Our awards, not for money bags- FUOYE VC

As a way to set a new moral standard in the country, the Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), Prof Kayode Soremekun, has declared that the university would be conferring Doctor of Educational Administration (Honoris Causa) on the first indigenous principal of Queens College, Lagos, Mrs Efunjoke Coker, for her exemplary contributions to the upliftment of education in Nigeria.

Soremekun who made the declaration in Oye Ekiti , on Wednesday during a pre-convocation press conference to unveil the maiden convocation ceremonies of the university slated for April 29, expressed that it is wrong for Nigerian universities to make conferment of honorary doctorate degrees to be exclusive rights of the wealthy people in the society.

In the same vein, the university scholar added that an 89-year old retired school principal, Mr. Francis Daramola and a 100-year old former principal of Ekiti Parapo College, Ido Ekiti, Ekiti State, Chief Akomolafe , will get similar academic laurels.

According to him, “the gesture is to remember these great Nigerians, who had in their own ways contributed to scholarship.

“It is sad that we are all suffering from amnesia which makes us forget people so easily. The people we remember are only politicians and with this , we will be setting a new moral standard for the Nigerian society”.

Soremekun added that the university has received a message of collaboration from the Programme Director of the Social Science Research Council of New York, United States of America in the area of academic upliftment and research.

He described this proposed academic partnership as a veritable avenue to launch the institution to global reckoning and boost its ranking on Webometrics .

“The Council will be drawing its membership from FUOYE, Liberia , Sierra Leone and other West African nations. With this partnership, we will put FUOYE on global radar of scholarship”, he said.

The Vice Chancellor however disclosed that the university under him had also designed a curriculum that would enhance smooth take off of the Faculty of Pharmacy in no distant time at the university.

He disclosed further that the university has established three more faculties and 19 new courses within the one year he came on board, while other infrastructure in forms of lecture theatres have been added to the architectural designs of the citadel of learning.