Full First Name(s)
Emmanuel Izaka
Title (honorific)
Prof
Academic Qualifications
PhD (1998, Old Dominion University); MSc (1990, Bayero University); BSc (1985, University of Benin)
Brief Biography (English)

Emmanuel Izaka Aigbokhan obtained his doctorate degree in 1998 at Old Dominion University (ODU),USA and had postdoctoral research experience at Wright State University, Ohio and thereafter, had a brief stint as adjunct teaching faculty at Wilberforce University and Sinclair Community College both in the state of Ohio, USA. He was recently engaged as Professor of Botany at the Federal University of Kashere, Gombe State on sabbatical leave from the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Benin (UNIBEN), Nigeria, where, he has mentored and taught courses in plant ecology, plant taxonomy, biometry, etc. at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Trained as a plant ecologist, Aigbokhan is also a specialist Strigologist (a term often used to refer to experts on the parasitic weed – Striga, also commonly called witchweed). His first visit to southern Nigeria was in 1981 when he gained admission into the UNIBEN. He is a recipient of the UNIBEN Undergraduate Scholar award in 1984, he obtained a BSc degree in Botany, Second Class (Upper Division) in 1985. He returned to Bayero University, Kano in 1987 and for his MSc degree chose to embrace the study of Striga due to its devastating effects on cereals and legume crops in African agriculture. Since then, he had extensive training and research experiences on Striga study both locally and internationally. He was Research Assistant, Research Supervisor, and later, Research Fellow at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Since 2004, he has lectured at the UNIBEN, and in addition to Striga studies, he is currently exploring aspects of the indigenous knowledge and practices in ethnoecology with a special focus on the Benin Kingdom.

He solely initiated and developed the first digital vascular plant database for southern Nigeria. The preliminary outcome from this effort is evident in the development of his celebrated book titled “Annotated Checklist of Vascular Plants of Southern Nigeria” the first comprehensive plant checklist for Nigeria since the publication of the Flora of Tropical West Africa (1954-1972) and the first to adopt and utilize the angiosperm phylogeny system (APG) in delimiting vascular plant families of southern Nigeria. The book has been adopted as a major textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate instruction in plant sciences and related disciplines in major universities and institutions of higher learning across Nigeria. He has served as a vegetation expert for many environmental consultancy firms in Nigeria engaged with studies pertaining to vegetation audit, environmental feasibility studies, Environmental Evaluation Report (EER), and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). He holds membership in many national and international scientific societies and currently a council member of the Botanical Society of Nigeria (BOSON). His Areas of specialization are on Plant ecology, plant taxonomy, plant systematics, biometry, the biology of parasitic angiosperms, invasive alien plants of Nigeria, Flora of Nigeria, ethnoecology of the forest kingdom of Benin.

Job Title
Lecturer (Professor)
Primary Organisation
University of Benin
Website Address for Primary Organisation
African Country
Nigeria
African Region
West Africa

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