Dissatisfied with her situation at Queen's School, Alele managed to obtain financial assistance from the Nigerian Head of Service to attend the University of Vermont as a graduate assistant with the goal of becoming a secondary school teacher. She found the weather in Vermont to be cold and also experienced forms of segregation in the rural setting. Soon, however, Sputnik shifted America's attention to the importance of mathematics and education, and Alele had the opportunity to go to the University of Chicago, Columbia, or Harvard. She chose the University of Chicago, and in 1963 obtained her Ph.D. in mathematics education with a dissertation on "Dynamics of Education in the Birth of a New Nation: Case Study Of Nigeria."

... the African Mathematics Programme brought together Africans, Americans, and British educators in English-speaking African countries to consider changes in mathematics education in Africa. ... The African Mathematics Programme organized writing workshops in Africa that produced the Entebbe Modern Mathematics Series. Between 1962 and 1969, the African Mathematics Programme conducted annual eight-week writing workshops in Entebbe and Mombassa, and produced over 80 volumes of textual materials covering primary school, teacher training, secondary, and sixth-form mathematics.

The Entebbe Mathematics Series have sometimes been dubbed American but this is to ignore the valuable contribution of the African participants, who feel keenly the African origin of the series. Moreover the whole exercise has provided an international forum for teaching and learning, unprecedented in the annals of education. Africans, working with Europeans and Americans, have produced mathematics texts good enough for use anywhere in the world. Mutual benefits have been derived by all concerned and the project has clearly contributed to international understanding.

The experiments in the schools led many parents to think more about what their children learned at school and it is not too great a claim to say that the annual and end-of-term inservice courses for teachers led ministries of education to rethink their mathematics programme. In the case of Lagos State, the favourable demonstration effect of the Entebbe Mathematics program coinciding with the states' readiness to introduce a new syllabus led to the total acceptance of the project. In Lagos State, we believe we still have considerable work to do with the teachers. Teaching the teachers mathematics is a relatively simple task but changing their attitude and practice is harder. Several years of hard work are still necessary before we can truly claim that modern mathematics has come to stay.

The excitement I felt on receiving the news from Professor Jubril Aminu [the Nigerian Minister of Education] had more to do with seeing it in terms of opening up the field for women than anything else. I saw it as an opportunity to show that women too could rise up to the occasion. Also, I knew what the weight of the expectations of the women was. They were eager to see how things would go and I was not going to let them down. Mind you, those who appointed me felt I was qualified for it; so it was not just a case of wanting to satisfy the yearnings of the womenfolk. It wasn't that simplistic.

Accomplished as she was, it was during a dark period for Nigeria's higher education that Professor Grace Awani Alele-Williams was to come into national reckoning. The scourge of secret cults, confraternities and societies had spread within Nigerian universities. Universities in the South were particularly affected and the University of Benin one of the worst hit. It was to this scenario that Professor Grace was appointed as vice chancellor in 1985. But being appointed the first female vice chancellor of a Nigerian or an African university was barely the issue for Alele-Williams. A task had been set before her at which many other men had failed, and it was on this that she was focused. It was with a combination of courage, ingenuity and strategy that the growing tide of cultism was eventually stemmed in the university, sending ripples of change across institutions of higher learning all over the country.

Today, friends and family are converging in Lagos to celebrate the 80th Birthday of a great African, a quality Nigerian, a super patriot, an indomitable champion of women's causes, a great educator and educationist, the inimitable Mother of Nigerian academia and an exemplary Amazon, Professor Grace Awani Alele-Williams. I am here celebrating this special woman, not only because she was the Vice-Chancellor at the University of Benin who signed my Degree Certificate (BA History, 1985, as the best graduating student in my class), but also because she was 'primus inter pares' amongst those who put the "Great" in Great UNIBEN! Of course, it wasn't easy to have to step into the shoes of another great Nigerian, Professor Adamu Baikie who held the position of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin before her, but Professor Alele-Williams did it with grace, guts and grit. As the first woman to be appointed the Vice-Chancellor of a Nigerian university, the cynicism before her takeover in Benin was ear-splitting! From calmly and firmly defusing sponsored "alutas', rumour-mongering, scary shadow-boxing, sabotage and all, her time at the University of Benin from 1985 to 1991 qualifies as a Golden Age. Mama Grace Alele-Williams opened her doors to everyone, treated students with respect, listened to what they had to say, encouraged academic freedom, victimized no one on account of holding contrary views and made the University of Benin a true place of learning. And she did all this at the height of military rule.

In what was considered a veritable 'tour de force', Professor Alele-Williams spoke passionately about the role of the Nigerian University system as an instrument for cohesion, change and development in our nation. Today, as we lament the falling standard in education and the negative ethnicization and contraction of real quality educational opportunities, we might do well to go dust up that lecture from this great Nigerian to follow up on some of her proposals. I say this, because what she spoke about almost two decades ago is still germane to our situation today. She is not only a great administrator, manager of men and resources and a goal-getter, she is a great visionary.

Professor Grace Alele-Williams, first female professor of Mathematics and first female Vice Chancellor in Nigeria, received deafening applause as she walked with the aid of crutches to the podium to receive her Centenary Award this evening (Friday, 28 February 2014) in Abuja. Guests were excited as her name rang in the auditorium - and she was all smiles as she shook hands with President Goodluck Jonathan.