The Vice Chancellor
Eghosa E. Osaghae, is Professor of Comparative Politics and Vice Chancellor of Igbinedion University, Okada, Nigeria. Before taking up appointment at Okada, he was Leader of the Ford Foundation-funded Programme on Ethnic and Federal Studies, Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Ibadan, and chair of the University’s Senate Curriculum Committee. Between 1994 and 1998, he was Professor and Head of the Department of Political Studies at the University of Transkei, South Africa. He has also been a Visiting Professor/Fellow/Distinguished Senior Scholar at the Carter Centre of Emory University USA (1989), University of Liberia (1989/90), Salzburg Seminar, Austria (1993), University of Cape Town South Africa (1994), the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala Sweden (1994), University of Ulster, Northern Ireland (1999, 2000), Northwestern University USA (2002, 2004), University of Cambridge UK (2003), a number of universities and research institutes in India (2005), Dartmouth College USA (2005) and Yale University USA (2009). He was a Rockefeller ‘Reflections on Development’ Fellow (1989/90), and was most recently a MacArthur Fellow. In 1996, he won the "Best Paper Award" at the Eighth annual conference of the International Association for Conflict Management in Helsignor, Denmark. Professor Osaghae also won the “Best Article Award for 2004” of the African Politics Conference Group - a coordinate group of the American Political Science Association, African Studies Association and International Studies Association. The same article also won the 2004 Lawrence Dunbar Reddick Memorial Scholarship Award for the best article on Africa published in the Journal of Third World Studies.
He served as Chair of the Pan-African Working Group on “Building Institutional Effectiveness in Africa” hosted by the Institute for Global Dialogue (South Africa) and Federal Trust Fund (UK) between 2005 and 2006, and has been a member of the Technical Advisory Panel and Network on Parliaments and Parliamentary Institutions of the African Capacity Building Foundation, Harare, Zimbabwe, since 2003. Between 1998 and 2004, he was Africa's representative on the Steering Committee of the Civil Society and Governance Project based at the IDS of the University of Sussex, UK. In 2006, he was appointed member of the Centre Advisory Review Group, Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability, IDS, University of Sussex, UK. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the Consortium for Development Partnerships, a successful model of north-south intellectual collaboration that involves institutions from North America, Europe and Africa. He is a member of several learned societies including the Nigerian Political Science Association, the Ethnic Studies Network, Association of African Political Scientists, and the South African Political Studies Association. He has served as Editor of the African Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies (2003-2004) and Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Journal of the Faculty of Arts, University of Transkei (1996-1998), member of Editorial Board, Politikon: Journal of the South African Political Studies Association (1998-2003), member of Editorial Board, International Journal of African Studies: Journal of the Center for African Studies, Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio, USA, since 1998, member of Editorial Board, African Security UK, and Voluntas: Journal of Third Sector Research USA. In 2002, he was Consultant to the African Development Bank’s Country Mission to Zambia, and produced the country’s Governance Profile. Between 2001 and 2003, he was a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Political Affairs in Nigeria, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Nigeria Development Forum. He has consulted for the USAID, DFID, UNDP, and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), and is founder and chair of the Governing Board of the Community Relations and Conflict Resolution Centre in Ibadan.
Professor Osaghae has published extensively on ethnicity, federalism, governance and state politics in books and journals, and attended over 300 conferences, workshops and seminars in different parts of North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Amongst his books are Federal Character and Federalism in Nigeria (1989), Between State and Civil Society in Africa (1994), The Management of the National Question in Nigeria (2001), Structural Adjustment and Ethnicity in Nigeria (1995), Ethnicity, Class and State Power in Liberia (1995), Crippled Giant: Nigeria Since Independence (1998), The Nigerian Civil War and its Aftermath (2002) and Researching Conflict in Africa: Insights and Experiences (2005), a co-edited book published by the United Nations University Press. He has published well over 100 articles in books and learned international journals. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Peace Research, Peace Review, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Forum for Development Studies, Nations and Nationalism, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Publius: Journal of Federalism, Journal of Modern African Studies, African Affairs, Review of African Political Economy, International Journal of World Peace, and Journal of Third World Studies among others.
Born on 25 May 1960, Professor Osaghae attended Christ Anglican School, now Payne Primary School, Benin City (1965-1969), Eghosa Anglican Grammar School (1970-1974), Edo College (1974-1976), and the University of Ibadan (1976-1979, 1980-1986). He obtained the B.Sc. (Hons) Second Class Upper in Political Science in 1979 at the age of 19, the M.Sc. in 1981 and Ph.D. in 1986 at 26. His academic career began at the Bayero University Kano, where as a Youth Corper on national service, he was Graduate Assistant in 1979/80. He became a full Professor of Comparative Politics in 1994 at the age of 34. In 1992, Professor Osaghae, in collaboration with Dr Uyilawa Usuanlele, Mr. Ogie Ogedegbe, and a few others organized the International Conference on Benin Studies: the Centenary Years, to assess the impact of colonialism on Benin Studies since 1892 when the Benin-British Treaty was signed. That conference provided the pedestal for the establishment of what is today the Institute for Benin Studies and also served to awaken the intellectual interests that culminated in the centenary celebration of what popular history refers to as the Benin Massacre in 1997.
Professor Osaghae is happily married to Veronica Amen (nee Jatto), and they are blessed with children. In December 2008, he was Priested by the Bishop of Benin Diocese (Anglican Communion), Rt. Rev. P.O.J. Imasuen. He serves as Education Advisor to the Lord Bishop.
