Mr. SAM NDA-ISAIAH, Kakakin Nupe (Chairman, Reunion Banquet)

 Chairman, Leadership Group

Sam graduated from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife in 1983 with a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy. While at Ife, he was the national editor-in-chief of the Pharmacy students’ magazine, Student Pharmacist. Perhaps the early stirrings of his journalistic passion could be traced to that student magazine, but his role model was elsewhere.

Sam sits on the board and is the chairman of several multi-national companies and organizations some of which includes the LEADERSHIP GROUP, Allan Woods Limited, LEADERSHIP House Limited, Air Nigeria Limited, Maitama Amusement Park Plc, Lease Praxis Limited, Banana Republic Limited, Oakhouse Forte Ltd, Robertsham Hotel, Clayfields and Harrow Ltd, Societa Generale Fondazioni (SGF), Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria (HERFON), Nupe Foundation, Edusoko University and the Heritage University.

Sam is an alumnus of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore and also of the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University, New York.

In 2011, he was conferred with the traditional title of Kakaki Nupe and also the Jakadan Potiskum. He has received the Kin Nupe (Nupe Kingdom) Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepren

Professor Toyin Falola (Keynote Speaker, Reunion Banquet),

Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin

Toyin Falola is a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria and a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. He has received various awards and honors, including the Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence, the Texas Exes Teaching Award, and he is the 2011 recipient of the Distinguished Africanist Award by the African Studies Association. He holds honorary doctorates from Monmouth University, CUNY-CSI, Adekunle Ajasin University, and Lead City University.

Falola has published numerous books, including The Power of African Cultures, Nationalism and African Intellectuals, and The African Diaspora: Slavery, Migrations and Globalization. For his contribution to the study of Africa, his students and colleagues have presented him with a set of five Festschriften, including two edited by Adebayo Oyebade, The Transformation of Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Toyin Falola and The Foundations of Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Toyin Falola, and one by Akin Ogundiran, Precolonial Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Toyin Falola. Toyin Falola: The Man, Mask and Muse presents bio-critical studies of his works in over a thousand pages. His memoir, A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt, captures the first twelve years of his life, and a forthcoming memoir, Counting the Tiger’s Teeth is on his years as a teenager.

Other Dignitaries expected at the Event are listed below, their bios can be found here :

1. Professor Rowland Ndoma-Egba – Pro Chancellor & Chairman of Council
2. Professor Idowu Bamitale Omole – Vice Chancellor and His Wife Mrs. Omobola Omole
3. Professor Ayobami Salami – Deputy Vice Chancellor Academics
4. Mr. Dotun Awoyemi – Registrar
5. Dr. Michael Adeyeye (DD, Office of Distance Learning – VC’s Entourage)
6. Alhaji Adeola Sokunbi
7. Mr. Oyewole Olaoye