Rev. Fr. (Prof.) Anthony Alaba Akinwale, OP has been appointed as Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Augustine University AUI, Ilara-Epe, Lagos State. This was disclosed in a press statement made available to media men recently by Miss Moyinoluwa Ajayi, Public Relations Officer, AUI. According to the statement, Fr. Akinwale’s appointment as pioneer deputy Vice-Chancellor of AUI was approved by the Governing Council at its 34th meeting on August 23, 2023 and took effect same day. Congratulating Fr. Akinwale, Prof. Christopher Odetunde, Vice-Chancellor, AUI, charged the new deputy VC to work assiduously to uplift the standard of the institution so that Augustine University continues to soar higher in the community of universities globally.
A Professor of Systematic Theology and Thomistic Philosophy, Fr. Anthony Akinwale was born in Ebute- Metta area of Lagos on June 10, 1962. He had his nursery education at Mount Carmel Nursery School, Ebute-Metta, from 1966-68; primary education at St Paul’s Catholic School, Ebute Metta (1968-74) and secondary education at St Finbarr’s College, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos (1974-79). He made his first profession in the Order of Preachers on September 27, 1981 and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on December 20, 1987. Prior to his priestly ordination, Anthony Akinwale studied Philosophy at the Seminary of Ss. Peter and Paul, Bodija, Nigeria, and Theology at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, now known as the Catholic University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
After his priestly ordination, Fr. Akinwale worked in the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto before proceeding to the Dominican University College in Ottawa, Canada, where he obtained his licentiate and master’s degrees in Theology in 1991. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Systematic Theology at Boston College, USA in 1996. During his doctoral studies, Fr. Akinwale began his teaching career at Boston College in 1993 and returned to Nigeria in 1996 to teach at the Dominican Institute where he rose to become Professor of Systematic Theology and Thomistic Philosophy in 2006. He served as pioneer Dean of Studies from 1996-2000 and President of the Dominican Institute from 2004-2016. Under his leadership, the Dominican Institute received full accreditation of its Philosophy programme from the National Universities Commission for two consecutive times.
Professor Akinwale is a renowned scholar of national and international repute, and a proponent of qualitative education who has authored three books, and currently, preparing another for publication. He has co-edited three books and authored over 100 academic essays and conference papers in national and international journals. His writings are on religion, philosophy, history, politics and education. In July 2017, he was appointed by the Master of the Order of Preachers to serve on the Permanent Commission for the Promotion of Intellectual Life in the Order of Preachers. The Commission is composed of nine Dominican professors chosen from around the world, and advises the Master of the Order on issues relating to the Order’s universities.
