Dr. Biola Adimula 8th from left, standing beside the Magaji 7th from left (Community Head) Oyun community with Dr. Raji a Lecturer at CPSS 6th from left and ASPASS students, during a community interaction one week field trip.
Ilorin, Nigeria: City of Peace
We welcome Dr. Adimula Ruth Abiola and her colleagues at the Association of Students of Peace and Strategic Studies (ASPASS) who have established Ilorin, Nigeria as a City of Peace. The Association is dedicated to creating a platform for research on issues of peace and strategic studies with particular emphasis on Nigeria and Africa. Biola received her Ph.D in Peace and Development Studies from University of Ilorin. Her research work was on Gender, Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees in West Africa.
ASPASS Members with the traditional leaders of OTTE community, youth leaders, political actors, women leaders and religious leaders during field trip in Otte community.
ASSOCIATION OF STUDENTS OF PEACE AND STRATEGIC STUDIES (ASPASS)
Association of Students of Peace and Strategic Studies (ASPASS) is a Post Graduate Students Association of Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies University of Ilorin, Nigeria, under the supervision of Lecture, Staff Adviser, Dr. Abiola Adimula.
Note: Introduction page with information primarily at the time of joining International Cities of Peace. For updates, please contact the liaison.
ASPASS was established in 2012 by first the set of post graduates students of Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies. The contact person here- Dr. Abiola Adimula was a Ph.D student at that time, the Chairperson of Constitution Publication Committee and the first Publicity Secretary of the Association. Now, Dr. Adimula is a Lecturer at the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies and the Students Adviser for peace work.
ASPASS President (with inner green T shirt) during ASPASS programme on World Environment Day, 2017
MISSION
Striving for a new order of human relations, building bridges to the future and hoping to create conditions for peaceful co-existence of human beings among themselves and for a sustainable environment.
ASPASS Members with school head at Otte Secondary School during a peace work in Otee community.
MOTTO
UNITED IN STRATEGISING FOR PEACE.
ASPASS Members during peace field trip and peace mediation talks at OTTE community Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSOCIATION
i. To provide a forum where members and other students can come together to interact and exchange ideas on issues of peace and conflict in the contemporary world.
ii. To create a conducive atmosphere for healthy academic pursuit.
Director CPSS (centre), President ASPASS 2nd from right, during graduation of Officers of Nigerian Army (Peace and Strategic Students of CPSS).
iii. To facilitate the dissemination of relevant facts and knowledge among its members and, where necessary, the Nigerian public by way of conferences, publications, exhibitions, seminars and symposia towards putting into practice, the theoretical and practical knowledge of peace and strategic studies for conflict resolution and development.
iv. To cater for the interest of its members through co-operation or affiliations with other similar organizations and representation to appropriate governmental agencies/institutions.
v. To improve and facilitate understanding good relations among the association’s members and the faculty.
vi. To use the forum to bring together people of diverse cultures, religion, ethnicity, and academic background to discuss issues in peace, and strategic studies, with a view to providing practical ideas and tools to prevent conflicts or produce peaceful outcomes from conflict situations.
vii. To use the association as a platform to initiate research on issues of peace and strategic studies with particular emphasis on Nigeria and Africa.
General Secretary in green T shirt, during ASPASS programme on World Enrironment Day, 2017.
Area of activities include working in communities to study their ways of life, conflicts and method of resolution of conflicts in different communities within and around Kwara State Nigeria.
Using the forum to bring together people of diverse cultures, religion, ethnicity, and academic background to discuss issues in peace, and strategic studies, with a view to providing practical ideas and tools to prevent conflicts or produce peaceful outcomes from conflict situations.
Using the association as a platform to initiate research on issues of peace and strategic studies with particular emphasis on Nigeria and Africa.
Annually, since 2011, students of CPSS who are also members of ASPASS are grouped into four to go into different communities in Kwara State on one to two weeks field trips to study the ways of co-existence of members of the community, types of conflicts they face and process of conflict resolution in the communities. The students also offer their own ideas based on their peace knowledge on how to solve some conflicts faced in different communities.
In 2011, students were grouped into four to live in communities facing generational conflicts in Kwara State. Viz: Offa/Erin-Ile; Odo-Owa-Iloffa; Ganma/Ganna; Share/Tsaragi communities. The conflicts were diverse- ranging from communal to chieftancy, boundary and ethnic issues. As a result of the peace work of the ASPASS students in these communities, the traditional rulers and religious leaders were impressed with the students intervention and the Communities Leaders and relevant stakeholders, came to hold meetings with the Vice Chancellor and the University Authorities agreeing to live peaceably in their communities and a Peace agreement was signed by all. This has brought peace into those communities substantially since then.
The population of people affected in different communities in Kwara State are about one million people.
ASPASS as an Association of Peace students who has been involved in community peacebuilding and peacemaking intend to establish a Mediation Room within Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies University of Ilorin, where students within the University and Youths within Ilorin town and Kwara State community can bring their conflict issues for resolution. Usually conflicts among students include debt settlement, interpersonal, intra personal, intra group and intergroup conflicts and relationship issues.
This is intended to reduce conflicts within the University and to also serve as a practical aspect of Mediation training for Peace students.
Director, CPSS and other resource persons, during ASPASS programme on World Environment Day, 2017.
ABOUT DR. ADIMULA RUTH ABIOLA
Dr. Adimula Ruth Abiola is a Nigerian. She obtained her Ph.D in Peace and Development Studies from University of Ilorin, 2014. Her research work was on Gender, Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees in West Africa. She holds a LL.M of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 2004; B.L of Nigerian Law School, 1993; and LL.B, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1992, Nigeria. She is a Lecturer, Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria, currently on Rotary Peace Fellowship at Chulanlongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
In pursuit of her academic career in Peace and Development Studies, Dr. Adimula has carried out research and worked among displaced persons in various camps in West Africa, viz: Buduburam Refugee camp, Ghana, Oru Refugee camp Nigeria, Grafton (Amputees) camp Sierra Leone, Bakassi resettlement camp Calabar, Nigeria, ICC IDP camp, Benin, Nigeria, Fufore, NYSC and Malkohi IDP camps, Yola, Nigeria- investigating response mechanisms to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Refugees and IDP camps; welfare conditions of women and children and associated issues.
Dr. Adimula is a Consultant, Senate Committee on Constitutional Review of Federal Republic of Nigeria; Publicity Secretary, Society for Peace Practice and Studies, Nigeria; a Fellow of Commonwealth United Kingdom and the General Secretary of Commonwealth Scholars and Fellows Alumni Association, Nigeria.
Between 2008 and date, Dr. Adimula has been attending UN Commission on Status on Women Convention, New York, USA and had presented Papers on Women’s Rights, Criminal Justice System and related issues.
She served as Council Member, International Bar Association, 2010-2012; an Awardee of the International Bar Association, 2008; served as National Executive Committee and Council Member in different Committees and Fora of the Nigerian Bar Association, between 1997 & 2015; a Member and Trainee of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London, 2010.
In 2006, she served as a member of Review Committee of ECOWAS Youth Policy in West Africa; a member of the Review Committee of (Nigeria) National Gender Policy in 2014; and a Consultant to UNICEF on Child Rights, 2005. She has publications in Law, Gender and Peace Journals nationally and internationally. She served as the Special Assistant to the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Nigeria on Women Affairs, between 2013 & 2015.
In community service, she is instrumental to the establishment and functioning of Family Court in Kwara State; Initiator/Coordinator of the Great Kwara Spelling Bee Competition; Executive Director of Women and Child Watch Initiatives (NGO) and the Project Director on Research and Welfare of Displaced persons in Nigeria- through which medium she receives welfare donations which she sends to women and children victims of Boko Haram insurgency in IDP camps in Nigeria. She is a Board Member of Becky’s Foundation established to support physically challenged children in Nigeria.
Dr. Adimula is married to Prof. Isaac Abiodun Adimula(a University Don), she is blessed with three lovely children.
Extra curricular activities include reading, travelling and humanitarian services.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Biola Adimula, LL.B., BL, LL.M, Ph.D (Gender, Peace & Development)
Visiting Scholar, (Rotary Peace Fellowship),
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Lecturer, Centre for Peace & Strategic Studies(,
University of Ilorin, Nigeria.
General Secretary,
Commonwealth Scholars and Fellows Alumni Association, Nigeria
Abiola Adimula <adimulabiola@gmail.com>
(+234) 803 47 34 901
ABOUT ILORIN, NIGERIA (from Wikipedia)
Ilorin is the state capital of Kwara State in Nigeria. As of the 2006 census, it had a population of 777,667, making it the 6th largest city in Nigeria by population. The population has increased since that time.
Ilorin was founded by the Yoruba, one of the three largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, in 1450. It became a provincial military headquarters of the ancient Oyo Empire, and later became a Northern Nigeria protectorate when Shehu Alimi, an itinerary Islamic preacher and teacher, took control of the city through the spread of Islam.
The capital was occupied by the Royal Niger Company in 1897 and its lands were incorporated into the British colony of Northern Nigeria in 1900, although the emirate continued to perform ceremonial functions. Although the city retains a strong Islamic influence, Christianity is now widely practised in the cosmopolitan part of the city due to the significant immigration of people from other parts of Kwara State and the rest of Nigeria.
The city is a confluence of cultures, populated by the Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Nupe, Baruba, Kanuri and Malian tribes, as well as other Nigerians and foreign nationals. There are large Christian and Islamic populations, and many ceremonial activities, mostly with religious aspects, take place in the city throughout the year.
Ilorin has a friendly environment (generally called the “Home of Peace”) and hence hosts different religious practices and training institutions. Located on the city’s GRA, the degree-awarding United Missionary Theological College (affiliated with the University of Ibadan) produces many church ministers, teachers and theologians of all denominations. The College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies in the Adeta area trains Muslims in various Islamic, Arabic and social science disciplines. Alfa Alimi’s Mosque and residence is said to have been built in 1831. It was the first Juma’at Mosque in Ilorin.
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