The University of Lagos (UNILAG) has revived its 32-year-old Samuel Asabia Professorial Chair in Business Ethics after the position remained without an occupant for several years.
The revival was marked by the inaugural public lecture of the FirstBank Samuel Asabia Professorial Chair in Business Ethics, held at the J.F. Ade Ajayi Auditorium of the university.
The professorial chair was established by FirstBank on February 4, 1994, in honour of the bank’s first Nigerian Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Asabia. It was created to promote the teaching and research of business ethics and sustain an annual intellectual conversation on ethical leadership.
At its establishment, the chair was endowed with N5 million to support the advancement of Business Ethics at UNILAG. However, the initiative remained largely dormant for several years as the university struggled to appoint a suitable occupant.
Speaking at the event, UNILAG Vice-Chancellor, Professor Folasade Ogunsola, said previous efforts to fill the position had faced challenges. She disclosed that an attempt in 2011 attracted no applicants, while a 2016 recruitment exercise produced only two applicants.
According to her, Professor Kenneth Amaeshi emerged as the only qualified candidate in 2016 but could not take up the appointment at the time because of the remuneration attached to the position.
Ogunsola, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic and Research, Professor Matthew Ilori, said the reconstitution of the Chair’s Board of Trustees in 2025 under the leadership of Professor Akin Osibogun provided a fresh opportunity to revive the initiative.
She said a new recruitment exercise again attracted two applicants, with Amaeshi emerging as the most qualified candidate. The Board subsequently addressed the issues that had previously stalled the appointment, allowing him to accept the position.
The Vice-Chancellor said the appointment had given concrete expression to the revival of the chair, whose responsibilities include teaching, postgraduate supervision, research, industry collaboration, public engagement and the organisation of an annual public lecture.
She described a professorial chair as more than an academic title, saying it should serve as a platform for intellectual leadership where research and scholarship can contribute to solving societal challenges.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Professor Akin Osibogun, said the Board’s objective was to restore the original purpose of the initiative and move it from dormancy to active engagement.
Osibogun disclosed that Amaeshi had already taught two final-year courses during the second semester, with more than 1,000 students participating mainly through virtual classes. The courses were Corporate Social Responsibility and International Business.
He added that Amaeshi was also supervising a Doctor of Business Administration student at the university’s Business School.
The inaugural public lecture of the revived chair was delivered by Amaeshi and titled, “Ethical Paradoxes, Small Businesses, and the Informal Economy: Lessons for Tax Compliance and Accountability.”
In his lecture, Amaeshi examined the relationship between business ethics, taxation, public trust and Nigeria’s large informal economy.
He proposed the establishment of Tax Accountability Desks under the Office of the Tax Ombud to enable taxpayers to track how public revenue is spent. He also suggested linking annual tax collections to specific Sustainable Development Goals to help taxpayers understand the public value of their contributions.
Amaeshi argued that reluctance to pay taxes could, in some cases, be associated with a lack of confidence that tax contributions would result in visible public benefits.
He also called for greater consideration of African realities when developing and applying economic theories, arguing that business practices should take into account local social and cultural contexts.
The event was attended by FirstBank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Olusegun Alebiosu; Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma; academics, students and other stakeholders.
Alebiosu reaffirmed FirstBank’s commitment to education, ethical leadership and financial literacy, highlighting the bank’s educational infrastructure programme, Future First financial literacy initiative and sponsorship of the CFA Society Nigerian Universities Ethics Challenge.
The university and FirstBank said the revival of the Samuel Asabia Professorial Chair is expected to strengthen teaching, research, policy engagement and conversations around ethical leadership in Nigeria.
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