Graduates From UI wins Africa’s Best PhD Awards

Dr. Felix Ajiola, a graduate of the University of Ibadan, and a lecturer at the University of Lagos have been awarded as the winner of the Rahamon Bello Best Thesis Award for 2021.

The deputy director of the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies at the University of Lagos, Dr. Feyi Ademola-Adeoye posited that the award was organized by the Institution.

The Ph.D. thesis which Abiola submitted, was entitled: “Cocoa Production and Rural Development in Idanre, South Western Nigeria (1900 to 1996),” got him first place in the awards, and surmounted to a cash price of $1000.

Ademola-Adeoye explained that Ajiola is a lecturer at the History department at the University of Lagos. He emerged first out of 23 other persons from Nigerian and other African Universities.

The deputy director recalled that Adebayo Kudus Oluwatoyin, a sociologist at the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies, University of Lagos, and also a graduate of the University of Ibadan, had bagged the overall win in 2020; positioning UI graduates as winners of the award for two consecutive years.

The African Scholar commented:

“We have just announced the winner of this year’s award, and on December 7, we shall be doing the presentation ceremony to the winner.

“A couple of months ago, a call went out for people who finished their P.hD. in the last two years to apply for a competition that was being organized in honor of the 11^th vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Rahamon Bello. This is an annual event. The maiden one was held in 2020.

“We received a total of 24 entries, that is Ph.D. theses for this year, and it was limited to fresh holders who must have obtained the degree in the last two years.

“Following this call, people submitted their theses from various universities across the country, such as UNILAG, University of Ibadan, Covenant University, Babcock University, and Imo State University, among many others, as well as those from other parts of the continent.

“Assessors for the contest were drawn from Kenya, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom, and were all independent.

“However, in choosing the best three candidates in the competition, they all came together via zoom to harmonize their choices.

”I must tell you that they were unanimous in their choice of the first, second, and even the 3^rd place winners. Even though they worked independently, they all did their ranking, and in doing this, they discovered that their choices were the same,”

Dr. Joseph Kunnuji, came second place in the competition, with the thesis titled: “A Chronicle of Cultural Transformation: Ethnography of Badagry Ogu Musical Practices, Ph.D. (2021) Ethnomusicology, University of Cape Town, South Africa,”

Dr. Louis Kusi Frimpong, emerged third place, with the thesis titled: “Fear of Crime in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis: Exploring the Role of the Built Environment and Community Social Organisation, Ph.D. (2019), Geography and Resource Development, University of Ghana, Legon.”

Even as the Rahamon Bello Best Ph.D. Thesis Award was conceived to be awarded to intellectuals, whose Ph.D. theses promoted multi-disciplinary research in African studies, and addressed an issue in African and persons in Diaspora; Ademola-Adeoye stated that the second and third persons in the competition would be awarded with Certificates.