Professor Sheriff F. Folarin

Sheriff F. Folarin (PhD), is a Professor of International Relations and a two-time Head of Department of Political Science and International Relations at Covenant University (2012-2014; 2018-2021). Prior to this time, Professor Folarin had been Director (and founding Coordinator) of the International Office and Linkages at Covenant University, where he laid a solid foundation for the institution’s internationalisation from 2007 to 2010 and then from 2012 to 2014. As the pioneer head of university collaborations, he saw to the admission of the first set of foreign students from America, United Kingdom and other African countries and oversaw the signing of over twenty-eight (28) MoUs with leading universities in the world, particularly in the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China and South Africa.

Professor Folarin was appointed Chairman of the Board of African Leadership Development Centre (ALDC) in 2019. He had been the pioneer Deputy Director (and later Ag. Director) of the same Centre from 2011-2012. During his two terms as Departmental Chair, he elevated the department to higher levels of global visibility, bringing it to the centre of the University’s vision accomplishment and raising the quality and status of colleagues. As HOD, he midwifed the production of twenty-one PhDs in his department between 2012/14 and 2018/2021, the highest ever in any single department in Covenant University. He is fondly called "PhD Producer". He has been privileged too, to examine doctoral candidates in other Nigerian universities and academic institutions within and outside Africa.

Folarin created in 2013, Covenant Journal of Politics and International Affairs, the first department-based journal, which is still in circulation and served as its editor from inception to 2019. In 2014 he formed Covenant University Literary and Debating Society (CULDS), which emerged as National and African Champions in debate and public speaking tournaments in 2018 and 2019; and had formed, in 2005, the Covenant University Tour Guides. All of these groups are still active and adding value to the system. Prof. Folarin is currently the President of All-Nigeria Universities Debating Council (ANUDC), the official body that oversees inter-university debate championships in Nigeria.

A cerebral and public intellectual, Folarin was the Conference Chair of the United Nations @ 75 International Conference in October 2020 and is leading editor of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals book being published by Palgrave (USA). He is co-editor of Religion and Global Politics: Soft Power in Africa (Lexington Books, USA) and is the author of Visibility and Relevance in International Politics: National Role Conceptions and Nigeria’s Policy in Africa. He had also co-edited Readings in Peace and Conflict Studies. His areas of research interest, in which he is widely published, include international politics, foreign policy, global governance, media and development, gender and health diplomacy. He is a Study of United States Institutes (formerly Fulbright American Studies Institutes) scholar and a former Visiting Fellow at the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies, University of South Carolina. He is also a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Programme scholar; a two-time visiting scholar at Ithaca College, New York; a member of the elite Faculty of the Ife Institute of Advanced Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and a senior resource person for the Rwandan Defence Forces (military) and University of Rwanda' Center for Conflict Management. In May, 2019, Folarin was nominated into the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime group of Education for Justice (E4J) university scholars, with the responsibility to review, expand and improve on educational curriculum on crimes, drugs and so on.

An alumnus of the premier University of Ibadan, where he obtained his degrees in History and Political Science respectively, Professor Folarin was the best graduating student in his set in 1997 and had won the prestigious Oba Lipede Prize in History in 1993. His PhD is in International Relations, the first of its kind in the prestigious Covenant University. He has taught, been a visiting scholar, or has participated in research endeavours in different universities, which include University of Ibadan (where he started his lecturing career), Landmark University, Dominican University, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (South Africa), Ithaca College (USA), and University of South Carolina (USA). He is currently on the Editorial Board of Nigerian Tribune, was a member of the National Mirror editorial board and writes columns for various national newspapers. He has appeared on international television and radio programmes, including Scope (Texas), CNN, BBC Pidgin, Channels TV (Nigeria), Galaxy TV (Nigeria), Splash FM (Nigeria), NTA, Radio Nigeria, among several others. In December 2020, he won the Science Communication Award for the third best and most-read writer in Africa organised by The Conversation Africa, a global communication organisation based in UK and South Africa.

Professor Folarin loves music, football and enjoys travelling and touring with his family. He is a private spiritual person and is happily married to Dr. Funke Folarin of the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG), with whom he has three very lovely children.