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The Executive Vice-Chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, will on Tuesday deliver the 10th inaugural lecture of the Lead City University, Ibadan.
Olaopa, who was recently appointed professor by the institution, will speak on “ The Big Bad Bureaucracy? Reinventing the Bureaucracy as a new Public Service.”
The retired federal permanent secretary will deliver the lecture on behalf of the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences of the university.
A statement by the director of ISGPP, Dr Louisa Andah describes the inaugural lecture as ‘’an intellectual and critical diagnosis of the Nigerian Public service including the administrative maladies and conditions that have stifled its optimal functionality and relevance in the socio-political set up of the nation.”
The statement added: “The lecture which represents a statement of Professor Olaopa’s research and practical sojourn as a scholar-practitioner for close to 30 years shines the lights on the strategic institution of the civil service, highlights its failure to live up to its potentials and delivers a development that mirrors the failing of the Nigerian state which is still crawling in spite of its vast human and material resources…
“Professor Olaopa’s lecture has the remarkable distinction of being a product of an amalgamation of theory and practise, which is in line with best global educational trajectory of institutions who now leverage on bringing industry relevant experiences to the ivory towers through the presence of practitioners who have submitted themselves to academic rigour and are, therefore, willing to enrich their fields through teaching and research activities.”
Foremost historian, Prof. Toyin Falola, who will be chairing a post inaugural discourse on ‘Scholar-Practitioner Model as Game Changer in University Education’, points out that the stock of university education and training received, is boosted when academics cease to exist within an intellectual cocoon,instead their research forays into the world of practicecan be better enriched with the presence of practitioners who have submitted themselves to academic rigour and are, therefore, willing to enrich their fields through teaching and research activities.
According to Falola “the integration of ‘workplace professors’ like Professor Tunji Olaopa will help faculties ensure that their industry-related teaching is relevant and realistic while from the knowledge-sharing process, they can create a lot more flexible course programmes that will identify new research areas, ensure increased innovation, and promulgation of solutions to actual problems in the target industries”.