Tunde DECKER B.A. (Hons.), M.A., MILD, Ph.D.
Emails: , 

Tunde Decker holds a Ph.D. in History and Strategic Studies from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and is Associate Professor in the Department of History and International Studies Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria where he is currently Acting Head. He is interested in social history - of poverty in colonial and post-colonial periods and of underdogs in urban and historical contexts. Before joining the academia, he has had a decade-long stint in the media, covering Nigeria’s aviation industry and (while Deputy Manager Media with JSP Communications Consultancy in Lagos) managing the public relations accounts of Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Nigerian Bottling Company, PZ Nigeria, Ashoka, HOPE Worldwide Nigeria and Honeywell Flour Mills. He was former Conservation Manager Media and Public Affairs of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation.

Research interests/Specialisation: 
Social History - of poverty in colonial and post-colonial periods and of underdogs in urban and historical contexts. African History, Aviation History, International Relations, Environmental Conservation.

Contribution to knowledge:

He has added to the knowledge of poverty in colonial Lagos and has consistently written on this phenomenon, focusing on the often-neglected aspects of socio-economic history in the colonial period. His doctoral dissertation A History of the Poor in Lagos, 1861 - 1960 was the first dissertation in the History and Strategic Studies department at the University of Lagos that examined the historical evolution of the poor in colonial Lagos and continues to inspire other dissertations that interrogate the downtrodden in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria. He has widened the extent to which poverty in pre and postcolonial Nigeria speaks to wider issues such as nationalism, social integration, African development, foreign policy, culture and social service philosophy. He is the first Nigerian historian to write a book on the Nigerian aviation industry – an industry that has been direly neglected in historical, business, transport and tourism studies in Nigeria. The book was used to design the teaching curriculum for students of Air Transport at the Aviation Training Institute formerly at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria, and has been a reference document for some PhD candidates researching Nigeria’s air transport industry in Nigerian universities, in Yale, Harvard and the University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom. It currently serves as study guide for air transport practitioners at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL).

Academic Fellowships/Grants/Awards:

He is 2019/2020 Urban Studies Foundation (USF) International Fellow, Urban Studies Foundation, Glasgow, Scotland; Visiting Scholar, African Studies Centre, School of Area and Global Studies, University of Oxford: October 1, 2019 - March 31, 2020; 2018/2019 Africa-Oxford Initiative (Af-Ox) Postdoctoral Fellow, Africa-Oxford Initiative, University of Oxford; Visiting Scholar, African Studies Centre, School of Area and Global Studies, University of Oxford: January 29 - March 31, 2019; 2016/2017 Leventis Postdoctoral Fellow, Leventis Foundation, United Kingdom; Visiting Scholar, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, October 1 – December 16, 2016; Scholar-in-Residence, Goodenough College, London House, Central London, United Kingdom: October 1 – December 15, 2016; Travel Grant Awardee, The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, University of Montreal, Canada: August 31 –September 2, 2016; Travel Grant Awardee, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland and the University of Legon, Accra Ghana, August 2012; Travel Grant Awardee, African Studies Association /United Kingdom Writing Workshop for African Scholars, Osun State University, September 14-16, 2011, Osogbo, Nigeria; Award of Excellence, Falola’s Magna Curia Chambers, College of Law, Osun State University, August 22, 2014; Graduate Fellow, Department of History and Strategic Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos, 2005-2008; Research Grant Awardee, Nigerian Biographical Foundation as fresh graduate from the Department of History, University of Lagos, August 1997/1998; Late Emeritus Professor A.S. Aderibigbe Prize for the best final year student with the highest Score in History, Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, 1995/1996; Professor Gabriel Olusanya Prize for the best graduating student in History Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, 1995 /1996; Chief Ayo Rosiji prize for the best final year History Long Essay, Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, 1995 /1996; University of Lagos Best Students Scholarship Awards; designated ‘University Scholar’, 1994 /1995; Nigeria – Britain Association Bursary Awards, 1993 – 1996.

Academic appointments:

• Acting Head of Department, History and International Studies, College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, 2017- date.
• Chairman, College of Humanities and Culture Lecture/Seminar Series, Committee, Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria, 2015- 2018. 
• Chairman, Students Disciplinary Committee, College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, Osogbo, 2015 – 2018.
• Member, Panel of Experts on Students Innovation Centre, Osun State University, 2015/2016.
• Examinations Officer, Department of History and International Studies, Osun State University, 2015 -2016
• Coordinator, IJMBE Programmes of the Centre for Human Resources and Lifelong Learning (CHRDLL), Osun State University, Osogbo, College of Humanities and Culture, 2014 -2017.
• Co-ordinator, Departmental / College Seminar Series, Department of History and International Studies, College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, 2009-2013.
• Examinations Officer, Department of History and International Studies, Osun State University, 2011-2014
• Graduate Assistant, Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, 2005-2008.

Membership of Learned Professional Associations

Fellow, Ife Institute of Advanced Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. 
Fellow, Lagos Studies Association

Consultancy (Volunteer)

Member, Expert Advisory Network Community, Gatehouse Advisory Partners, Geopolitical Consultancy, United Kingdom.

Tunde Decker has presented papers at Osun State University, University of Lagos, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of London, University of Legon, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University and at other conferences and workshops in Nigeria. 
Books (Sole authored):
• Tunde Decker, (2016) Matrix of Inherited Identity: A Historical Exploration of the Underdog Phenomenon in Nigeria’s Relationship Strategies 1960 – 2011, Ibadan: University Press PLC., 226 pp. 
• Tunde Decker, (2008) A History of Aviation in Nigeria 1925 – 2005, Lagos: Dele Davis Publishers. 243 pp.
Co-edited:
• Emmanuel Obot, Tunde Lawal, Tunde Decker, Adewale Adeleke and Ronke Olubamise (2007) For Nature and for People: The Story of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation Since 1980, Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Lagos: NCF, 199 pp.

Some of his articles:

• Tunde Decker (2018). Aini – An African Indigenous Template of Poverty and the Task for Neo-Monetary Modules of Interventions. In Maurice Nyamanga Amutabi ed. Development from Below and Above in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya: Centre for Democracy, Research and Development (CEDRED), 83-91.

• Tunde Decker and Damilola Osunlakin (2017). Rodney, Development and Africa in the Twenty First Century, In Benjamin U. Anaemene and Olusegun J. Bolarinwa (eds), Agenda 2030 & Africa’s Development in the 21st Century, Kuala Lumpur: United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, 13 – 31.

• Tunde Decker (2017). Popular Protests and the Obasanjo Regimes 1975-1979,1999 – 2007. African Notes, Journal of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Vol. 41, Nos 1&2, February and June, pp. 79-87.

• Tunde Decker (2016). Individuality, Status and Social Change: Oshodi Tapa and the Lagos Consulate. Lagos Notes and Records, Journal of the Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos, Vol. 22, 1-14.

• Tunde Decker (2015). Contextual Poverty. In Mehmet Odekon, (ed), SAGE Reference Encyclopedia of World Poverty, Second Edition, New York: SAGE Publications, July, 291 – 293.

• Tunde Decker (2014). Review of Kaye Whiteman, Lagos: A Cultural and Historical Companion. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 84 (2), Cambridge University Press, May 2014, 336 – 338.

• Tunde Decker (2013). Poverty and the Travails of the Family in late Colonial Lagos. Lagos Historical Review, Journal of the Department of History University of Lagos, Nigeria. Vol. 13, 2013.

• Tunde Decker (2012). Poverty in Post-colonial Nigeria: Historical Postulation. In Aderemi Suleiman Ajala (ed), Nationalism and Politics in Post-colonial Nigeria, Koln Germany: Rudiger Koppe Verlag, January, 241 – 265.

• Tunde Decker (2011). The Environment and Nigeria’s Developmental Trajectory. ROAN: The Journal of Conservation, Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Lagos, 210 - 222.

• Tunde Decker (2010). Social Welfare Strategies in Colonial Lagos. The African Nebula, Issue 1, February 2010, Journal of the College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, Nebula, E-Periodical Press, Glebe, NSW, Australia, 86-99, http://www.nobleworld.biz/africannebula/africannebula.html http://www.africannebula.net

• Decker J. B. (2007). An Overview of Forestry Conservation Legislation in Nigeria 1897 – 1941. ROAN: The Journal of Conservation, Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Lagos, 96 – 102.