The Diaspora Resource and Research Centre (DRRC) is a brainchild of the synergy between the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora and our programme in Diaspora and Transnational Studies. Honourable Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Senior Special Assistant, and Dr Senayon Olaoluwa of IAS have been working since 2015 on modalities to set the centre running.
In August 2016, the Institute of African Studies took up the challenge of facilitating the establishment of the Diaspora Resource and Research Centre under our Diaspora and Transnational Studies Unit. To do this, we applied to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for site allocation. The Vice Chancellor’s enthusiastic response led to the immediate allocation of a site for the project in the Ajibode area of the University. The Institute of African Studies has paid for and received an approved plan for the land from the University Survey Unit. Currently the Institute of African Studies and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora are working together to get an approved architectural plan for the building. The approval would hopefully be followed by other activities leading to the foundation laying of the building.
The DRRC would be the hub and clearinghouse for all research activities relating to the diaspora in the context of its role and presence as an extension of the African reality, especially in terms of its official recognition by the African Union as the sixth region of the continent.