Unilag graduates 74-year-old woman at 50th convocation

A 77-year-old female retiree was among the 1,008 students of the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, who were awarded first degree on Tuesday at the institution’s 2017/2018 Convocation Ceremonies.

The convocation was the university’s 50th.

The retiree, who refused to mention her name to journalists, said that the achievement was her dream come true.

“I studied guidance and counselling and I am most grateful to God Almighty who made me to see this day.

“I will not like my name to be mentioned because I know where I am coming from and what I am protecting.

“I am a retired officer. I have worked in a lot of countries around the world and also in Nigeria, where I finally retired,’’ she told journalists.

She added that she went for the degree programme because she did not want to sit at home after retirement.

“You know when you retire like that, you will not want to stay at home and be dying slowly, she said.

According to the retiree, no one should feel too old to go to school as learning remains a life-long adventure.

“Education has no limit. It is from cradle to death in order for one to add value to the society,’’ she said.

She advised parents to do their best to give their children the best education.

“Every woman who has an opportunity of having a child must strive to bring that child up properly through education so that he or she does not become a problem to the society in future,’’ she urged.

Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, told the congregation that a total of 3,795 students from the Faculties of Arts, Education and Environmental Sciences would be conferred with first degree on Tuesday.

He said that students from the Faculties of Science and Social Sciences would also be awarded first degree on Tuesday – the first day of three-day convocation ceremonies.

According to him, the university will graduate a total of 12,843 students at the ceremonies.

Ogundipe said that 7,438 would be awarded first degree and 5,405, postgraduate degrees.

“This year, the trio of Adeniyi Adeyeye (B.Sc. Insurance), Chinaedum Ogbechi (B.Sc. Business Administration) both of Management Sciences, and Joedicta Ekeh (B.Sc. Pharmacy) have emerged best graduating students with cumulative grade point average of 4.96,’’ he said.

Ogundipe said that the Faculty of Arts, Education and Environmental Sciences would graduate 603, 1008 and 382 students, respectively, on Tuesday.

He added that the Faculty of Science would graduate 964 while Faculty of Social Sciences would graduate 838.

According to him, out of the 3,795 students who would graduate on Tuesday, 104 of them finished in the first class category, including four from the Faculty of Arts, 12 from the Faculty of Education and 22 from the Faculty of Environmental Sciences.

According to him, the others are 48 from the Faculty of Science and 18 from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

“We also have a total of 1,320 graduating students with second class upper division and 1,609 with second class lower division.

“We are also graduating a total of 615 students in the third class category, while 99 others will be graduating with pass grade,’’ Ogundipe, the university’s 12th Vice Chancellor, said.

He said that the university’s management had pursued uncompromising academic standards, local and global networks and innovative fundraising mechanism in an effort to make the institution better.

He said that transformational and transnational leadership and accountability in all the institution’s processes were part of the giant strides it attained recently.

The vice chancellor said that the institution’s microfinance bank would soon begin operation as an additional source of revenue for the university.

According to him, the bank when fully operational, will also assist the university community to access loans to meet financial needs toward house ownership, small scale enterprises, school fees, car purchase and others.

“A site has been earmarked, and remodelling of the building would commence soon.

“As part of our community service also, the university involved itself in impacting the society by empowering young female students with coding application skills, via a three- month programme tagged, “Young Coders Application Development’’.

“The programme was successfully demonstrated with 50 girls from International School, University of Lagos.

“A hundred schoolgirls from Abule-Oja, Bariga, Iwaya and Makoko will also get a chance to benefit from the programme this year,” Ogundipe promised.

The vice chancellor advised the graduating students to be good ambassadors of the university and contribute their quotas to the progress of the institution.