The Management of McPherson University, Seriki Sotayo, Ogun State, has approved the appointment of Professor Kenneth Chukwuemeka Nwoko as Director, Directorate of Academic Planning, with effect from August 1, 2025, for the 2025/2026 academic session. This appointment reflects the University’s confidence in his wealth of academic, administrative, and research experience.

Professor Kenneth Chukwuemeka Nwoko, PhD, MNAL, is a distinguished scholar in the Department of History & International Studies. He holds a PhD in History & Strategic Studies from the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria. His teaching and research interests span African History, International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies.

Over the years, Professor Nwoko has served the University in various leadership capacities. He is currently the Director of Academic Planning, having previously served as Director of the Centre for Research and Innovation. In August 2024, he completed his tenure as Dean of the College of Postgraduate Studies, and from 2018 to 2022, he was Dean of the College of Humanities.

His academic excellence and research commitment have earned him several competitive international grants and fellowships. These include being a Laureate of CODESRIA’s Afro-Arab Advance Institute in Rabat, Morocco (2012), a Residential Postdoctoral Fellow of the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), USA (2015), an External Scholar at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), Accra, Ghana (2015), and a Visiting Fellow at the World Peace Foundation, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Boston MA, USA (2015).

In addition, Professor Nwoko was a recipient of the Postdoctoral Fellowship of the African Humanities Program of the American Council of Learned Societies in 2018, and earlier in 2015, he was named Carnegie Corporation of New York Scholar (CCNY) in San Diego, California, USA. In July 2022, he received funding from the Endangered Archive Programme of the British Library, supported by the Arcadia Fund, for a digitisation and cataloguing project in Lokoja, Nigeria. More recently, in July 2024, he was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship at the Maison de la Création et de l’Innovation (MaCI) – Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), France, a role he successfully completed on July 15, 2025.

He is a member of the Historical Society of Nigeria (HSN), the prestigious Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL), and other respected academic bodies. Professor Nwoko is also a pioneer staff member of McPherson University and served as a member of the University’s Governing Council from 2013 to 2023, contributing immensely to the institution’s growth and development.

On behalf of the Management, Senate, Staff, and Students of McPherson University, we warmly congratulate Professor Kenneth Chukwuemeka Nwoko on this well-deserved appointment. We are confident that his expertise, dedication, and leadership will continue to advance the academic mission and vision of the University.