The Conference, which is an annual gathering of intellectuals from across the world would hold between March 30 and April 1 at the University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A., with the theme: “Leadership and Institutions in Africa”.
The Conference, which will discuss and analyse thematic issues that are germane to the understanding of Africa and African diaspora is convened by Professor Toyin Falola, a renowned professor of History and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair Professor in the                  Humanities, and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Olaopa’s keynote is expected to interrogate the relationship between the factor of leadership and the structural imperatives of institutions as basis for understanding the decisional capacities of African leaders who are expected to pilot Africa into global economic competitiveness.
       In accepting to give the keynote, Dr. Olaopa stated that this year’s theme is an area of his research focus and therefore a domain of scholarship and practice to which he has dedicated most of his intellectual and professional life, till date.
“This year’s Conference happens to be one to which I have dedicated my intellectual and professional life. It will therefore be a distinct honour and pleasure for me to share with scholars and policy makers at the conference, a number my reform ideas at the intersection of development, politics and institutional (dis)articulation in Africa. I sincerely hope that the insights I have garnered in my confrontation with the public service and governance institutions in Africa will sufficiently invigorate the deliberations and discussion at the conference”.