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Published 5 March 2021
A fortnight ago, the news broke that Distinguished Humanities Scholar of the University of Texas, Austin, Prof. Toyin Falola, has been awarded a Doctor of Letters degree by the Postgraduate School of the University of Ibadan. Were the latest academic memento an honorary degree, it would have caused little or no stir, especially as the recipient is already bedecked with laurels of recognition from across the globe. However, the statement posted online made clear that this is an earned degree being awarded by the University of Ibadan for the first time.
A Doctor of Letters can be described simply, as a Higher Doctorate degree, patterned in the Anglophone University tradition on the Oxford University, England’s prototype. Initially called the ‘Doctor of Literature’ at Oxford, the degree became known by the broader and more significant ‘Doctor of Letters’; some countries apply the name, ‘Doctor of Humane Letters’ to empha
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“History teaches us that this would not be the last pandemic, epidemics are a fact of life”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organisation.
The popular greeting and courteous wish, Happy New Year, contains the optimistic suggestion that the year in this case, 2021, will be an improvement on the year, 2020, that faded away yesterday. Helpful and kind wish that is, for without the hope of a better future, we will all sink into despair and the decay that comes with the loss of a very valuable asset. That said, we understand that improvement does not just happen in human affairs, as a corollary, there are chances that matters may get better as much as they may get worse. That is partly why the Director-General of the WHO considered it pertinent to warn that humanity and indeed Nigerians will be living in a Fool’s Paradise if they imagine that COVID-19, which in some countries has entered a second rebound, will be the last pan