By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme
History shall be made on Thursday 28th December 2023 as Professor Augustine Ikein, a renowned Nigerian global Professor of Economics, will be officially crowned as the King of Igbogene Kingdom in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State.
In a press statement made known to The Energy Republic, the coronation day comes with a 2-in-1 landmark event, featuring the official launching of Prof. Ikein’s book titled: ‘World Oil Dynamics’, the first public book release of the King’s latest masterpiece.
The oil-rich Bayelsa state shall be welcoming dignitaries from across the globe to this official Kingship coronation event.
The KING & The AUTHOR – HRH Professor Augustine Ikein in this master piece made a philosophical and thoughtful depiction of our diverse world yet one body within the common destiny of mankind.
His portrayal of a world unified as one body symbolically and pragmatically reflects our global interdependence made possible through the exchange of strategic resources between Nations because no entity is self-sufficient but its survival is interwoven with others in one global community.
“Oil discovery in selected regions of the world has led to unprecedented breakthroughs in the progress of nations into a higher order of civilization unmatched in human history as precious substance of great value.
However, oil wealth has also led to pride, greed, and the desire for power creating costly negative externalities driven by conflicts, insurgency, and destruction. Therefore, a new thinking on pragmatic essentials of cooperation in the management of oil resources is imperative to end oil and gas related wars and conflicts”. quoting the above from the new book, one of the book reviewers Dr. Dunni Owo, an Oil and Gas industry mogul and an award-winning author herself said the event is going to be an eclectic mix of Community, Industry, Academia, and Government.
“This gathering has the potential to lead to the end of Low Oil production, Oil Theft, Environmental degradation, Community unrest, and the like in Nigeria, I tag it The Quadruple Helix Model Gathering of the year What a way to close the year 2023,” says Dr. Dunni Owo – National President Women in Energy, Oil, and Gas (WEOG) Nigeria.
HRH Professor Augustine A. Ikein, Ph.D. (Atlanta University) holds a B.Sc. (Economics) degree, from The City University, New York, and an MBA (Finance/Management), from Adelphi University, New York.
He was a recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship Award in 1998. He has been a Professor of Economics, Finance, and Policy Studies across the US and Nigerian Institutions.
He has held positions as H.O.D, Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Professor, and Dean, Post Graduate School at different times.
He is a recipient of several Fellowship Awards namely; Fellow Petroleum Institute, Recipient of UNCF/Lily Foundation, and Nissan Fellowship.
He has authored several books and articles such as “The Impact of Oil on a Developing Country (Praeger, NY 1990)”, “Oil and Fiscal Federalism”, “Oil, Democracy and the Promise of True Federalism in Nigeria”, “The Crude Gains and Crude Pains of Crude Export Dependence Economy”, “Oil, Nation Building and Foreign Policy”.
The Nigerian Yar Adua /Jonathan administration appointed him, as a member Niger Delta Technical Committee and chair of sub-Committee on Environment and corporate social responsibility.
He is also a member of the Nigeria Content Consultative Forum ( NCCF E&T), a public voluntary service arm of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board ( NCDMB), and was recently inaugurated into the Nigerian Occupational Skills Council (NOS) for oil and gas industry.