President Bola Tinubu has reassured Nigerians that his administration is totally committed to building a prosperous and peaceful country where citizens are united and capable of achieving their dreams and aspirations wherever they choose to live and work.
He gave the assurance on Thursday in Lagos while addressing the gathering at the 55th convocation ceremony of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Akoka held at the university’s main auditorium.
According to the president, unity remains our greatest strength as a country even as our diversity is not a weakness but a source of incredible richness.
“So, let us harness this diversity and work together to overcome challenges, seize opportunities, and build a Nigeria we can all be proud of,” he urged
Speaking through the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, at the event, Tinubu, who is also a visitor to the university, explained that his administration recognizes education as the cornerstone of national development and the bedrock upon which a prosperous society is built, hence its various people-oriented policies and massive investments in the education sector generally.
He referenced the current national budget, which allocates up to N3.52 trillion to education sector, considered the third-highest allocation after security and infrastructural development to drive home his submission and administration’s efforts to revitalise the sector.
According to him, we want to ensure that our 2025 budget reflects our determination to stabilise the economy, improve lives, and position Nigeria for a brighter future.
Tinubu mentioned that part of the government efforts is the establishment of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to give free-interest loans to tertiary school students who are financially challenged to enable them to go to school and acquire right skills to be able to contribute meaningfully to the country’s progress, noting that thousands of such students have already benefited from the scheme while many more will still benefit as time goes on.
“We have also initiated some other reforms to addressing systemic challenges in tertiary education, examples of these include the removal of universities from the IPPIS as emolument payment platform and also given of waivers to universities to recruit new staff on their own,” he added.
Tinubu, however, congratulated all the graduands and their families as well as the UNILAG community, charging the graduating class to make use of the knowledge and skills they had acquired during their studies to make meaningful contributions to their various chosen fields and the country at large.
He also congratulated the two eminent Nigerians- Mr. Kolawole Adesina, who is the Group Managing Director of Sahara Power Group, and Mr. Fola Adeola, a co-founder of GTCO, on bagging the university’s honorary doctoral degrees in science, saying their contributions to education and the economy at large are commendable.
Speaking earlier, the vice-chancellor of UNILAG, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, stated that a total of 16,409 all graduated across levels — diploma, certificate, undergraduate, and postgraduate studies, during this year’s convocation ceremonies that started on Tuesday.
Among them were a total of 9,684 (first degrees including 561 who made First Class honours); 5,933 (master’s degrees), 213(doctoral degrees); and 513 (postgraduate diplomas) in various disciplines while the remaining 66 graduated from the University’s Business School.
Interestingly, two of the graduating class at the undergraduate level, Damilare Haroun Adebakin and Samuel Akinade Badekale, both males and from the same Department of Cell Biology & Genetics, Faculty of Science with a perfect score of 5.0 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), finished as the overall best of the set.
Similarly, Olamide Idris Emida, who studied Accounting and has a CGPA of 4.95 out of 5.0, graduated as the overall best in the humanities while Adetoun Alaba Akitoye, who studied Chemistry, emerged as the overall best in the doctoral degree class, and Eniola Niniola Ladipo has the overall best PhD thesis in the humanities.
They were all rewarded with various awards for their excellent performance alongside some other outstanding mates at the event.
Two distinguished retired professors from the university—Babajide Alo (of the Department of Chemistry) and Olukayode Amund (Department of Microbiology) and Professor Victor Ariole, of the Department of European Languages, were also honoured with Emeritus Professorship and the Gold Medal award, respectively for their continuous contributions to the development the university and the country by extension.
The vice-chancellor, however, congratulated them all and commended members of the university’s Senate and staff for their respective commitments to ‘excellence despite the continued economic and social challenges that have characterised the country in the last year.”
While declaring that all the graduating class had been thoroughly trained, just like those before them, she celebrated some of the groundbreaking achievements made by the university in recent times including innovation, research, infrastructure, and academic excellence.
She also acknowledged contributions from the Lagos State government, corporate bodies, philanthropic individuals as well as former students at an individual and group level to the development of the university, commending their efforts.
She declared that UNILAG is meant to produce well-rounded and fit-for-purpose graduates across fields.
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