President Bola Tinubu has reassured Nigerians of his government’s determination and commitment to ease the pains brought upon them by the removal of fuel subsidy when he assumed office about eight months ago.
He also promised that his government would not in any way compromise the delivery of quality and quantitative education at all levels to Nigerians.
The president gave these assurances on Thursday at the 54th convocation ceremonies of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Akoka where a total of 6, 886 postgraduate students including seven with 5.0 CGPA perfect scores and 31 international students in Masters programmes graduated at the event.
A total of 10, 578 undergraduates with 340 of them graduated with First Class honours had their own convocation for two days earlier
Tinubu, who is a visitor to the university and represented by the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamaam, explained again that the removal of fuel subisdy was a hard decision but he did it “to benefit the ordinary Nigerians.”
He said that his government is working hard to alleviate the pains occasioned by the decision and make lives more meaningful to ordinary Nigerians, assuring that the efforts would yield desirable result soon
While also re-emphasising that the students’ loan policy for tertiary school students as well as school feeding programme for primary school students by his administration are geared towards quality and quantitative education, Tinubu assured that both policies and programmes would certianly be implemented to achieve their intended purposes.
He, however, congratulated all the graduands as well as the three eminent honorary doctorate award recipients on their various accomplishments.
While acknowledging the strong contributions of the three honorary award scholars, he urged the fresh graduates at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctorate degree levels to come up with ideas and innovations that would help move Nigeria forward appreciably.
He also commended the Vice- Chancellor of UNILAG, Prof Folasade Ogunsola and her team as well as the entire university community for their commitment to the production of well-rounded graduates every year.
He assured the university that his government would continue to support and invest in anyway it can to the development of the university.
Speaking earlier on behalf of himself and two other honorary award recipients, Prof Toyin Falola said every Nigerian should contribute significantly to the project of decolonisation of Nigeria and other African countries by extension.
He pointed that out that Africans are resilent as they survived at every stage of hardship and misfortune such as pre-colonial and colonial era, and during the outbreak of Ebola Virus and lately Corona Virus.
He said Africans with rich values have huge strength for survival at any level, urging that such disposition should be used to the advantage of the continent.
He noted that Nigeria huge population could equally be used as an asset to bring about reasonable socio- economic development to the country.
He also advocated that women should be given opportunity to perform leadership roles not only in academia like that of UNILAG where women dominates the leadership positions but also in political and other sectors of the economy.
Prof Falola, who is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair at the University of Texas at Austin and honoured with doctorate degree in Literature, thanked UNILAG for the honor done him and two others, Prof
Attahiru Jega (former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission); and Phyllis Kanki of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Boston.
He said they would continue to contribute to knowledge sharing and for humanity in anyway they can.
Earlier, in her welcome address, the vice-chancellor of the university, Prof Folasade Ogunsola noted that the university produced 340 first-class at undergradute level this year and that the number was the highest in a single convocation event in the history of the university.
She also noted that the university’s Business School, which is functioning as an autonomous entity produced its first set of graduates, totalling 62 at the event.
Prof Folasade, however, explained that UNILAG would not relax in producing fit- for-purpose graduates and would also sustain its global brand status in research and community services.
Among personalitiies in attendance are Pastor Tunde Bakare; Shehu Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, who is the chancellor of the university; Dr. Chris Maiyaki, Acting executive secretary of National Unuversities commission( NUC); the immediate past vice- chancellor of UNILAG, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe and Dr Aminat Olawunmi Ige, a PhD Mathematics student who won the overall best PhD Thesis award this year and Issa Akanji Adedokun from Law Faculty, the best PhD Thesis in humanities award winner.