NIGERIAN VISITING SCHOLARS AT GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

Three Mathematics Lecturers from Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto join Mason as Visiting Scholars

Three Mathematics lecturers from the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto with support from the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND) spent one year at Mason as a visiting scholar in 2014. The three mathematic scholars are Dr. Halima Usman, Dr. Isah and Hamza Muhammed, and Dr. Bala Isah Yabo.

Former Nigeria’s INEC Boss Joins George Mason University as a Visiting Scholar

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The former chair of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega has joined George Mason University as a visiting scholar. Professor Jega, a scholar and practitioner of international politics and democracy previously served as the Vice Chancellor of the Bayero University Kano. He was also a one-time National President of the Academic Staff Union of the Universities. Professor Jega successfully managed and transformed the complex Nigerian electoral system of 69 million registered voters, 155,000 polling booths, and 700,000 staff. The credibility and transparency of Nigeria’s 2011 and 2015 elections were attributed to the excellent leadership of Professor Jega. Since the 2015 election, the former INEC Chair has received many accolades and commendations, including the 2015 Elections Commissioner of the Year Award by the International Center for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) and winner of the 2015 IFES Democracy Award, and so on. Prof. Jega is the only chairman of INEC that has organized two national elections, and the most recent resulted in Nigeria’s first democratic transfer of power to an opposition party.

Before joining Mason, Prof. Jega left INEC in June 2015 at the end of his tenure to return to his lecturing job at the Department of Political Science, Bayero University Kano. Now a visiting scholar, Professor Jega will spend six months at Mason working on a book project about his experience in the 2015 election.

Nigeria Team at Mason L-R: Sanusi Barkindo, Prof. Jega, Mr Abubakar, Prof. Paden, and Dr. Ogbozor

The Nigeria team at Mason led by Professor John Paden, Clarence Robinson Professor Emeritus of International Studies facilitated Professor Jega's fellowship. The other members of the Nigeria-Mason team include Dr. Muhammadu Barkindo, newly nominated OPEC Secretary General/Mason Visiting Scholar; Ahmad Abubakar, Rice Fellow; and Ernest Ogbozor, PhD Candidate at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. The coming of Prof. Jega to Mason is timely -a period when the US is gearing up for a presidential election. The US party primaries have witnessed heated debates and vicious campaigns, raising questions if the time has come for the leading democratic nations to start learning from their third-world counterparts.

Nigerian Visiting Scholar at George Mason University’s Elected to Replace el-Badri as OPEC Boss

The delegates at the 169th conference of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

(OPEC) held in Vienna, Thursday, June 2nd, 2016, have elected Muhammadu Barkindo to replace

Abdallah Salem el-Badri from Libya as the OPEC Secretary General. Barkindo in his acceptance

speech said, “the outcome of the election was a victory for all OPEC member countries not just

Nigeria.” He maintained that since 2012 OPEC was unable to agree on a successor to Abdallah

el-Badri from Libya whom he handed over to in 2007 in an acting capacity. El-Badri was

supposed to be replaced in 2013 after serving for two terms. But due to the inability of some

OPEC member countries to agree on a replacement, particularly Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq; el-

Badri’s tenure was extended to mid-2016. Barkindo’s election came at a critical time when

Nigeria and the other OPEC countries are grappling with falling oil prices. Barkindo is well

prepared for the job; he was the most experienced among the candidates that contested for the

position from countries such as Venezuela and Indonesia—he has over 25 years career in the oil

and gas industry and OPEC.

L-R: Ernest Ogbozor, Muhammadu Barkindo, John Paden, and Ahmad Abubakar

Barkindo previously served as the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Deputy Managing Director, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG); General Manager, NNPC London office; Head International Trade, NNPC London Office; and Special Assistant, Minister of Petroleum and Energy. He also served as OPEC’s acting secretary general and a national representative to OPEC from 1993 to 2008. Barkindo has a Bachelor of Science degree in political science, a master’s degree in business administration, and a postgraduate diploma in petroleum economics from the Oxford University.

Barkindo was a visiting scholar at the Mason’s Clarence Robinson Professors program before his

nomination and subsequent election as OPEC’s boss. He was also a member of the Nigeria

project team at Mason led by Professor John Paden, Clarence Robinson Professor of International

Studies. The other members of the Nigeria project team at Mason include Ahmad Abubakar, Rice

Fellow; Ernest Ogbozor, Ph.D. Candidate at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution; and

Prof. Attahiru Jega, Former Nigeria’s Independent National Election Commission (INEC)

chairman and Mason’s visiting scholar. The Nigerian team, primarily past and current students of

Prof. Paden felicitates with their member in his new position. The team will miss Barkindo’s.

companion, but his comment on the new addition to the team is a consolation to the group “The

Nigeria group at Mason is certainly stronger with the arrival of Prof Attahiru Jega, a scholar of

International repute who is globally acclaimed for his distinguished work at INEC.” He added,

“We all are fortunate to have Mallam John Paden as the doyen of this strategic group which I

believe will continue to make significant input into the Nigeria project.”