where we strategised about the PhD. His words – “we need to get this PhD on track with a review paper and then 2 other papers so that you are done in 2 years.” We did it in 17 months with 10 Q1 journal papers!

One year after, PhD completed and out of South Africa, I’ve had a lot of time to reminisce about our time together. Damn, we started off in 2013 at Unibadan when we met at a conference. He was introduced to me by another mentor and just like that we hit it. We co-authored our first paper while I was a final year undergrad student – my first ISI paper. Can’t forget his advice on that faithful day at the conference – stop publishing in any local journal, start targeting only ISI journals – best advice for life.

I loved his commitment to academics – he was just unique. Nigerian but with some deep passion for excellence. I remember him responding to my emails at 2am and all. He knew the politics of academia and was a deft administrator. Of course, he had his flaws not a few, but heck, the guy practically brought sanity to a university’s college.