The
TY Danjuma Foundation has launched a $5 million endowment at the Centre for
Comparative Law in Africa, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa to fund
African scholars’ research in Law and Policy Development in Africa.
The
fund, known as the ‘TY Danjuma Fund for Law and Policy Development in Africa,’
is an endowment in perpetuity to support research, capacity building, African
knowledge production and information generation for the advancement of well
researched initiatives in the law and policy environment for development in
Africa.
Speaking
during the formal signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Lagos,
the founder of the foundation, General TY Danjuma (rtd), said he was invited by
the university to endow a fund that will finance legal research in Africa.
“My
donation is to the university for all African countries not just Nigeria. The
University of Cape Town will administer the fund, they will make sure that only
the interest earned on the endowment will be spent on research every year, so
the endowment is in perpetuity.”
He
said the initiative was in recognition of the need to engender researches and
studies that are capable of engendering positive development of African
countries especially in the area of law.
He said the fund would assist scholars who need it to further their studies in exploring new way through which African countries could develop their legal system to make them competitive across the world.
He said the fund would assist scholars who need it to further their studies in exploring new way through which African countries could develop their legal system to make them competitive across the world.
“When
this issue was first brought to me, I was really not interested because I felt
already we have enough lawyers across the continent and we have so many laws
that are not being implemented. But when the issue was raised among the board
members of the foundation, I was surprised that everyone supported it. And I
had to agree that since it is for the development of Africa, we will do it. The
only condition we put in there is that the first beneficiary of this gesture
must be a Nigerian scholar.”
The
fund would engender long-term collaboration between the Centre for Comparative
Law in Africa and the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, which is
expected to make available its resource base for scholars selected to benefit
from the endowment.
Also
speaking, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr. Max Price, described the
endowment as a step in the right direction because it would enable African
scholars to start looking at aspects of comparative laws.
“For
us at the University of Cape Town, our Centre for Comparative Law in Africa
draws on the strengths of comparative methodology to research into the
multifaceted field of law on the continent. Thus, we realise the need to
develop a continental approach to law and its development since the experience
of an African country can benefit another country.”
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Am so sorry for this type of human being, they stole our money to go and show off in another country. Don't Nigeria have universities? I pity this Nation.
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