International Conference On Drama and Theatre holds in honour of Adelugba at UNILAG

A Two-day International Conference on Drama and Theatre holds at the University of Lagos on Tuesday, December 1 and Wednesday December 2.
To present papers are Prof. Chris Dunton (from Lesotho), Prof Patrick Ebewo(South Africa), Dr Chika Anyanwu (Australia), Dr. Julie Umukoro (Okaka, Delta State), Prof Mabel Enwerhioma (Abuja), Dr Marcel Okhakhu (Benin); Dr Ben Ejiofor (Port Harcourt); Dr Salihu Bappa (ABU) and others.
According to Prof. Duro Oni, chairman, Dapo Adelugba@70 Committee, who is the Dean of Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos, “the international symposium will feature contributions from major scholars and theatre artists in Nigeria and abroad on the work of Dapo Adelugba , theatre arts and the literature in general.”
He revealed, “it is in recognition of Adelugba’s contribution to Nigerian Drama and Theatre a festschrift which critically respond to Adelugba’s work, or which interrogate his interpretation of any area of theatre practice is also being put together to celebrate the theatre icon. Some of the papers to be presented at the International Symposium will form part of the papers for the festschrift for publication in 2010.”
On the festschrift, he said, “a pamphlet of tributes will be published for the celebration but the festschrift will be published afterwards to include contributions arising from the celebration.”
The conference is part of activities lined-up for the 70th birthday celebration of Professor Dapo Adelugba.
Oni said, “all activities start on November 29 and end on December 6.” He added, “the events would hold at the National Theatre and the University of Lagos.”
The events lined up for the celebrations include an Arts Stampede, which holds at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, on Sunday, November 29. The Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA) will facilitate the Stampede.

Among other things, Adelugba was the Director of Nigeria’s drama entry to the Second World Festival of Arts and Culture (Festac ‘77), Chairman of Oyo State Council of Arts and Culture, the Arts Director of University of Ibadan, Theatre Arts, where he was also a Professor for many years. He is the Secretary-General of the Nigeria Chapter of the International Theatre Institute (ITI). He is currently a visiting Professor at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (2005 - Present). In all these roles, Dapo Adelugba’s contributions place him alongside some of the greatest names in African theatre.
Adelugba has had a distinguished career in the academia. After taking an Honours’ degree in English from the University of London (Ibadan) in 1962, he proceeded to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for his postgraduate wok in Theatre Arts. Then he returned to Nigeria, where he began his teaching career at Ibadan Grammar school before joining the faculty of the University of Ibadan in September 1967.
His position at Ibadan, together with his association with other universities in Nigeria and other places as Fellow, External Examiner or Theatre Director, has given him the added benefit of working with, a number of Theatre scholars such as Professors Wole Soyinka, J P Clark-Bekederemo, Abiola Irele, Martin Banham, Prof Femi Osofisan, the late Ola Rotimi and Zulu Sofola. He also worked extensively with Tunji Oyelana and the late Wale Ogunyemi.

Among the numerous students that have trained under Adelugba are Professors Niyi Osundare, Duro Oni, Ziky Kofoworola, Saint Gbilekaa, Oga Steve Abah, Patrick Ebewo, Osita Okagbue.
Others have included Tunde Oloyede, Ihria Enakimio, Zulu Zik Okafor, Tade Adekunle, Chuck Mike, among others.
Adelugba has written a number of seminal books, including a translation from French of Bakary Traore’s Le theatre negro-africain et ses fonctions sociales (The Black African Theatre and Its Social Functions), celebratory collections on Wole Soyinka and Wale Ogunyemi, and articles in several learned journals.






Varsities get big relief in Ghana
By TOPE TEMPLER OLAIYA
An expansion programme to address the perennial problem of inadequate accommodation for students and staff in Ghana’s public universities will take off soon.
Under the project, additional lecture halls, more funds for research and development, as well as improved remuneration for lectures and other auxiliary staff at the universities will be provided. President John Evans Atta Mills announced this when he met the executive board of the African Universities Association (AUA) at the Castle Osu, last week.
He explained that the government plans to elevate the universities to world-class standards by offering students opportunity to pursue academic disciplines tailored towards meeting the demands of society.
According to him, the government had realised that rebuilding the capacities of the universities is in a way guaranteeing the future economic progress of the country and improving the material conditions of the broad masses of the people.
President Mills told members of the association, led by its President, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, that the government would not toy with education, which it considered the key to the country’s prosperity.
He explained that the country’s economic development could not be sustained if the government played down the significance of university education by allocating fewer resources to the sector. President Mills said the ability of the government to actively support the universities would guarantee a continuous stream of intellectuals who could help address the rising expectations of society.
On his part, Oloyede congratulated Mills on his election as the Head of State of Ghana, saying, “The AUA is proud that one of our own had been elected President of Ghana.”






Universities, industries challenged as Unilorin marks Varsity Day
By TOPE TEMPLER OLAIYA
African universities have been challenged to rise to their duties by not only generating ideas but also converting their research efforts to industrial growth and development. Academics were also charged to collaborate with one another in the present age of globalisation as development can only be achieved through the harmonisation of science and technology, education and industrial policies.
These were part of the submissions of experts and senior academics that spoke at the African University Day forum held recently at the University of Ilorin. They were all unanimous in suggesting that universities and industries have to partner in order to advance their common interest: development.
While giving his opening remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, (Management Services), Prof. Albert B. Olayemi, observed that such a forum is necessary especially as Africa face such challenges as poverty, hunger, diseases, which are not as prevalent in other parts of the world.
He noted that though the role of universities has been to generate and impart knowledge, the missing link confronting many African universities is that while graduates have knowledge, they lack skills. This gap, the VC added, had made most products of Nigerian universities unemployable.
In his lead paper presented at the occasion, “Research-Industry Linkage: Critical Issues and Strategies for Action” the Director General/Chief Executive of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST) Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Dr. Willie O. Siyanbola, observed that countries in today’s world must improve their capacity to produce and manage knowledge.
Siyanbola noted that universities and industry hardly interacted in the past but the need of the day, which is the continuous generation and application of new knowledge, necessitates University-Industry interactions, which is studied globally under the framework of National Innovation Systems (NIS).
While encouraging researchers to patent their inventions before disclosing them in journals in a linear patent, publish and prosper order, the resource person belied the saying that he who wants to catch a monkey should imitate a monkey counter-arguing that an educated person has to outsmart a monkey, not imitate it, in order to catch it.

He deplored the weak university-industry interactions prevalent in Nigeria and urged researchers to conduct market-driven researches while industries should exploit the inventions of the university. He also advocated the establishment and strengthening of brokerage/interface organizations and concluded that new knowledge is desirable and, quoting the Nigerian computer whisked, Prof. Philip Emeagwali, “knowledge is capital, the rest is money”.
Speaking also at the occasion, Prof. Joseph Morakinyo in his paper, “African Universities: Linkages with the Productive Sector”, which was the theme of the day, observed that “it is becoming increasingly clear that the higher educational sector and the industrial sector need each other in the emerging world of knowledge economy and technology based businesses” just as he called for mutual cooperation and confidence building between the two.
Prof. Morakinyo, who is the Director of Technical and Entrepreneurship Centre of the university, identified such partnerships as the driving force behind the industrial growth of many developed nations. He then clamoured for linking the training offered by universities to the needs of the society just as he enjoined universities to emphasise the market value of different disciplines and specialities while the university should pay “more attention to human capital development.”