Professor Olajide Olagunju, PhD, FCIArb, FICMC, Attorney-at-Law (olajide.olagunju@bgu.edu)
Olajide Olagunju is Professor of Conflict Studies at Bakke Graduate University (BGU) where he teaches Conflict Resolution, Organizational and Business Dispute Resolution and Peace Building. Professor Olagunju is a 2008 Harvard Law School Research Fellow and Brandeis University Sachar Research Scholar in Conflict Resolution. He won the Brandeis University Karpf Peace Prize in 2006. He is also a 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Mellon Research scholar in Management of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). His research has been published by MIT from 2006 to date. Professor Olagunju is a 2001 United States Government International Visitor in Preventive Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution. He is also a 2000 Austrian Government Scholar in Peacekeeping, Peace Building and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. In 1995 Professor Olagunju became a British Government Chevening Scholar in Emerging Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Professor Olagunju pioneered the professional practice of ADR in Nigeria in 1995, and co-founded the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (ICMC) in 1999. He also pioneered the teaching of ADR at both the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) and the Nigerian Law School in 1996. He is a former executive of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
Professor Olagunju has a broad experience in Conflict Resolution with academia, government, international organizations, Fortune 500 and nonprofits, including World Bank, United Nations, Harvard University, United States Government, Nigerian Government, and Chevron Corporation. He has contributed severally to the Nigerian government multisectoral policymaking and conflict resolution including serving as Special Adviser, Labour, Conflict Management and Law. He contributed to subnational ADR legislation – the first Lagos State Citizens Mediation Centre (CMC) Law. He collaborated with the State’s Attorney General, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, to train and certify the CMC attorney-mediators between 1999 and 2007. He also worked with Nigeria’s federal legislature to establish the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) whose 2015 Act pioneered the mandatory use of ADR in public sector dispute resolution.
He has authored several books including:
- Nigeria’s first ADR book, Commercial Mediation – An Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Mechanism, which was made the Nigerian Law School’s first reference material in ADR in 1998;
- How to Resolve a Conflict, Winner, Best Alternative Dispute Resolution eBooks of All Time, translated in six international languages;
- African Art as Hegemony and Other Essays in Cultural Anthropology; and
- Legal Theft – Making Law for Underdevelopment and Conflict: the Problem with Nigeria.
Professor Olagunju is the Founder and Lead Counsel of Olagunju & Olagunju Solicitors. He is also the Founder and President of Corporate Mediators; International Mediators Association (IMA); and the World Peace Institute (WOPI). In his over three decades of work, Professor Olagunju has impacted over two hundred million people through leadership in government, private sector and education.