Warm felicitations to Professor Olu Obafemi, FNAL on his conferment of the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) of the Federal University Lokoja (FUL) which was conferred by the Chancellor, HRH Alhaji (Dr.) Muhammadu Abali Ibn Muhammadu Idris (CFR), the Emir of Fika and Chairman, Yobe State Council of Chiefs and Emirs, following the approval of Senate, during the 6th and 7th Combined Convocation Ceremony held on Saturday, October 21, 2023.

The Management of Federal University Lokoja under the leadership of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Olayemi Akinwumi is proud of your outstanding contributions to knowledge as a distinguished scholar of no mean repute.

Professor Obafemi, prolific playwright, novelist, literary and theatre scholar, is a thoroughbred academic whose achievement in literary and theatrical scholarship stands him out as a scholar with a profound capacity in literature, drama, and theatre. He goes down easily as a literato of ingenious abilities in the Scopus of literary criticism here in Nigeria and abroad. 

After over four decades of distinguished scholarship, administrative excellence, and developmental-oriented public service, Professor Olu Obafemi has retired from active research and teaching, yet his insatiable hunger for literary scholarship has continued to keep him in the academic hub of world, African, and Nigerian literature and drama. 

It is on record that Professor Olu Obafemi has published over seventy articles (70) in national and international outlets; about fourteen scholarly books; and at least sixteen (16) works of creativity in the sub-genres of Drama, Poetry, and Prose Narration. Prominent amongst the scholarly books credited to him include Nigerian Theatre, generally known as the Bible of Theatre Studies by theatre scholars and students; Contemporary Nigerian Theatre, Politics and Aesthetics in Nigerian Theatre, Aesthetics and Ideology in Nigerian Theatre, Public Discourse; Culture, language and literature, Ideology and Stage-craft in Nigeria, etc. 

His creative works include Wheels (a Novel), Illuminations which got an Honorable mention for ANA/Okara Prize for 2010, Songs of Hope (Poetry), Naira has no Gender, Dark Times are Over?, Nights of a Mystical Beast, Pestle on the Mortar, Ogidi Mandate which won the 2011 ANA/J.P. Clark Prize for Drama, Suicide Syndrome, The New Dawn, Scapegoats and Sacred Cows, Running Dreams...Twirls of Adiitu, and Iyunade, Near and Distant Cries (Drama).

In addition to his accomplished achievement in writing academic materials and critical engagements, he has a rich resume in the areas of university administration and leadership/membership of professional Associations.

It is pertinent to mention that the many years that Professor Olu Obafemi has given in service to Nigeria and the world did not go unnoticed by the Government in Nigeria. He was rewarded as the sole recipient of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) in 2018, presented to him at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Nigeria.

Professor Obafemi delivered the 6th and 7th Combined Convocation Lecture of the Federal University Lokoja entitled: "The Role of University Education in a Society in Constant Transition" on Thursday, October 19, 2023.

Congratulations! See more pictures here