Kayode Soremekun is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

academic, author, and the third vice chancellor of Federal University Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State. He assumed duty after the sacking of professor Isaac Asuzu by President

Mohammadu Buhari Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015. Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 Au ...

who took over from Professor Chinedu Nebo, the pioneer Vice Chancellor

Early life

Soremekun attended Nigeria's premier secondary grammar school, King's College Lagos, from 1967 to 1971. He attended the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University where he obtained a B.A. English/History and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in International relations. The Ph.D. was on Nigeria's petroleum policy and international relations. Soremekun undertook postdoctoral studies at the

Institute of Social Studies The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam is an independent and international graduate school of policy-oriented critical social science. ISS was established in 1952 by Dutch universities and the Neth ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, Netherlands and the University of Maryland College Park, US where he studied international law and the US foreign policy process, respectively.

Career

Soremekun worked in several universities in Nigeria, including Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Lagos,

Covenant University Covenant may refer to: Religion * Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general ** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible ** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...

and the

National Open University of Nigeria The National Open University of Nigeria is a federal open and distance learning (ODL) institution, the first of its kind in the West African sub-region. It is Nigeria's largest tertiary institution in terms of student number and is popularly ...

. During tenure as Vice Chancellor in Federal University Oye, he added eleven Faculties. It offers virtually all the courses on offer in Nigeria's First Generation Universities. He was commended by the University Council, and very much the same commendation was in his exit letter from the university. He retired from Obafemi Awolowo University as Dean. In his memoirs he referred to the fact that a refurbishment of the Faculty of Administration took place courtesy of the funds that he was able to source from Nigerian Brewries Limited. Faculties including Law, Social Sciences, and Education followed suit.

Works

Soremekun has edited several books, including ''Governance and Democratization in Nigeria'' (1995), and ''Nigeria's Second Republic'' (1988). He also worked as a staff writer in political affairs, for Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, and for ''Times International'' and ''Daily Times of Nigeria''. He served on the editorial board of ''Daily Times'' Lagos. He was an editorial training instructor for Times Newspaper Training Centre, ''Daily Times Lagos''. He was a visiting editorial board member of ''The AM News,'' a pro-democracy, quasi-guerilla newspaper during military rule in Nigeria. He worked as a visiting editorial board member of ''The Guardian'' and ''The Compass'' newspapers. Prior to his assumption of office as Vice-Chancellor he served as chairman of the editorial board of ''Business Day,'' a daily business newspaper in Nigeria. Soremekun has published journal articles on inter-related areas of conflict,

petroleum politics Petroleum politics have been an increasingly important aspect of diplomacy since the rise of the petroleum industry in the Middle East in the early 20th century. As competition continues for a vital resource, the strategic calculations of major a ...

, and energy resources. He has around 50 peer-reviewed publications. Soremekun served as External Examiner to the

University of Ghana, Legon The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the B ...

. He has also served as a Visiting Lecturer in the Peace Studies Program in the Universitat Jaime 1 in Castellon,Spain.

Recognition

* Scholarship student in Kings College, Lagos. (1967 -1971) * National Scholar Award, (1973 - 1976) * Ford Foundation Scholar (1991) * Senior Fulbright Research Scholar (2003) * Resident Rockefeller Scholar in Bellagio Italy (2003)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soremekun, Kayode Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian universities Academic staff of the National Open University of Nigeria Academic staff of the University of Lagos Obafemi Awolowo University alumni Academic staff of Covenant University