It is an autonomous, scholarly and non-political state institution for advancing scholarship and public interest in the humanities at the highest level in Nigeria.
The incumbent president of the academy is Professor Duro Oni.
[4] The Fellowship is given rarely to distinguished professors after a rigorous election exercise.
Elected Fellows are inducted at an investiture ceremony, which formally confers on them the right to use the postnominal Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (FNAL).
[5] Foundation Fellowship is static, non elected body of Nigerian scholars who are the founding members of the academy.