Meet the CEO

 [Dr Akintunde's Picture]

Dr Ifeolu Omoniyi Akintunde

Education

I was born in Nigeria in 1967. While in Nigeria, I got my law degree from the University of Lagos, and the next year, I was called to the Nigerian bar. Then I moved to the United Kingdom, where I got an MA in politics and international relations at the University of Lancaster, and later, my doctorate in politics.

Training

I also obtained qualifications in disability awareness, (1993) deaf awareness, (2002) and went on specialist courses on making buildings accessible to disabled people. I have given several talks in the Lancaster area on disability awareness and trained some blind people to use access technology. It was then I decided that one-on-one training or advice has to be sensitive to the particular needs of the individual. When I trained visually impaired people to use computers, I didn’t adopt what was the traditional method of a whole day spent teaching a person to use a new sophisticated piece of equipment. I ensured that I visited my clients regularly and gave them assignments, so that even when I wasn’t around, they were looking at the equipment.

Previous Activities

In addition to small group sessions on disability awareness, I also tutored at the Lancaster University, where I was highly rated by my students. My understanding of the needs of international students stems from the fact that I was once a fresh faced arrival from Nigeria. I currently run the Nigerian students programme for the local branch of the Overseas Fellowship of Nigerian Christians. I too have faced the problems of settling down in a new location and communicating my ideas in a totally different academic and cultural environment.

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I continued in the same vein after my doctorate. In 2001, I gave a talk in Abuja Nigeria on ‘Access Technology, Potentials, Possibilities and challenges for African States’. A year later, I gave another one, titled ‘Developing a Culture of Access in Nigeria’. At this time, I was working on a chapter for a book on research methods in Nigeria. My chapter for the book, (which is still unpublished) was entitled ‘The Internet As A Research Tool for Blind Nigerian Students’. In 2006, I wrote a chapter for a book published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, entitled (African Civil Society Organisations Speak on the World Summit on the Information Society’. My chapter was entitled 'Including the Differently Abled in the WSIS'. Read more.

I have written several speeches for Nigerians who are involved in the disability movement, and also assisted them in forming their campaigns for disability rights and fundraising.

Recent Activities

Currently, I am executive Secretary of the XN Foundation, which seeks to empower and motivate Nigerian students and youth, both inside and outside the country. Among other things the XN Foundation organises the International Conference of Nigerian Students, (ICONS).

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I’m also project director of the Programme for Awareness and Intervention on Disability (PAID).

I am a trustee of The Sunbeams Music Trust, a charity which specializes in providing ‘music for life’ to disabled children and adults, as well as the elderly, in Cumbria and Northwest England. In 2006, Sunbeams was named charity of the year in the Northwest, and were runners up in the national award.

Several times a year I can be seen acting and participating in children’s workshops with the Whirlwind theatre for children.