Prof. Olukoya Ogen has won the 2025 Distinguished UNIOSUN Ambassador Award for International Recognition. The award was conferred on him yesterday during the grand finale of the 15th Convocation ceremonies of Osun State University.
While announcing the conferment of the award, the Vice Chancellor of UNIOSUN, Prof Odunayo Clement Adebooye stated that Prof. Ogen’s preferment was predicated on his recent election as the second Nigerian historian to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of the United Kingdom. The 157- year old association is UK’s most prestigious international community of historians.
Dr. Toyese Najeem Dahunsi, the Ag. Director of the Directorate of lnter- Campus Relations and Public Affairs who nominated Prof Olukoya Ogen for the prestigious award also stated that within the period under review, the awardee facilitated the inclusion of Osun State University among the six institutional beneficiaries of a German Research Foundation (DFG)-funded grant on the role of social identities in inter-religious arrangements across sub-Saharan Africa.
According to him, the two-year grant is a transcontinental research collaboration among colleagues from the University of Münster, the University of Birmingham, Osun State University, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, University of Gaston Berger and Makerere University.
The DFG grant is an integral component of a larger “Religion and Politics Cluster of Excellence” research grant housed at the University of Münster. It involves 140 researchers drawn from 10 countries. It is the largest research network of its kind in Germany. The inclusion of UNIOSUN in this research consortium amply demonstrates UNIOSUN’s determination to consolidate on its enviable reputation as a major destination and centre for innovative collaborative research.
Besides, Dahunsi further noted that Ogen recently initiated and successfully consummated a collaborative relationship with the University of Texas at Austin, United States, UNESCO and the Board of the Toyin Falola International Conference on Africa and the African Diaspora (TOFAC), which led to the successful hosting of TOFAC 2025 at UNIOSUN.
According to the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Odunayo Clement Adeboooye, the totality of Ogen’s global intellectual exploits underscores UNIOSUN’s commitment to advancing knowledge and fostering international engagement. It would be recalled that Prof. Ogen had earlier in 2023, won the UNIOSUN Gold Award for Research Excellence. This was the maiden university’s premier prize for excellence in research and grantsmanship.