Professor Bola A. Akinterinwa, PhD Sorbonne, fniia, inma, fssan
Professor Bola A. Akinterinwa is the President/Director-General of the Bolytag Centre for International Diplomacy and Strategic Studies (BOCIDASS). He is a veteran and distinguished international scholar. He is recognized for his style of scholarship which combines intellectual brilliance with outstanding practical applications of international diplomatic cultures. He is a Sorbonnais. He read International Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Paris 6e; International Law, at the Institute of Advanced International Studies of the University of Paris 2; and Contemporary International Relations and Diplomatic History, at the University of Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, France, from 1973 through 1983. He had a double promotion in the International Law Class in the University of Paris 2 and obtained his PhD degree with ‘Special Commendations,’ at the University of Paris 1, Panthéon Sorbonne.
An Embassy Translator at the Embassy of Nigeria, Paris, in 1984, and a Ford Foundation Fellow at the University of Maryland Foreign Policy Process in 1989, he served as a Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos from 1985, where he, at various times, received three special Letters of Commendation from the Management of the Institute, for his scholarship and patriotic activities. In recognition of his outstanding academic scholarship in international relations, he was appointed the Acting Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in 2010 and he introduced a new research focus in the Institute: strategic in analysis, applied in foreign policy calculations and needs, and beneficial in final outcome. His appointment was later confirmed as the substantive Director-General in 2011, the position he held until he retired from the services of the NIIA in 2015. During his tenure, the Institute was repositioned and ranked as one of the foremost think-tanks on foreign affairs in the world. He is a member of several professional organizations, namely: Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (fniia), Nigerian Society of International Law, of which he was a Treasurer and current Second Vice President, Nigerian Political Science Association, and African Association of Political Science and Fellow of the Social Science Academy of Nigeria (fssan).
Professor Akinterinwa is, indeed, a prolific writer. He was the former Editorial Page Editor of, and a Monday/Sunday Columnist (Vie Internationale) with, ThisDay Newspapers since 1996. He was a Member of the Editorial Board, from 1989 to 1994, and Editor, from 1994 to 1999, of the Nigerian Journal of International Affairs. He is author of several chapters in books and articles in learned and reputable journals of international affairs. He has also authored and edited over twenty books on international relations and diplomacy. He has been very consistently firm in his radical academic views and convictions which have been generating new interests.