Ex-NUC boss Okebukola launches first African scholarly referencing style

A former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Emeritus Peter Okebukola, is set to formally launch the African Scholarly Referencing Style (ASRS), the first referencing style conceived, developed, and owned by Africa. The unveiling is poised to mark a groundbreaking milestone in continental scholarship, with Okebukola, one of Africa’s most decorated higher […]

A former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Emeritus Peter Okebukola, is set to formally launch the African Scholarly Referencing Style (ASRS), the first referencing style conceived, developed, and owned by Africa.
The unveiling is poised to mark a groundbreaking milestone in continental scholarship, with Okebukola, one of Africa’s most decorated higher education reformers, at the helm.
ASRS addresses a longstanding gap in global academic practice. Despite Africa’s rich intellectual heritage and thousands of universities, none of the world’s 29 major referencing systems originates from the continent. Existing styles such as APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, Harvard, and IEEE are entirely Western in origin.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja, Okebukola stated, “ASRS responds to a longstanding gap in global academic practice. Although Africa has produced centuries of scholarship and hosts thousands of universities, none of the twenty-nine internationally recognised referencing styles currently in use originates from the continent.
Systems such as APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, Harvard, and IEEE were all created outside Africa and reflect Western epistemological traditions. ASRS offers Africa an unprecedented opportunity to assert its scholarly identity and intellectual sovereignty.”
Professor Olusola Oyewole, Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities, said, “The proposal by Professor Peter Okebukola who is AAU’s Ambassador for West Africa, is for the development of an African-origin referencing system. Professor Okebukola’s initiative rightly responds to longstanding concerns around epistemic colonialism, the marginalisation of African epistemologies, and the under-recognition of African scholarly traditions in global citation frameworks.”
The ASRS framework introduces African-centered innovations for citing oral knowledge, folklore, multilingual sources, community authorship, grey literature, and works published in African languages, while remaining approximately 95% compatible with existing citation formats.
On its implementation, Okebukola noted, “The implementation strategy for ASRS is ambitious and pan-African in scope. It includes a ten-year roll-out…The plan culminates in the establishment of ASRS as the standard referencing system across Africa and its recognition by global indexing services such as Scopus and Web of Science.”
He emphasised, “ASRS is much more than a new citation format. It is a statement of Africa’s intellectual independence and a bold declaration that the continent is ready not only to produce knowledge but to determine the frameworks through which knowledge is organised, validated and transmitted. It strengthens the visibility of African scholarship, enhances the discoverability of African sources, and fosters a collective scholarly identity across the continent’s diverse linguistic and cultural regions.”