Gbenro Adesina
On Sunday October 18, 2020, scholars, colleagues, students and well-wishers gathered virtually at the presentation and launch of Phonetics, Phonology and Sociolinguistics in the Nigerian Context: A Festschrift in Honour of Adenike Akinjobi, one of Nigeria’s foremost Phonologist and scholar.
The book in honour of Professor Adenike Adebola Akinjobi of the Department of English, University of Ibadan (UI) was put together to celebrate her contribution to and impact on the academia, and the wider community of English users in Nigeria.
The launch, earlier scheduled for April 3, 2020, to coincide with the celebrant’s 55th birthday anniversary, was rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic and the on-going strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The event was moderated by Dr Ayo Osisanwo of the Premier University while the 400 page book was reviewed by another erudite English scholar, Professor Tayo Lamidi, who lauded the initiative.
In his remark, Professor Francis Egbokhare, the celebrant’s PhD supervisor lauded the celebrant, describing her as a great mentor to her students.
Egbokhare further described her as a nice, resourceful and resilient scholar, who has been an asset to the nation’s Premier University.
In the same direction, the Dean, Faculty of Arts, Professor A. A Oladosu, pointed out that the celebrant is firm and principled, and she is a pillar of support to the faculty, her department, institution and students.
For over three decades, Akinjobi has passionately devoted herself to advancing the course of Nigerian English phonology, good pronunciation and appropriate use of the English language via her academic books, literary texts, various social media academic engagements and publications which have appeared in reputable national and high-impact international journals.
She has over the years built her research activities around Phonetics and Phonology, Sociolinguistics and Nigerian English usage.
Akinjobi is also the coordinator of the University of Ibadan English Language Clinic Project, a unit of the University saddled with the responsibility of addressing the deteriorating state of English in Nigeria.
Akinjobi was born on April 3, 1965 into the royal family of Late His Highness, Oba Mathew Bamiteko Orimogunje, the Onigogo of Igogo Ekiti in Moba Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Nigeria.
She had her first degree in Education and English from University of Ilorin in 1987. Her Masters in English (Language) and doctorate in Linguistics are from University of Ibadan in 1991 and 2004 respectively. She got trained in speech acoustics at the distinguished Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts, USA in 2004 as a visiting scholar to the Department of Linguistics.
Akinjobi is a phonetician/phonologist, and a writer and researcher with over 60 publications, of which about 25 are books. Her current research focus is on two major areas: the description of Nigerian English phonology and social network interactive learning, which is a remarkable trend in today’s education.
She administers three active academic forums on Facebook, a social networking site – English Language Clinic forum, Scholars of English Linguistics’ Forum and Nigerian Phonologists’ Forum. These forums have large numbers of members, especially English Language Clinic Forum with about 60,000 active members.
Adenike Akinjobi is an English speech trainer, a jingle/documentary voice and a documentary and academic film director and producer. She is a public speaker and public affairs commentator, a remarkable motivational speaker who has delivered numerous speeches at events, both academic and social.
