Story About Us!

In 2000, Nigerian Fulbright scholars, with the assistance of the Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the Embassy of the United States in Nigeria, formed the Fulbright Alumni Association of Nigeria (FAAN) at the University of Ibadan. Over 70 Nigerian Fulbright scholars from across several Nigerian Universities and Research Institutions attended the inauguration of the Association. By forming the Nigerian Chapter of the Fulbright Alumni Association, the Nigerian Fulbrighters joined their counterparts in many other countries whose Fulbright scholars have formed Fulbright Alumni Associations in order to keep alive the noble objectives of the Fulbright program.

The Fulbright Program was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. The program is created to increase mutual understanding and peaceful relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. It emphasizes academic and professional excellence with awards based on open competition.  Now more than half a century since its establishment there are several hundreds of thousands of Fulbright scholars in many countries of the world. The Nigerian beneficiaries of Fulbright Award are estimated to be about 1,000 in 2005.

A major decision of the Nigerian Fulbright Alumni Association was to organize Annual Conferences, which would afford the Nigerian Fulbrighters the opportunity to apply their wealth of experience in the analysis of issues of academic and national interest for the development of the Nigerian nation. It was also decided that the papers presented at the Conferences, which meet publication standards based on peer reviews, should be published for wider dissemination of the salient views discussed at the Conferences. Indeed, even the inauguration of the Association was designed to be part of the programme of an academic conference.

At the Inaugural Conference the First Business Meeting of the Association was held. A draft constitution was presented to the members for perusal and adoption. After a thorough deliberation on all the articles of the Constitution, necessary amendments were made to the draft. The Constitution was overwhelmingly adopted as the legal document that will guide the operations of the newly inaugurated Fulbright Alumni Association of Nigeria (FAAN).