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UI Don Recommends Digital Integration Across All Academic Disciplines

Editor’s Note: This report is a flashback to the 572nd Inaugural Lecture delivered by Professor Abdulganiy Olayinka Raji in January 2025. The professor passed away on Friday, 19th December, 2025.

Professor Abdulganiy Olayinka Raji of the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, University of Ibadan, had recommended the integration of digital knowledge and information technology across all academic disciplines.

The professor made this recommendation on Thursday, 9th January, 2025, while delivering the 572nd Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan on behalf of the Faculty of Technology.

In the lecture, titled “Consulting e-Oracle for Food Security and Sustainability,” the professor argued that the adoption of digital tools makes research more interesting and fascinating, noting that students and researchers would not only see, but also see what is there to be seen more clearly.

According to the don, such integration would lead to better understanding, which would in turn result in innovations and discoveries necessary for national development, earn the country a prime position globally, and help reduce brain drain among academics.

Professor Raji stressed the need for increased investment in IT-driven facilities for research, improved teaching delivery, and better understanding by both teachers and students in educational institutions and research institutes.

He noted that there was a wide gap between the town and the gown, emphasising that collaboration among specialists, alongside consultations with grassroots communities through the use of e-oracles, could lead to improvements in local delicacies and the development of new or improved food products.

The professor also called for the promotion of rare crops and extinct foods as part of Nigeria’s national cultural and traditional revival.

He asserted that local finger foods and snacks such as Sapala/Abari, Sakada, Ojojo, Akara Seeke, Towo Bepo, Aadun, Alapa, Monimoni, Seje, Egbo and Adalu, among others, are far healthier than the junk snacks commonly consumed today.

Professor Raji noted that these highly nutritious and neglected food products had helped to prevent malnutrition among people in rural and local settings.

He, however, cautioned that there was a pressing need to improve the hygienic conditions under which these traditional foods are processed to ensure safety and sustainability.

Source: UI Directorate of Public Communication