Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Saturday, April 22, 2023, departed Abuja for the U.S. to deliver a Special Lecture at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) in Philadelphia.
Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement, said the vice president would also participate in an interactive session with students and faculty coordinated by Wale Adebanwi, Professor of Africana Studies at the UPenn.
The vice president’s lecture on Monday, April 24, will be themed around Climate Change and a Just Transition, and is hosted by the University’s Centre for Africana Studies.
Osinbajo, a leading voice and strong advocate for a Just Energy Transition for Africa and the developing world, is currently spearheading efforts aimed at creating the African Carbon Market as one of the pathways of a just and sustainable transition.
UPenn, which is one of the eight private universities known as the Ivy League in the U.S., was initially established in 1740 as a charity school.
It was later transformed into an academy in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin, a future founding father of the U.S. who also served as the first president of the Board of Trustees of the university.
It was founded through the merger of the Afro-American Studies Programme and the Centre for the Study of Black Literature and Culture at the University of Pennsylvania in 2015.
The centre is hosting the vice president’s Special Lecture in partnership with other faculties of the university such as PennCarey Law, Perry World House, Wharton Business School, Coalition for Equity and Opportunity and Perelman School of Medicine.
Osinbajo is expected back in Abuja after his engagements in Philadelphia.
By Chijioke Okoronkwo
