....She also advised young girls to abstain
from sex, face their studies and respect people and honour God.
 |
| Oduyoye |
Last Sunday’s convocation of Babcock
University, Ilisan-Remo, Ogun State, was a potpourri of emotions. For
some, it was expectedly exciting. Shouts of joy, mixed with backslapping
and hugging, were not in short supply.
But while most of the graduating
students had cause to rejoice and shed tears of joy, two of the
graduating students and their family members, who managed to grace the
occasion, were grief-stricken. But, first, they story of joy.
Continue reading after the cut...
At the carnival-like 11th convocation,
1,359 students were awarded first degrees. Twenty got postgraduate
diplomas, 71 obtained Master’s degrees in various disciplines while
another set of 41 got PhD degrees in various disciplines.
The cynosure of all eyes were, however,
a 20-year-old lady, Omobola Oduyoye, who emerged the best graduating
student after scoring a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.92, and
Nuhu Benjamin, who won the President’s Award for securing the overall
best performances in leadership, academics, community and spiritual
services.
Oduyoye, an indigene of Ilisan-Remo,
Ikenne Local Government Area of the state, was awarded a first class
degree in Public Health, while Nuhu also got a first degree in Christian
Religious Studies.
Speaking with our correspondent after
she received the Senior Vice-President’s Prize as the graduate with the
highest overall CGPA, Oduyoye said commitment, discipline, hard work and
focus – combined with what she called God’s grace – fetched her the
award.
“Motivation from my parents, lecturers
and course mates also helped me. Healthy competition from my course
mates such as Akomolafe Damilola, who also obtained a CGPA of 4.60 ,
also enhanced my performance.
“I have a lot of respect for her because
she is a mature married woman and a nurse. In spite of her age, she
related well with us and she was very focused. Each time I looked at
her, I felt like I should ask government to stop admitting fresh
secondary school leavers straight into the university. They should be
asked to do the A/Level or ordinary diploma programme before they enrol
at the university,” she said.
Oduyoye, who aspires to become the
nation’s health minister some day, noted that she would change the face
of the nation’s health sector, particularly child and maternal health if
given the chance.
“I’m from this town. I only lived the
first six years of my life in Ghana and since then I’ve been here and I
see a lot of challenges poor women and children go through daily. I want
to make health delivery accessible, affordable and extremely cheap for
our children and women. I will fight corruption in the health sector and
ensure that our children and their mother don’t die again from
preventable diseases,” she added.
This desire could explain why each time
she and her colleagues had to embark on a field work, Oduyoye always
ensured that children and young mothers were her target.
“Though I don’t have money to give
them, I always organise seminar and workshop to train them on hygiene,
oral health and how to handle preventable diseases. We at times give
them off-the-counter drugs. But if God permits and I become the health
minister, I’ll work hard to ensure better health service delivery for
Nigerians,” she noted.
On how she handled pressure from male
students and lecturers, Oduyoye, who had her primary and secondary
school education at Babcock Primary School and Babcock University High
School, stated that though she had so many male friends, she avoided
getting intimate with them.
“I have a number of friends – including
male students but I always draw a line between friendship for academic
advancement and immoral relationship. I’m not abusive; neither am I a
snub. But I don’t encourage any relationship that will distract me from
my studies. I don’t encourage any action that can suggest to you that
I’m a cheap commodity. I also ensure that I don’t go alone anywhere or
follow anybody to dark corners even if she is a girl like me.
“It may sound funny to you, I have never
kissed anyone in my life and I have not been kissed by anybody. I thank
God for the grace He gives me to achieve this because I know that some
people will say it is not easy but with God all things are possible,”
the 20-year-old fresh graduate added.
Oduyoye advised young girls to abstain
from sex, face their studies and respect people and honour God. But the
lady, whose father is a lecturer in the Business Administration
Department at Babcock, has a word for the management of the institution.
She stated, “They should relax the
rules. Specifically, I don’t see any reason why a female student should
not keep long hairs. Do you know it is so bad that security men on
campus can stop a student and cut off her hair? This is not good. After
all, undergraduates are no longer in the secondary school.”
Oduyoye however urged the university to
sustain its dress code, though she wants students to be forced into
engaging in physical activities. This, she said, is based on the result
of a research she did in her final year.
“I did a project on the effect of
physical inactivity among Babcock University students and my findings
revealed that many of us were not physically active and this has
implication for our academics, health and general wellbeing. The
university should therefore invest more in sports and possibly compel
everybody to participate in sports.
“They should also reduce the sale of
fatty foods such as hamburger, doughnut, eggroll and meat-pie on campus.
The scriptural and inspirational write ups on billboards in open spaces
on campus are good but they should add educational health tips too,”
she noted.
The former Governor of Cross River
State, Mr. Donald Duke, was honoured with the honoraris causa of the
institution for his distinguished public service works. He gave a
lecture where he advised African leaders to work for the development of
their people.
He also challenged the graduating students never to emulate corrupt leaders but to be passionate and committed to their vision.
Earlier, Makinde had told the
gathering, including the Chancellor, BU, Pastor Gilbert Wari; the
institution’s Pro-Chancellor, Dr. Oyeleke Owolabi; representative of the
Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; and vice-chancellors of some
Nigerian universities, that as is the tradition with the citadel, none
of the graduating students had Third Class degree.
It was learnt that students whose CGPA
was within the third class degree were given automatic extra year.
According to Makinde, the institution is committed to its mission to
produce graduates that have competence, character and commitment.
He told the gathering that all the
programmes on offer in the institution had been accredited by the NUC.
He also commended philanthropists, including Chief Kessignton Adebutu,
Dr. Alex Otti and Alhaji Aliko Dangote, for their contributions towards
the development of the university.
Culled - Punch
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