This inaugural lecture as I see it is  the foundation one in Operations Research. As a result it will be appropriate to devote a part of the lecture to explain what the discipline is all about and why management programmes and some professional bodies make some versions of it as compulsory courses to be offered. 

I will also draw the attention of the  role mathematics plays in operations research together with the usefulness of this discipline in social sciences. I am making an attempt to link these three areas, because, I am involved; just to use the words of a Nigerian elder statesman.