‘Worthy ambassador’ — Buhari hails Nigerian professor who won $300k history prize

President Muhammadu Buhari has hailed Saheed Aderinto, the US-based Nigerian professor, who won the Dan David history prize of $300,000.

Aderinto, a professor of History and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University, is the first Nigerian to win the prize.

He was among the nine scholars who clinched the award considered the largest history prize in the world.

In a statement on Saturday by Femi Adesina, presidential spokesperson, Buhari commended the professor for being a “worthy ambassador of the country”.

The president also lauded the scholar “for situating African history at the cutting edge of literature in the histories of sexuality, nonhumans, and violence”.

He also commended the selection committee of the international award for recognising the vital and scholarly contributions of the Nigerian to the study of history, which sheds light on the human past.

Buhari expressed optimism that the award will continue to spur the teaching and learning of history among students and scholars in the country and beyond.

“As a firm supporter of the teaching of history as a standalone subject in all basic and secondary schools across the country, the President values the support of individuals and leaders in the discipline like Prof Aderinto and other organizations in improving the quality of learning in the education sector,” the statement reads.

“President Buhari applauds Prof Aderinto for being a worthy ambassador of the country and commitment to a discipline that reminds us of an Igbo proverb that says, ‘A man who cannot tell where the rain began to beat him cannot know where he dried his body.”