UNILORIN celebrates forty first Convocation in fashion, writes KUNLE AKOGUN
The University of Ilorin as soon as once more lived as much as its billing because it rolled out drums for its forty first Convocation Ceremonies between Friday, sixteenth and Sunday, twenty fifth October, 2026. The University campus, often recognized for its clear and inexperienced atmosphere, was notably fantastically adorned within the University’s signature colors for the big day.
Apart from the primary auditorium, which sat about 2000 folks, together with graduands, friends and prime University officers, different venues used for the three essential days of the convocation correct have been the Multipurpose Hall, the place the proud mother and father of graduands have been seated, and the Marquee beside the Auditorium, the place college students who couldn’t be accommodated in the primary corridor sat. The stunning factor was that whether or not one sat contained in the Main Auditorium, the Multipurpose Hall, or beneath the Marquee, no one missed any piece of the motion because the occasion contained in the auditorium was beamed dwell to all friends and even those that weren’t on campus on these days. Indeed, everyone in any a part of the world acquired linked seamlessly to what was occurring on the University campus all through the convocation days, all because of the meticulous planning and scientific execution by the Ceremonials Committee, led by Prof. Adegboyega Adisa Fawole, a famend clinician, consummate marketing consultant paediatrician, and former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University.
What started with prayers ended with praises, because the University celebrated 16,152 graduands, sustained mental excellence and noteworthy institutional progress. Of the graduands, 11, 213 bagged their first levels (365 First Class, 4,367 Second Class Upper, 5,102 Second Class Lower, 1,006 Third Class and 30 Pass graduates.), 4,939 larger levels and Diplomas, comprising 160 Postgraduate Diplomas, 901 Master levels, 114 Professional Master levels, two Master of Philosophy levels and 251 Ph.D. levels. Also within the pack have been 3,511 graduands from the University’s affiliated establishments.
The ceremonies commenced on Friday, sixteenth October, 2026 with a Special Juma’at Service on the University Central Mosque adopted by an Interdenominational Service on Sunday, 18th October, 2026 on the Chapel of the Light. Both providers sought divine steering for a hitch-free celebration.
The mental curtain-raiser was the Vice-Chancellor’s Press Briefing and Media Chat on Monday, nineteenth October, 2026, on the University Auditorium. At the media engagement with members of the elite UNILORIN Accredited Press Corps, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, introduced the programme run-down for the forty first Convocation Ceremonies, formally releasing the overall variety of graduands, and award winners. He additionally dwelt considerably on the assorted landmark achievements made by the University through the 2025/2026 educational session.
On Tuesday, twentieth October, the Performing and Film Arts Theatre got here alive with the staging of the Convocation Play, titled “The Death of the Crown Escort”, written by Dr Abdulmalik A. Amali, and directed by Prof. AbdulRasheed Adeoye. It was carried out in two periods, the Command Performance for University prime photographs and the opposite session for most people. The drama, set in a fictional Odu group in Idoma land of Kogi State, was not simply leisure for the enjoyable of it however a pithy commentary on inter-generational cultural battle brought on by apprehension over the adoption of recent practices.
Then got here the convocation correct, which kicked off on Wednesday, October 21, with graduands from the Faculties of Education, Agriculture (Home Economics), Communication and Information Sciences, Environmental Sciences (Architecture), Social Sciences, and Institute of Education taking the centre stage.
On Thursday, October 22, it was the flip of the Faculties of Arts, Basic Medical Sciences, Life Sciences, Management Sciences, and Physical Sciences, which gave the University the Overall Best Graduating Student in individual of Olusegun Francis Joseph of the Department of Mathematics with an ideal 5.00 CGPA.
On Friday, October 23, the grand finale featured the Convocation Lecture by Sierra Leone’s Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Hon. Dr. Haja Ramatulai Wurie, titled “From Lecture Hall to Cabinet Room: The Journey from Academia to Public Leadership.” She charged leaders to guide with substance, function, and proof, stressing the necessity to construct folks and establishments that may outlast them. It was an enthralling and charming second, because the youthful and extremely cerebral lecturer held the viewers spell-bound together with her enchanting supply.
The Convocation Lecture was adopted instantly by the convocation of graduands from the Faculties of Agriculture, Basic Clinical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences (Optometry), Law, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine and Postgraduate School. The Day additionally featured Award of Prices.
The star of the ceremony was Olusegun Francis Joseph of the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Physical Sciences, who emerged Overall Best Graduating Student with an ideal 5.00 CGPA, the primary of its type in historical past of the University.
As is common on solemn events like this, speeches have been made by leaders, educational and political, with admonitions and felicitations operating by way of all. From the Visitor, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to the Kwara State Governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the University’s Governing Council, Surv. Abiodun Jacob Aluko, and the Chief Host himself, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Egbewole, the speeches touched on topical nationwide points in addition to UNILORIN problems with explicit issues.
In his speech, the Visitor, President Tinubu, represented by the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Said Ahmad, advised the graduands to transcend looking for employment by creating jobs, embracing innovation and utilizing their information to resolve issues and serve humanity, mentioning that “in a world increasingly shaped by digital technology and Artificial Intelligence, I encourage you not only to seek employment, but also to create it. Become innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, and problem solvers.”
The Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRazaq, represented by his Deputy, Elder Kayode Alabi, reaffirmed his administration’s dedication to schooling as a strategic pathway to sustainable improvement. The Governor counseled the University of Ilorin for sustaining excessive educational requirements, notably its current rating as Nigeria’s prime establishment for analysis high quality, and charged graduands to “deploy their knowledge with integrity, creativity and discipline” and to see their levels “not merely as a pathway to employment but as a platform for creating opportunities and developing solutions.” The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, UNILORIN Governing Council, Abiodun Jacob Aluko, hailed the University as a management manufacturing unit and thanked President Tinubu for sustaining TETFund and NELFUND. He, nevertheless, passionately appealed for extra analysis funding, saying, “No nation can develop beyond the level of research conducted in its universities.”
In a outstanding demonstration of his well-known erudition, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Egbewole delivered three totally different speeches, one to every set of graduands on every of the three days occasion! On the primary day, he advised the graduands of the four-year programmes that their levels relaxation on three investments – Parental, Institutional and Self-investment – and charged them to justify the sacrifices of their mother and father and investments of their schooling by turning into brokers of optimistic change.
In the handle, titled “Let This Investment Count”, Prof. Egbewole urged the graduands to translate their educational information, skilled abilities, and private values into sensible options to Nigeria’s challenges, together with unemployment, insecurity, insufficient healthcare, meals insecurity, and declining ethical requirements. He charged them to “go out into the world and provide solutions.”
In his speech on Day 2 of the Convocation, titled “What Next”, the Vice Chancellor charged the brand new graduates of the establishment to step confidently into the world and exhibit that they possess three important attributes, which embody certification, competence and character. And on Day 3, he charged the brand new graduates of the University to be direct and deliberate of their journey in life and circulation with the mantra “Forward Ever”.
Akogun is the Director of Corporate Affairs, University of Ilorin
