By Deborah Coker
No fewer than 634 graduands of the Igbinedion University, Okada, would be awarded First Degrees and Higher Degrees at the 15th Convocation ceremony of the institution scheduled for Nov. 25.
Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, Vice Chancellor of the institution disclosed this at a news briefing on Tuesday in Okada, in the Ovia-North East Local Government Area.
Osaghae said that of the 634, 11 graduands would be awarded First Class Honours Degrees, 220 would receive Second Class Upper Degrees, 248 others will be awarded Second Class Lower Degrees and 15 would be conferred with Third Class Degrees.
He also said that there were other graduands without degree classification, adding that those in such categories would include Pharmacy, with 56 graduands, and Medicine, with 54 graduands.
The Vice Chancellor said that the Postgraduate School would also present 31 graduands comprising 14 Ph.Ds, five Master’s Degree graduands and 12 Postgraduate Diploma graduates at the ceremony.
The VC said that the graduands were products of Colleges in the University, such as the Oba Erediauwa College of Law, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar College of Engineering and the Dora Akunyili College of Pharmacy and the Oba Okunade Sijuade, Olubuse II, College of Health Sciences.
Others include the Sanusi Lamido Sanusi College of Business Management Studies, the College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, College of Natural and Applied Sciences.
He further said that the Honorary degree recipients would also be inducted into the Board of Honorary Graduates of the Igbinedion University, Okada included leading global and national statesmen like Dr Nelson Mandela, Mrs Winnie Mandela and Dr John Kennedy, of the Noble Kennedy family of the United States.
He disclosed that indigenous recipients of the Igbinedion University Honorary Doctorate Degree awards would include former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former President Shehu Shagari, late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu (NN), Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), Her Excellency, Hajiya Turai Umar Yar’adua and Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike, a former Chief of Defence Staff.
Others, Osaghae said, were Her Excellency, Mrs Victoria Gowon; Dr Mike Adenuga (Jr); Otunba Adekunle Ojora; His Royal Highness, Alhaji Haliru Kitoro III, MAI BORGU, and Her Royal Highness, Erelu Abiola Dosumu.
Also on the roll are: Alayeluwa Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II, a former Ooni of Ife; His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Saad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto; His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, Ooni of Ife and many others.
He also said that a convocation lecture titled “Restructuring and the Future of Nigeria,” would be delivered on Nov 24 by Amb. Nkoyo Toyo, a former Nigerian envoy to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union.
