Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Jimoh Ibrahim, is set to deliver a keynote address at Harvard University, days after assuming office at the UN headquarters in New York.
Ibrahim, who officially resumed duty last Friday, received the invitation from Harvard, his alma mater, to speak at an upcoming academic conference.
Accepting the invitation, the envoy said the engagement underscores increasing global attention on Nigeria’s reform initiatives under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He explained that the platform would enable him to highlight key elements of the administration’s Renewed Hope agenda, particularly its emphasis on institutional reforms, sustainable development and long-term economic growth.
The keynote address is scheduled for June 4, 2026, at the John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, as part of the 10th anniversary conference of the Ife Institute of Advanced Studies.
The conference, themed “Building Lasting Institutions: Faith, Scholarship, and the African Project,” is expected to attract scholars and policymakers to deliberate on Africa’s governance challenges and development prospects.
In a letter dated April 11, the Chair of Harvard’s Department of African and African American Studies, Jacob Kehinde Olupona, said the gathering would examine the paradox of Africa producing exceptional individuals without building enduring institutions.
Olupona noted that the institute has trained over 850 scholars in the past decade, many of whom are contributing to academia and public service across the continent.
He added that Ibrahim’s lecture, titled “The Nigerian Project Revisited: Crisis, Continuity, and Possibility,” would set the tone for discussions on governance, institutional development and pathways for sustainable progress.
