PROFESSOR SOLOMON OLADELE AKINBOYE

Solomon Oladele Akinboye is a Professor of International Relations and former Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, University of Lagos, Nigeria. He was a former Head of the Department of Political Science, former Sub-Dean of Social Sciences, former Acting Dean of Student Affairs, and former Acting Dean of Social Sciences, University of Lagos.  He attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka from 1974-1978, University of Ife (Now OAU), Ile-Ife from 1980-81 and University of Benin, Benin City from 1986-89, where he   obtained his B.Sc (Hons) Economics, M.Sc and Ph.D International Relations degrees respectively.  He enjoyed free education at all levels of his university education – Federal Government Scholarship award for his B.Sc (Hons) degree, Oyo State Bursary award for his M.Sc degree and Federal Government Postgraduate Scholarship award for his Ph.D degree.  He was in 2000 a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship which was utilized at the University of Delaware, (Newark, Delaware), and partly at Harvard University, (Boston, Massachusetts), and the Foreign Policy Research Institute (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), U.S.A. He was also a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Political Science and International Affairs, Kennesaw State University, Atlanta, Georgia (U.S.A) where he taught Comparative Politics and Politics of Developing Areas in 2006. 

At different times, he was awarded research and travel grants including KSU/Institute for Global Initiative Visiting Fellowship Award in 2006, Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) Travel Grants to Germany, Kenya Tanzania, Ghana (2011-2019); Zain Africa Challenge Travel Grant to Uganda (2009), Africa Institute of South Africa/Thabo Mbeki Institute Travel Grant (2014, 2015), University of Lagos Central Research Grant (1999), University of Lagos Leaned Conference Travel Grant to USA (2016), and Osun State University Travel Grant to Cambridge University, Cambridge, U.K (2019). He also currently has an award of TETFund research grant to carry out research on voters’ apathy in Nigeria as political protest.

 At the University of Lagos, he has held several positions including membership of Governing Council (2021-2025), Senate (2003-date), Director, School of Foundation Studies, Chairman, University of Lagos Sports Council, Central Appointments and Promotions Board, Court of Governors of the College of Medicine, Board of Postgraduate Studies, Board of Radio Unilag 103.1 FM, University Library Committee, University Bookshop Committee. At the national level, he was, in 2012, appointed by INEC as one of the Experts to appraise the pre-election, election and post-election disputes and conflicts in Nigeria’s 2011 General Elections. He served meritoriously as the Honorary Secretary of the Committee of Deans of Postgraduate Schools in Nigerian Universities for four years (2015-2019). He was, for 6 years, a member of the Governing Council of Osun State University. He is also currently a member, Board of Governors, Baptist College of Theology, Lagos (2021 to Date). He is Vice-Chairman, Governing Council of Citizens Centre for International Relations Research. He has, on several occasions, been appointed by the National Universities Commission to serve as Chairman and member of Accreditation Panels and Resource Verification Panels to many Universities in Nigeria. He has served as External Assessor for Professorial Appointments and External Examiner for Undergraduate, Masters and Doctorate degrees in many Universities within and outside Nigeria. Prof Akinboye has to his credit over 90 publications in Books and Learned Journals (Local and International) as well as several other papers presented at different Local and International Conferences. He has supervised several Bachelor and Masters’ degree projects and dissertations.  He has equally successfully supervised 24 Ph.D. candidates, and he is currently supervising 5 Ph.D students.

At the international level, Prof Akinboye has had an engaging experience. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Partnership for Africa Social and Governance Research (PASGR) based in Nairobi, Kenya, funded by the British Council under the DFID programme.  He was part of PASGR’s delegation on education tour of Hertie School of Governance, Germany in 2011. He led the Zain Africa Challenge Group from UNILAG to Uganda in 2009. He was one of the expert assessors for the 1^st Claude Ake best Ph.D. thesis in Political Science in African Universities organized by the African Association of Political Science (AAPS), Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the African Integration Review of the African Union, Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Pan-African Inter-University Conference for Doctoral Studies with headquarters in Ghana. He has attended and presented papers at several International Conferences in different Continents of the world including Africa, Europe, Middle-East, Asia and North America. He is a Reviewer of African Journal of Political Science and International Relations. He was a former Editor-in-Chief of Unilag Journal of Politics, Editor of Journal of Business and Social Studies and Editor of ASUU Unilag Journal of Contemporary Issues. He is a member of many professional bodies including the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), Development Studies Association (DSA,U.K) and  National Association for Ethnic Studies (NAES,U.S.A).