Wale Adebanwi Is An African Gem, Role Model ~ President Buhari
Garba Shehu, Abuja; President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated Nigerian author and
scholar, Wale Adebanwi, on his appointment as Rdes Professorho in Race
Relations in the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies at the
University of Oxford, United Kingdom, describing him as an African gem
and role model who has brought honor and respect to the continent.
As the first black African scholar to be appointed to the endowed
Chair since it was created more than 60 years ago, President Buhari
affirms that Prof. Adebanwi’s sharp intellect and distinguished
learning is worthy of emulation by other young Nigerians.
The President who has maintained a keen interest in the soaring
profile of the scholar right from his early years in journalism in
Nigeria to a lecturer in the University of Ibadan is delighted to see
him achieve this much very early in his life.
At just 47 years, President Buhari notes that young Africans like
Adebanwi are showing the wit, steadfastness, creative energy and
astuteness of renowned African writers and intellectuals such as Wole
Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, John Pepper Clark and Abubakar Imam who put
the continent on the world’s knowledge map.
“He is a source of pride and inspiration to Black Africa as a whole,”
the President says.
President Buhari wishes the distinguished scholar more notable
successes as he clinches laurel upon laurel on his steady rise as a
scholar of international distinction.
