The family of a former Minister of Defence, retired Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, has donated an additional ultramodern girl hostel to the University of Benin, making it the second within the last 15 months.
The matriarch of the family, Mrs Daisy Danjuma, said at the inauguration ceremony on Wednesday in Benin that the Danjuma family felt it owed the university more than the university owed them.
Danjuma, who was represented by Mr. Andy Ehanire, the Managing Director, Ogba Zoological Garden and Nature Park, Benin, lauded the university for singling out the former minister and his wife for honorary doctoral degrees.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the family has also laid the foundation for another hostel for the boys at the university.
“The donation to the hostels is like a token.
”I was around at the inauguration of the first hostel. I know that the UNIBEN Students’ Union President made a passionate plea that Danjuma’s family should not forget the boys.
“I have also bought into the agenda. So, I pray that two hostels should go on at the same time for the boys,” Danjuma said.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Lilian Salami, said the edifice, named after the matriarch of the family, Sen. Daisy, demonstrated a belief in girlhood and her development.
“We are here to celebrate someone who is just marvellous. I say so with no reservation.
“How can someone sit in her quiet corner and continue to give? If not someone whom God has created to really impact humanity,” Salami said.
Salami said the university never believed the project could be delivered in such a short time, 14 months after the first donation was made.
According to her, when we started with the first hostel, we visited Sisi Daisy and General Theophilus Danjuma, and they asked us what the university wanted from the family.
“We said if they could give us a hostel, we would appreciate it, and we were promised one hostel, which was inaugurated by the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
“When Sisi Daisy came to UNIBEN for the inauguration of the hostel that she donated, she said, Why not give a second hostel? and we thought it was a joke, until the foundation laid, and we had it.
“Here again, celebrating Sisi Daisy’s 72nd birthday, and she promised to give a third hostel.
”I am sure if this continues, by the time she reaches 90, God willing, we will probably have Senator Daisy Danjuma hostels everywhere in UNIBEN.
“She is a wonderful woman, as she continues to give, and there is no dull moment with her,” the vice chancellor said.
Salami said if she could still be an undergraduate at UNIBEN, she would have come to this hostel because the hostels were powered by solar for 24 hours of electricity and regular water supply from a borehole.
She said the university was proud of the Danjuma family because the structures were signature hostels at this university.
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