Ibadan School inaugurates Think Tank Group

The Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) has inaugurated its multi-disciplinary Technical Core Think Tank.

The group, which has 25 members, was inaugurated on Wednesday at the school’s board room in Bodija, Ibadan.

The Think Tank is made up of experts on governance, media, institutional reform, macroeconomics, energy economics, trade and tariff policy, demography, social statistics, local government and rural development, legal reforms and jurisprudence, science and technology policy, crime, criminality and security, foreign policy, labour and industrial relations, education, youth activism, gender, ICT, spirituality, religion and ethics, entrepreneurship, business and investment analysis, banking and finance, among others.

While inaugurating the body, the school’s Executive Vice Chairman, Dr. Tunji Olaopa, explained the mission of the school which he said was to rethink the governance space in Nigeria and Africa, so as to “get government to work better.”

According to him, in this era of change when the nation is seeking to migrate from the bad policies of the past, the school, which he said is research-driven, will mobilize expertise to get those in government to perform optimally.

Dr. Olaopa said the aim of the school was to grow to become a national think tank and resource centre for policy makers.

He said that The Think Tank was at two difference levels, one with Professor Akin Mabogunje as chairman and the other which was being inaugurated.

Among others, he said, the terms of reference of the group was to “brainstorm on topical issues deemed relevant for understanding of Nigeria’s development and democratic challenges and rethinking the direction around which issues of development and democracy can be crafted.”

The technical core group is made up of such scholars and practitioners as Professor CBN Ogbogbo of the Department of History, University of Ibadan; Professor Ayo Olukotun, Dr. Stephen Lawani, Dr. Festus Adedayo, Dr. Omo Aregbeyen of the Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, Dr. Adesina Afolayan of the Department of Philosophy of the same university, Dr. Akeem Amodu of the Lead City University, among others.