One hundred and forty-one graduating students of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, bagged first class out of the 1,668 fresh graduates who would be officially churned out on Saturday.
ABUAD Vice Chancellor, Prof. Smaranda Olarinde, said the university would also on the occasion, confer honorary doctorates on the former Secretary General of Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; the Emir of Lafia Bare-Bari, Justice Sidi Bage; and a business magnate, Mrs Victoria Samson.
Olarinde, who spoke on Monday at a press briefing heralding the convocation ceremony, gave a breakdown of a class of degrees obtained by the graduands, saying, 141 had first class, 752 bagged second class upper, 397 got second class lower and 40 had third class.
The VC noted that the university which turned out only 103 graduates at its maiden convocation in 2013, had grown in leaps and bounds, producing 1668 in 2023, which she said “underscores the institution’s commitment to excellence”.
She said, “The high point of this year’s graduation ceremony is the graduation of 1,668 students made of 1,459 Bachelors and 209 Postgraduate students” across colleges of Engineering, Law, Medicine and Health Sciences, Sciences, Social and Management Sciences, Postgraduate and Part-time.
Olarinde said that Anyaoku and Samson would be honoured with Doctor of Letters and Bage would be honoured with Doctor of Law “In appreciation of the various ways they have impacted society”.
She said that on Thursday, the maiden edition of ABUAD and Trinity Western University, Canada 2023 International Conference on Leadership and Governance for Sustainable Change and Wealth Creation would be held, where Professor Patrick Lumumba would speak on “The role of leadership and governance in socio-political and economic development”.
She added that the convocation lecture titled, ‘Management of diversity: A major challenge in pluralistic countries,’ was billed to be delivered by Anyaoku on Friday while the Founder’s Dinner and Awards would be held later that day.
The VC cited key activities which happened in ABUAD in the last year including the January 10 signing of a tripartite agreement among Little by Little Foundation, John Hopkins Hospital, USA and ABUAD for the world-class clinical training of ABUAD medical students in the US-based John Hopkins Hospital.
She also listed the July 28 signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Kings College, the University of London and ABUAD towards the establishment of the Afe Babalola African Centre for Transnational Education.
Olarinde, who said that Babalola had earlier donated a whooping sum of £ 10 million to lift indigent African students, said, “The Afe Babalola African Centre for Transnational Education will enable young Africans to access education and other opportunities which they would otherwise not be able to have”.
