PROFESSOR IYABODE OMOLARA AKEWO NWABUEZE, MNAL
Prof Iyabode Omolara Akewo Nwabueze (nee Authe) was born at 6am on Monday, 20 May, 1968 to late Chief Samuel Aikanjuola and late Mrs Florence Ebun Authe in Okpe, Akoko Edo, Edo State. She is the fifth child of her parents. She started her primary education at St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Inalende, Ibadan from 1974-1980. Her secondary school was at Eleyele Secondary School, Eleyele, Ibadan from 1980-1985. She began her higher education in 1987 at the University of Ibadan where she obtained BEd English/Language Arts in 1991, MA English (language) in 1998, and PhD English (language) in 2008.
She started her work career as a Youth Corp member with the Education Corp of the Nigerian Army, at 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala Barracks, Abeokuta, Ogun State where she taught English Language to soldiers on a six-month course training. She taught two sets before her service year was over in 1992. She was employed as a trainee reporter in The Guardian newspapers from 1992 to 1993 when she departed to Igarra as a classroom teacher at the Anglican Grammar School, Igarra, Edo State until that appointment was terminated in 1996 by the Edo State Military Government. She had by then commenced her MA in English, which she concluded in January 1998. In the course of this, she was self-employed in her business, trying to make ends meet after her retrenchment from Edo State. She then taught at Divine Kiddies Academy from December 1996 to October 1997, from where she was appointed as a classroom teacher by the Kogi State Government at Government Science Secondary School, Ogaminana, Kogi State. She moved from there to become Lecturer III at the Federal College of Education, Okene from 2000 to 2009. She commenced her PhD in English in 2005 and completed the same in 2008. She transferred her service to the National Open University of Nigeria in 2009 as a Programme Leader II/Senior Lecturer in the defunct School of Arts and Social Sciences. She was appointed a Visiting Scholar at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana from 2015 to 2016 on sabbatical leave as an Associate Professor of English Language. She grew within the ranks until she was appointed the first Professor of English at the National Open University of Nigeria, effective 1 January, 2017.
As a language scholar, she has attended conferences nationally and internationally. She has won several travel grants to these conferences, the first of the international travel grants she obtained was by the Commonwealth of Learning in 2010 to the Sixth Pan African Forum (PCF6) in Karachi, Kerala, India. She has attended others with the support from the NOUN, TETFund, and the INEC’s The Electoral Institute (TEI) at several national and international meets and across continents. She has also obtained book publication grants from TETFund. These have resulted in two publications sponsored by TETFund – one published and the other in press. She has also obtained two research grants from the National Open University of Nigeria under the auspices of the Senate Research Grant instituted by the current Vice-Chancellor. While one is complete, the other one is still in process. She looks forward to its completion soonest as the little data the team could access had been collected.
She has also published her research work in national and international outlets. Her first full published academic text is in phonetics and phonology while the second one, which is a book of readings, is on communication and language skills. As noted above, she also has three other academic books to her credit, two of them as co-editor on syntax and virtual communication and the other one on the history of Akumazi-Umuocha Kingdom, the third is a co-authored text on Psycholinguistics. She has contributed chapters to books of readings in and outside of her university. Her journal publications covered research areas such as syntax, phonetics and phonology, semantics, and the teaching of English language, with a number making inroads to the woman question in their applications and analyses. She is the Editor-in-Chief, The NOUN Scholar, Faculty of Arts journal. She is also an editorial member and reviewer to several academic journals, including Cogent Arts and Humanities by Taylor and Francis Publishing in the United Kingdom and Horizon, Malaysia.
She has also written course materials and made instructional videos to help increase learning accessibility to her students. The listed publications are in excess of 48, with others at various stages of the publication process; she already has two of her journal articles published this year. She coordinated the review of the BA English programme as Head of Unit as well as developed the MA English and PhD English programmes. This is in addition to the coordination of writing teams for different language courses in her Department, including the development of the CCMAs content for the language component of the BA English, the BA Linguistics, and BA Film Production and Theatre Arts programmes in the Faculty.
She has supervised NCE, BA, and MA/MPhil long essays in FCE, Okene, NOUN and the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana. She currently has two PhD students on her supervision list. She served as an external examiner to two PhD theses at Karunya Institute of Science and Technology, Tamul Nadu, India.
She currently leads some research teams. These include one on gender studies, one on child language studies, another on language and COVID-!9 studies, the Nigerian languages preservation project, and recently on the economic well-being of SME borrowers.
She is also a creative writer and has variously exhibited her works on different platforms. She has about eight titles to her credit (in different formats – print and Kindle), one of which you are all taking home as a gift today for coming to this inaugural lecture in person. These can be found on her website, www.akewoauthe.ng under the pen name, Lara Authe.
As part of her community service activities, she is currently a member, Board of Trustees, Family Restoration Initiative (FARI), Lagos. In addition, she is the Chairwoman, Local School Board, Kingdom Heritage Model School, Lokogoma. She was the leader of Media and Creativity Unit, Living Faith Church, Lokogoma, by which office she was the Editor for the defunct church bulletin/magazine, The Strange Acts of God Today from 2021 to 2023. She is the Editor in Chief, Echoes of His Love, a monthly magazine production, which is a part of her divinely assigned writing ministry. She is also an active member of the Akhiboya Age Group in Okpe. She is an active participant in the Peculiar Estate Landlord and Residents Forum. She has severally used her life skills and resources for the purpose of impacting others on the academic, social, and spiritual fronts.
She was a member, Supervisory Committee of NOUN Staff Cooperative Society Ltd from 2017 to 2019. She is the pioneer Chairwoman, NOUN Academic Staff Forum, which has transmuted into the current NOUN Academic Staff Union. She is the pioneer and current President, NOUN Academic Staff Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd. She was the Director, Benin Study Centre and is currently the first consecutive two-term Dean, Faculty of Arts. She is a member, NOUN 7th Governing Council, representing the NOUN Senate.
She is a member of many professional bodies, including ACDE, ICDE, ANA, ESAN, PrAN, and the prestigious Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL), into which she was inducted in August, 2023.
She is happily married to Prof Ndukaeze Nwabueze with children and grandchildren.
28.8.24
Prof Iyabode Nwabueze, MNAL
IYABODE OMOLARA AKEWO NWABUEZE 