The Nigerian Academy of Letters, NAL, used its 28th Convocation, Induction and Investiture on Thursday, 13th August 2026 at UNILAG to do what academies should do: challenge a nation.
The Academy admitted 46 new members – 11 Regular Fellows and 2 Honorary Fellows – and honoured excellence. But the central message, delivered by President Professor Andrew Haruna, was a demand for radical change in how Nigeria educates its children.
The ceremony opened with a tribute to Professor Emeritus Ayo Bamgbose, NNOM, NAL’s Foundation President and “architectural cornerstone.” The 11 Regular Fellows for 2026 inducted are: Professors Oladele Abiodun Balogun, Boniface Anthony Chijioke Obiefuna, Oyeronke Olademo, Nosa Owens-Ibie, AbdulRasheed Abiodun Adeoye, Rasaki Ojo Bakare, Emmanuel Taiwo Oladipupo Babalola, Oladipo Jacob Ajiboye, and Gbenga Solomon Ibileye. Professor Remi-Raji Oyelade was honoured for 2025. Professor Nwando Achebe joined as Overseas Fellow.
Honorary Fellowships went to His Royal Highness, Alhaji (Dr) Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, CFR, the Shehu of Borno and Chancellor of UNILAG, and Professor Ephraim Olabode Lucas. Mr. Tunde Kelani, http://D.Litt received the Award of Excellence in Humanistic Practice, while Professor Emeritus Femi Osofisan was named Distinguished Life Fellow.
The Convocation Lecture was delivered by Professor Imelda L. Udoh, Professor of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages in the University of Uyo, on the theme “Mother-Tongue Education Policy and the Paths to Nation Building.” This was followed by a Scientific Session with Professors Mohammed Sulaiman Audu, Yinusa Salami, and Vicky Slyvester as discussants. The diagnosis was stark: Nigeria has “mistranslated fluency in foreign tongues as the sole metric of intelligence” while indigenous languages “lie fallow.” Forcing children to learn concepts in a foreign language “fractures their identity.”
NAL’s “Solemn Charge” to the Federal and 36 State Governments was in 3 parts: standardize more indigenous languages, re-engineer teacher-training colleges for mother-tongue pedagogy, and aggressively fund localized textbooks in sciences, maths and humanities.
We must commend the foresight of the current President, Professor Andrew Haruna. By centering this 28th Convocation on mother-tongue education and nation building, he has positioned NAL as more than an honorary society. Under his leadership, the Academy has become a critical voice in national policy, insisting that development without culture is unsustainable.
This vision stands on the shoulders of giants. The foresight of the Foundation President, Professor Emeritus Ayo Bamgbose, NNOM, and the intellectual legacy of the Foundation Fellows – Professors Chinua Achebe, J.F. Ade Ajayi, A.E. Afigbo, Adeboye Babalola, J.P. Clark-Bekederemo, and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka – gave NAL its moral authority. Their successors have sustained that torch. This continuity of scholarship and patriotism is why NAL’s voice matters today.
To the nation, NAL said: “Your mother tongue is your primary asset, not a badge of backwardness. True patriotism begins in the language of the home.”
In his closing, Professor Haruna asked that “this convocation be more than an annual ritual of robes and academic pageantry. Let it be a crucible for linguistic and intellectual rebirth” and that we place “the mother tongue at the centre of our national evolution.”
Education Monitor agrees. Honours without implementation are empty. If Nigeria wants a 21st-century economy, technological advancement, and social cohesion, we must stop building on “psychological alienation.” The humanities must lead, and our classrooms must be decolonized.
NAL has provided the blueprint. Government must now act.