Soyinka Foundation partners Lebanese
university on exchange programme
Sunday, August 28, 2016 1:33 pm
L-R: Prof. Folabo Soyinka-Ajaji; Dr.
Habib Jafaar; Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and his wife, Folake Soyinka
at the press conference in Lagos to unveil the exchange programme between the
Wole Soyinka Foundation and Cedars Institute, Notre Dame University, Lebanon on
Thursday in Lagos.
Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Wole Soyinka Foundation is
partnering with the Cedars Institute, Notre Dame University, Lebanon on an
exchange programme that will see Nigerian students travel to Lebanon on an
intensive course designed to broaden their world perspectives.
The exchange programme will see five
Nigerian students, selected by their faculties from universities across the
nation, depart for Beirut, Lebanon.
There they will unite with their
peers from other countries in an intensive, interactive course on a syllabus
designed to broaden their world perspectives. They will be introduced to a
modern Middle-Eastern nation with a complex history, filled with scenic
surprises, a rich and fascinating cultural heritage, and a long experience in
conflict resolution through experiments in governance systems.
The exchange programme is under the
Sail Project (Study abroad in Lebanon) and is being facilitated by Dr. Habib
Jafaar, a biochemist by training.
At a news conference on Thursday in
Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, Jafaar said the programme would benefit Nigerian
students and expose them to international clime.
According to Dr. Folake Soyinka of
the Wole Soyinka Foundation, the foundation felt privileged to have been
invited to partner with Cedars in this project that is dedicated to cultural
exchanges and international collaboration.
She explained that the programme
would be in batches, with the first batch of five students ready to leave the
shore of Nigeria to Lebanon.
Folake stated that the exchange
programme was meant for students in Nigeria universities and polytechnics, but
noted that no participant from the polytechnics applied under the first batch,
adding that initially, three slots were given to Nigerian students but was
later increased to five.
The partnership of the University of
Notre Dame and Nigeria actually goes back some years, as one of its most
memorable initiatives being an international Colloquium on the one-year
anniversary of the death of Chinua Achebe, titled: “Honouring Chinua Achebe, a
Lebanese-Nigerian Celebration.”
That event was presided over by the
then Nigerian Ambassador Plenipotentiary, Amos Oluwole Idowu.
Among the presenters at that event
were Dr. Yusuf Rahme, founder and President of Cedars Institute; Dr. Guita
Hourani, Director of the Emigration Research Centre, Notre Dame University and
Dr. Edward Alam, Professor, Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. The
two keynote addresses on “The Legacy of Chinua Achebe” were delivered by
Professor Emenyonu, Chair of African Studies, University of Michigan, and Dr.
Willy Fawole, Obafemi Awolowo University, while the Guest Speaker was Nobel
Laureate and Professor Emeritus, Wole Soyinka.
Nigerian participation, both at that
event and the commencing Exchange programme was facilitated by Dr. Jafaar.
According to Prof. Soyinka, “I am
interested in the effort of the foundation to try and expose youthful minds to
other culture of civilization.”
He said this was the first effort to
participate in youthful exercise, saying that his foundation was invited to
collaborate and to select some students to participate in the programme in
Lebanon.
The Nobel laureate also decried the
relegation of History as a subject in Nigerian schools, calling for its
re-introduction.
No comments:
Post a Comment