Uinlorin V-C urges Africans to embrace nobility, shun craze for money

The Vice-Chancellor, University of Ilorin (Unilorin), Prof. Sulyman Abdulkareem, on Monday advised Africans to embrace nobility rather than the scramble for money.

Abdulkareem gave the advice while receiving a delegation of the African Students Union Parliament (ASUP), who were in his office to confer the ‘ASUP-Pan African Leadership Prize for Excellence’ award on him.

The vice-chancellor said that: “in the course of looking for money, even the learned ones lose their focus”.

According to him, some medical doctors will prefer to be bus drivers or security guards in Europe, just to get the hard currency.

He noted that the situation where we keep putting nobility aside and allow other things to drive our lives would never remove the chains on our legs and necks.

“Everywhere we find ourselves, we must be the best, to keep the symbol of Africa intact.

“We may not be rich or sophisticated like other parts of the world, but our pride and respect must remain intact,” he said.

Abdulkareem admonished the students on the issue of drug abuse and other related substances in the institutions of higher learning.

He expressed sadness at the rate at which the menace was eating deep into the lives of the students and by extension the adverse effect of drug abuse on the society.

The vice-chancellor attributed the development to the increase in the use of illicit drugs, which needed to be checked, to avoid its havoc on the society.

According to him, once you get exposed to drugs, only God can save you and even if you are not addicted, a lot of damage can be done to the body.

He appreciated the efforts of the association for taking their campaign against drug abuse to African university campuses and educating fellow Africans.

Earlier, Mr Solomon Mensah, the Leader of the ASUP delegation, expressed the group’s gratitude to the management and staff of the institution for granting them audience.

Mensah, the Deputy Speaker of the University of Professional Studies, Medina, Accra, Ghana, said their mission to the Unilorin was to confer the prestigious award on Abdulkareem.

He lauded the vice-chancellor’s “magnificent experience, administrative prudence and human capacity development”.

He described Abdulkareem as an expert in educational transformation in Nigeria and a true son of Africa