Tunji Olowolafe Advocates for Research Innovation at OAU

During the 65th anniversary celebration of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Dr. Tunji Olowolafe, founder of the Tunji Olowolafe Foundation (TOF), called for Nigerian universities to broaden access to research and challenge established beliefs through scientific inquiry. He emphasized the importance of postgraduate education as a critical driver of national progress and proposed that universities should adopt more flexible and digital approaches to education.

Olowolafe highlighted the Foundation's Gbemisola Olowolafe Memorial Community Secondary School in Are Ekiti, which opened in September 2025 with over 170 students and an ICT center focused on artificial intelligence and coding. He argued that the future postgraduate researchers are currently in primary schools and urged universities to recognize prior learning.

He also advocated for rigorous testing of indigenous knowledge and suggested that research should directly benefit the economy, proposing that universities reward patents and commercial solutions alongside traditional academic outputs.