UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE BEGS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO RESTORE MANAGEMENT COURSES
‘Your Excellency, Mr. President Sir, I wish to passionately appeal for the restoration of the University’s College of Management Sciences (COLMAS) which has, for two consecutive academic sessions, been delisted from JAMB Brochure and thereby dashing the hopes and yearnings of thousands of Nigerians youths”.
“The Governing Council believes that whoever opens the gate of a school closes the door of prison while a nation that toys with education of its citizens is only preparing its posterity for penury”, he added.
“I beseech Mr. President to prevail on the agencies and individuals that may be thwarting the efforts of restoring this all-important College to put the future of the teeming youths above all other considerations, he added”.
Also speaking in the same vein, the Chancellor of the University, Obong of Calabar, His Eminence Edidem Ekpo Okon, Abasi – Otu V, called on the visitor to the University “to magnanimously restore our courses in the College of Management Sciences that were delisted since three years ago”.
“The establishment of the College was borne out of the call for diversification of academic programmes in specialized Universities with the assurance to retain Agriculture as the flagship in Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta”, he added.
“The purpose of this pronouncement on diversification was to allow greater access to higher education by an ever-increasing pool of eligible candidates who are unable to access higher education due to insufficiency in numbers to care for their admission capacities”.
“It is therefore important that the College, which has enjoyed full accreditation status, should be allowed to continue its contributions in the academic towards a meaningful national development”, he pleaded.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kolawole Salako earlier in his welcome speech explained reason the University was conferring Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters on Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and distinguished Historian, Professor Toyin Falola at the Convocation Ceremony of Award of Postgraduate Degrees and Honorary Degrees, stating that, “there is a nexus between Science and Humanities”.
“We are emphasizing this as we confer the Honorary Degree on the men who made their marks in Humanities. Even at this convocation ceremony, Professor Toyin Falola, who doubled as our Convocation Lecturer demonstrated this in the lecture titled, “Food and Us: Poverty, Policies and Politics”.
He gave breakdown of the graduands, disclosing that a total of 113 graduated with First Class Honours Degrees, 1,327 in the Second Class Upper Division and 1,533 in the Second Class Lower Division.
The Vice-Chancellor who hosted the First Convocation Ceremony since he assumed office in November 1, 2017 described the graduands as the best and their degrees well deserved.
He charged graduands to uphold the University’s Core Value of academic and moral excellence in their endeavours, pointing out that “these will distinguish you among your peers and make you very good ambassadors of the University”.
The Overall Best Graduating Student, Akinyele, Oluwatobiloba Oyindamola while recalling her academic journey said “I knew from the start that it wasn’t going to be easy, considering the fact that I crossed from Agricultural Technology to Nutrition and Dietetics through Direct Entry”.
She charged fellow youths to constantly set goals for themselves, reset them if need be, work and pray towards it in order to achieve it”.
