• Produces 113 First Class Graduates
Osho Raymond
Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) yesterday graduated 3,548 with calls on the influential people at the ceremony and President Muhammadu Buhari to restore Management Sciences that were delisted in Universities three years ago.
The University's Chancellor who doubles as Obong of Calabar, His Eminence, Edidem Ekpo Okon and the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, Dr. Aboki Zhawa made the call as the Institution conferred Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters on Nobel Laureate, Pro. Wole Soyinka and distinguished Historian, Prof. Toyin Falola at the Convocation Ceremony of Award of Postgraduate and Honorary Degrees held at the Institution.
Giving the statistics of graduands, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kolawole Salako disclosed that a total of 113 graduated with First Class Honours Degrees, 1,327 in the Second Class Upper Division and 1,533 in the Second Class Lower Division.
The Convocation Ceremony was the first to be hosted by the Vice-Chancellor since he assumed office in November 1, 2017.
Salako described the graduands as the best and their degrees well deserved.
Graduands, parents, guardians, dignitaries and well wishers from all works of life converged at the sprawling Ceremonial Building of the University where academic degrees were awarded to the graduands.
The VC charged the graduands to uphold the University’s Core Value of academic and moral excellence in their endeavours, assuring them that “these will distinguish you among your peers and make you very good ambassadors of the University”.
Explaining the rationale behind the Honorary Degree conferred on Soyinka and Falola, Slako maintained “There is a nexus between Science and Humanities”.
His words “we are emphasizing this as we confer the Honorary Degree on the men who made their marks in Humanities. Even at this convocation ceremony, Prof. Toyin Falola, who doubled as our Convocation Lecture demonstrated this in the lecture titled, “Food and Us: Poverty, Policies and Politics”.
Concerning Soyinka, the Vice-Chancellor pointed out that “we feel honoured to project “Ake, the Years of Childhood” to “Ake the year of Honorary Degree Award”.
“The former, a book was published in 1981 and 1988 by Wole Soyinka. Here we are with the latter, an event, in 2018”, he added.
Earlier in his Address, the Chancellor called on the Visitord to the University to magnanimously restore the courses in the College of Management Sciences that were delisted three years ago.
He recalled “The establishment of the College was borne out of the call for diversification of academic programmes in specialized Universities with the assurance to retain Agriculture as the flagship in Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta”.
The Chancellor pointed out that “The purpose of this pronouncement on diversification was to allow greater access to higher education by an ever-increasing pool of eligible candidates who are unable to access higher education due to insufficiency in numbers to care for their admission capacities”.
He appeald to Buhari, saying “It is important that the College, which has enjoyed full accreditation status, should be allowed to continue its contributions in the academic towards a meaningful national development”.
In the same vein, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, Dr. Barr. Aboki Zhawa decried the declination of the Management Sciences and also appealed to the President for their restoration with alacrity.
He lamented that for two consecutive academic sessions, Management Sciences have been delisted from JAMB Brochure and thereby dashing the hopes and yearnings of thousands of Nigerians youths.
The Pro-Chancellor pointed out that the Institution's Governing Council believes that whoever opens the gate of a school closes the door of prison while a nation that toys with education of its citizens is only preparing its posterity for penury”.
“I beseech Mr. President to prevail on the agencies and individuals that may be thwarting the efforts of restoring this all-important College to put the future of the teeming youths above all other considerations, he added”.
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