From Sunday, July 21, 2024, all roads led to Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo, for a one-week packed activities to mark the institution’s 22nd undergraduate and 13th Postgraduate Convocation ceremony. The event for the Coral Class of 2024 featured a stunning display of colours, ranging from colourful native and western attires to colourful events’ venues, a series of activities including several different meal occasions in the name of a cocktail party, and banquet, tree planting/project dedication, consecration service, class night and thanksgiving, and a day with the stars, among others. For the postgraduate students, who were accommodated and fed with assorted local and international food and drink for one week, their activities commenced around 3 pm on July 21, with a service of songs after which the Secretary of the Postgraduate Studies, Dr Titilayo Owolabi, addressed the graduating students. She enumerated various interesting activities the school had put together for their send-off, saying that the one week would forever be memorable.
Banquet Night
Justifying the logic behind the evening praises, she said, “Some thesis were sent to the external examiners to be told that they were not received. I am standing to thank God, so I need people to join me in thanking God. You are not here for academic gown alone, you’re also here praise God. You are not here alone for a cocktail party. Those who are not here, are missing because God will bring something good out of this praise and worship. I want to testify to the goodness of God. I remember when an external examiner called to tell me that the examination would not take place. You will not know. I remember when the external examiner said he had not received the thesis and as it was, the exam would not take place. I could remember when names were mixed up and we would start searching to find out where the mix-up happened. My God is faithful. So, I am praising God. God is unquestionable, reliable, and wholesome. So, I need people to join me in thanking God.”
Following the praises and worship was a colourful cocktail party held where the graduating students unwind, and were treated to small chops and different drinks to their satisfaction. Dressed in stunning attires, students from all the faculties took turns to show their dancing skills as a live band was on stage to thrill them. The occasion was also used to exchange complimentary cards and graduands discussed businesses one could do for another. Also, friendship was struck. The event lasted till about 10 pm.
Between 10 am and 1 pm on Tuesday, July 23, a convocation lecture titled, “Leadership and Governance: The Interwoven Responsibility for Development and Growth”, was delivered at the Amphitheatre, by the Minister of Education (State), Dr Yusuf Sununu, who was represented by Professor Francis Egbokhare, a professor of Linguistics from the University of Ibadan (UI), and former Director of UI Distance Learning Centre. Before delving into the lecture, Egbokhare remarked that success must be worked for hence, “There is no success without sacrifice and there is no sacrifice without pain.”
Sununu argued that leadership could not be separated from governance because they are like a set of conjoined twins. He emphasized, “Leadership and governance cannot be separated. A question is can we have leadership without governance? Leadership is not an appointment. It is a mentality. It is an attitude. It is a lifestyle. Leadership is a process. It involves making changes. It includes people. It comprises goal attainment. It encompasses making efforts. It consists of sharing values and even more.”
Conceptualising value, the Minister, affirmed that without integrity, leadership is nothing, stressing that other factors of development must be built on integrity and value. According to him, every other thing fails when values are not there, pointing out, “If leadership is a process, it suggests that leadership is not a characteristic or intrigues that only a few are endowed with from birth as a school of thought claims. It means it is transactional, connoting an exchange process and coordinated by leaders among the followers. That leadership is a process implies that the lives of both the leaders and followers are impacted and as such, it is collaborative, not disjointed. It is two ways in dimension. It is not linear in which only the leaders and not the followers are impacted. Leadership is available to everybody not just a few who are born with it.” He then stated that the graduands are leaders in their own right, who have the responsibility to manage people who are in their sphere of influence.
Sununu also argued that another important aspect of leadership is that it involves making changes; it is progressive and as such, it entails growth. According to him, change in leadership connotes empowerment, liberation, and even breaking new grounds, stressing that leadership includes people. He said leadership should be people or human-oriented, having a phase, a heart, and feelings as well as connects and bounds. He stated that it empathises and is participatory, and goal-oriented, pointing out, “A good leader aims to direct the group towards attaining an endpoint. It means providing orientation, guiding and showing the group members how to work together towards a common goal without compromising on important values. Values are equally important in leadership. Efforts count a great deal in leadership as the success of the leader lies in the collective effort of the entire group, not just a few or the leader alone.”
Also conceptualizing governance, he explained that governance is about delivering a promise, adding that governance is a process that includes but is not limited to managing, exercising authority, enforcing procedures, making decisions, and meeting obligations. According to him, it could be seen as processes and arrangements that ensure orderliness and acceptable standard of allocation of resources, and a legal framework in which national behaviour is achieved and controlled. “The elements of good governance include credible election, participation, effective service delivery, rule of law, transparency, effectiveness and efficiency, employment, accountability and strategic vision”, he added.
Examining the interlink between leadership and governance, which he claimed to be overlapping, the guest lecturer established that leadership is a critical ingredient of good governance. He held that the major problem facing Nigeria is leadership in governance, saying that if leadership and governance are well integrated, growth and development would be guaranteed. He pointed out the obvious that Nigeria is one of the world’s largest oil-producing countries, with abundant mineral resources, hence, making the country have a great potential for producing a rich combination of agricultural products and raw materials for industrial activities. “Unfortunately, past leadership have not successfully harnessed these resources to facilitate good governance. Leadership in Nigeria has failed simply because it has not provided or guaranteed good governance.”
The minister also averred that the current economic reality shows that Nigeria has not made any significant progress in terms of development and growth. “Despite the huge human material and natural resources in our possession, Nigeria in the past six decades, is battling with low and fragile economic growth, food crisis, insecurity, infrastructural breakdown, depleting environment, weak institutions, inefficiency public service delivery, and weak social indicators among others. By the end of the first quarter of 2024, Nigeria’s GDP stood at 2.98 per cent. This figure is lower than the 3.4 per cent reported at the end of the 4th quarter of 2023. The IMF projection estimated that about 40.7 per cent of Nigerians will be plunged below the international poverty line by the end of 2024. Nigerian inflation rate currently stands at 28. 2 per cent with a debt profile of about 87.3 trillion Naira by the end of the second quarter, an increase of about 75.35 per cent, according to NBS. This portend a decline in Nigerian economic growth in 2024. Also, my initial 3.3 growth projected by the IMF in 2024, the Nigerian growth rate has been slashed to 3.1 per cent following the mounting problems of the nation and debt”, he explained.
Berating the nation’s leaders for their incompetency in making Nigeria great, he described Nigeria’s problem as a failure of its leadership to rise to the challenge by showing good examples, adding that this is the right time to begin to raise leaders who are committed to good governance. He also identified holistic education as an important factor in building good leaders. He charged the graduating students not to join the bandwagon of corrupt leaders who mismanage the nation’s resources and divert public funds. He also berated Nigerian leaders for not respecting the rule of law saying, “When leaders don’t show respect for the rule of law, institutions are weakened. It is common knowledge that the judiciary which is the custodian of the rule of law is held by the jugular by the political actors in this country. We have good laws. What is missing is good governance.”
Other factors undermining leadership and good governance in Nigeria are ineffectual economic policy and insecurity. He said, “Insecurity threatens our peace as insurgency, terrorism and communal conflicts are on the rise. We constantly battle with loss of lives, communal displacement and even disruption of economic activities. Security institutions are weak and unable to respond adequately to this mounting threat.”
Also identified as undermining leadership and governance is election malpractices pointing out, “Only very few elections conducted in this country can be truly declared as free and fair. Our elections are fraught with violence, rigging and all manners of election fraud. According to the World Bank in 2028, there is a high level of youth unemployment, social unrest, and involvement in criminal activities. It is largely because of a lack of youth employment. Despite our large youth population, there are no adequate empowerment opportunities provided through education acquisition or employment. Many youths are left to face difficulties in the course of finding greener pastures. The number of Nigerian youth seeking education and work opportunities outside Nigeria is appalling and embarrassing. Nigerian institutions of learning are grossly inadequate in terms of infrastructural capacity to meet the dynamics of the first-century education system.”
While condemning the neglect of rural areas in the area of development, he said, “Two important responsibilities of visionary leadership and effective governance are transparency and accountability: “Governance at national, state and local levels is neither transparent nor accountable. Due process is almost non-existence with many public activities. Public office funds are always mismanaged by the same set of people whose responsibility is to secure them.”
After a long day filled with a lecture and other activities, the graduating students were able to let their hair down and relax with a banquet in the evening. At the banquet, the graduating students were treated to sumptuous assorted meals to their satisfaction. While the postgraduate students were clad in blue Kampala attire, the undergraduates wore white attire. The opportunity was given for the students to share their stories in the name of testimonies, after which both the graduating students and staff took to the dancing floor with a live band entertaining with trending Nigerian songs.
Wednesday, July 24 featured a day with the stars and Alumni Connectivity. The stars showcased were the Head, Human Capital Management, Oando Energy Resources, Kanyinsola Mba, Senior Talent Acquisition Partner Nestle, Nigeria, Rita Bandoh, Senior Special Adviser to the President on Digital Media, Ogba Tega, Head, Internal Audit FBN Holdings PLC, Dr Bode Oguntoke, Director Small Taxpayers Department – South Federal Inland Revenue Service, Dr D. A. Olugbenga, and Education & Cultural Affairs Specialist, United States Department of State, Clemson Ayegbusi. The stars took turns to share their life experiences, challenges, and how they made it in their chosen careers. They also touched on challenges awaiting the graduating students after school, hence advising them not only to succeed but to be blessings to the African continent.
On Thursday, July 25, the hooding ceremony of doctoral students was held at the Amphitheatre, where 160 doctoral graduands were hooded. On Friday and Saturday, July 26 and 27, consecration service, Baccalaureate, and Class Night were held.
Rounding off on Sunday, July 27 was the convocation ceremony for both undergraduate and postgraduate. While 160 bagged PhD in different fields, 400 other postgraduate students covering Postgraduate Diplomas, Master Degrees and Master of Philosophy (MPhil), totalling 400 post graduate graduands and 2,442 undergraduates, bagged diplomas and degrees, totalling 2,842 graduands. Giving the details of the graduands, the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Ademola Tayo stated that a total of 148 bagged First Class, with the duo of Elomezino Ifoghale and Glory Michael emerging as the best graduands for full-time and part-time programmes, as they recorded 4.89 and 4.56 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), respectively.
The university conferred honourary doctorate degrees on the former President of the Nigerian Bar Association and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), and the Managing Director of FSDH Merchant Bank, Bukola Onikepo Smith.
The vice-chancellor said: “To our graduates, today is a testament to your resilience, creativity, and passion. As you stand on the threshold of this new chapter, remember that the knowledge, skills, and values you have acquired here will serve as a foundation for your future success. We therefore encourage you to cherish the memories. We have made it together and look forward to the incredible impact you will make in the world”.
Tayo stated that all academic programmes offered by the university are accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC), the International Board of Education (IBE), USA, and the Adventist Accrediting Association (AAA), USA. He added that 22 out of the 100 who emerged with first-class in the Nigeria Law School bar examination, were from the university. He also said that Babcock University students of Economics won the third prize in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) challenge in 2023 at the 1st African Future Leader Competition.
The atmosphere of the convocation became tense when Governor Dapo Abiodun in his speech discouraged Nigerians from carrying out the planned August 1 #EndBadGovernance protest in the country against hardship, hunger and misgovernance of the APC government since 2015 that it became the ruling party at the federal and majority states of the federation. The moment he made this call, everyone at the convocation venue started booing him and never stopped until he left the podium.
Spontaneously reacting, Dr Michael O. Ola Ajala, the president of the postgraduate students charged the Nigerian politicians to stop stashing stolen money outside the country.
His words, “I want to charge us that the only way we can patch this country again is to be our brother keeper. There is no point of you acquiring wealth and stashing them outside the country when your fellow Nigerians are suffering. I am very happy that two of our governors are here. This country is always shout the name of the president when they are in need. Nobody is talking of our governors. We must query our governors. We must query the chairman of the local government. We must ask questions. We voted for them and they must be responsible to us. Please, don’t stand in the standing line. Be a true Nigerian. When you elect somebody to serve you, that person is not your leader, that person is supposed to be your servant. To make this country great, I plead with us, touch lives.”
Delivering the convocation lecture titled, “Go and Replenish the Earth: Man’s Misconception of God’s Mandate”, Nigerian erudite law giant, Chief Wole Olanipekun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), drew attention to the dangers inherent in unguided procreation, saying, “Reckless procreation will inevitably lead to societal rascality, and before we know it, we will have ourselves and our world engulfed in ‘procreation terrorism’.”
According to Olanipekun, his presentation highlighted the metaphorical usage of the word, “replenish” as a genesis mandate that goes beyond copulating and populating the word. “It proposes a redefinition of human apprehension within the context of success, focusing on individual contributions and impacts on humanity rather than reckless procreation, amongst others. Replenish is a word that is rich with layers of meaning, all revolving around the concept of fullness and renewal, whether tangible or abstract. It is a reminder of the cycle of loss and recovery that are fundamental to all aspects of life. The word, replenish is positive; and there is a gulf of difference between replenish and negative words like deplete, impoverish, desecrate, pollute, diminish, impair, disintegrate, dilapidate, degrade, degenerate, deteriorate, overpopulate, suffocate, to mention a few”, he added.
Olanipekun argued that the only way to replenish the world is by positively using and employing our profession, calling, ministry, brain, intellect, position, attainment, power, authority, influence, possession, ability, learning, and bearing to activate God’s decree to humanity as encapsulate in Genesis 1: 28.
Further arguing that for centuries, man has misconceived the biblical mandates charging him to “go and replenish the earth” as a command to recklessly populate the earth, without caution, saying, “To live up to the true meaning and intent of this God’s given mandate, our focus must be on contribution, which invariably chokes the available limited resources in diverse ways. My research has not yet assisted me in locating any particular man in the world whose success has been measured or determined by the plurality of the children he has flooded his immediate environment with rather than the magnitude of his success and positive impacts on his environment”, he said.
Demonstrating his disgust for Nigeria basing her distribution of revenue from the Revenue Allocation Account on the principles of landmass, and population density, he noted, “One was, therefore, not surprised that the foremost contribution a certain member of the National Assembly could make to a serious national discourse was his boast that he already had 28 children, and that before the end of the particular year, he would increase his target to 30. Hear the honourable member’s contribution on the floor of the National Assembly: “I am here and I thank God that I kept my word with the House that while I have 27, I will continue counting. By the grace of God and your prayers, the count would continue…I could appeal to my members so that we suspend relevant rules and we have a clause in the Electoral Act where it permits families that do have up to 30 kids in their homes to have an electoral polling unit in that family.”
He raised an alarm over the over bloated population of Nigeria stressing, “If not timeously checked and controlled would plunge the country into an unmitigated hysteria. Truth must be told, our increasing population is a time bomb that would explode at any time, even without anybody detonating it.”
According to him, Nigeria is the 6th most populated country in the world, queuing after India with 1,441,77billion population, China with 1,425,18billion population, the United States of America with 341,81million population, Indonesia with 289.8million, Pakistan with 245,21million population, Nigeria with 299.15million population, and followed by Brazil with 217.64million, Bangladesh with 174.7million population, Russia with 143.96million, Ethiopia with 129.63million population, Mexico with 129.39million, Japan with 122.63million population, Egypt with 114.48million population, and Democratic Republic of the Congo with 105.63million population, Turkey with 86.26million, Germany with 83.25 million, and Thailand with 71.89million population.
Olanipekun claimed that the Nigerian population is estimated to be over 227million and the population is not proximate to or aligned with our GDP of US$1,636 per capita, unemployment rate of 5 per cent, the inflation rate of 33.95 per cent; while food insecurity/scarcity stares us stoically in the face. “It is projected that Nigeria will hit a population of 400 million by 2025. The point must be made, and poignantly so, that there is no proximity between uncontrolled population and economic advancement or growth. Monaco, the second smallest country in the world, has a population of 36,157, yet Monaco ranks the richest economy in Europe, with a US$240,862 GDP per capita. Luxembourg has a population of 683,830 and it is reputed to have ranked second amongst the richest countries in the world, with a US$143,743 GDP per capita. Singapore with a population of 6 million is adjudged a prosperous nation, it remains an economically vibrant and successful country with a strong financial sector and a high standard of living. According to the World Bank National Accounts Data, Singapore’s GDP per capita is US$84,734.3, and England with a population of 57.11 million, has a GDP per capita of £37,852/US$49,982. Militarily, it is one of the most advanced countries in the world. Economically, it is richer than Nigeria in multi-folds; yet its population is not up to that of the Yoruba nation in South-West, Nigeria. Lest we forget, they were our colonial Masters. Contrariwise, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite its rich natural resources, remains one of the poorest countries globally, with a high population rate compounding its economic and social challenges.”
He cited China and India as models to follow in population control, stating that the One-Child Policy in the two countries has played a major role in their development. Worried about the high rate at which children are born in the Northern part of Nigeria, he concurred with the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) saying, “Climate change, unsustainable agricultural practices and population growth posed significant challenges to the region. … Therefore, we cannot have an uncontrolled population, and expect to live in abundance.”
He enumerated a galaxy of some individuals who replenished the world positively to include, Ruth Goothesman, Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Arthur Holly Compton, Sir Isaac Newton, Florence Nightingale, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Peter, John, Paul et al – the great Apostles, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Mary Mitchelle Slessor, Williams Shakespeare, The Wright Brothers, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Lee Kuan Yew, Charles Babbage, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Martin Cooper, Kevin Ashton, David Chaum, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Professor Wole Soyinka, Lord Alfred Thompson Denning, UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid AL Maktoum, Malala Yousafzai, Ryan Hickman, Tunde Onakoya, Hilda Effiong Bassey, and the legacy of Joseph Bates, James White G, White, J N. Andrews and David C. Babcock.
Displeased at the rate at which Nigerians migrate abroad, Olanipekun stated, “May our vibrant, zealous and adventurous youths who are migrating from Nigeria in thousands daily never have any cause to sit at the setting sun and lament at the choices made. For our various governments, as well as elders and leaders who have once benefitted from a boisterous economy in the country, paving the way for their individual and collective successes, my plea remains that we have to salvage the dehydrating situation which drives our youths from their homestead.”
Among the dignitaries at the convocation are Governor Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State, Vice Chancellor of UNILAG, Folashade Ogunsola, and her counterparts from Ajayi Crowther, Crawford University, Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), Adeleke University, Leedcity University, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Bamidele Olumilua University University of Education, Science and Technology, Clifford University, Professors Timothy Adebayo, Reuben Jiya Kolo, Abayomi Fasina,and Olusola Babatunde Kehinde, Solomon Ajayi Adebola, Kabir Aderemi Adeyemo, Ayodeji Agboola, Olufemi Victor Adeoluwa, Chimezie Omeonu, respectively, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI), Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, former Oyo State Commissioner for Justice, Bayo Ojo (SAN), and the Ogoga of Ikere-Ekiti, Samuel Adejimi.
