Aisha Buhari, Gambari, Others To Bag KWASU Honorary Degrees

Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari has been named among notable citizens to be awarded an honorary doctoral degree at the 8th and 9th Convocation of the Kwara State University, Malete on Saturday.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari is also included in the list of dignitaries to be conferred with the award, Naija News understands.

Speaking on the occasion in Ilorin on Monday, the Vice-Chancellor of KWASU, Prof. Muhammed Akanbi, SAN, said the institution see it fit to award the dignitaries for their contributions to the development of the country.

Mrs Buhari will be conferred with Doctor of Entrepreneurship and Gambari who was the first Chancellor of KWASU will bag Doctor of Letters, Naija News understands.

Others include Alh. Mohammadu Indimi, Doctor of Technology, Alh. Abdulsamad Rabiu, Doctor of Business, Alh. Kamoru Yusuf, Doctor of Technology, Jolayemi Omotowa, Doctor of Science, and Engr. Bamidele Adewumi, the Chancellor of the institution will be also be conferred with Doctor of Technology.

Lamenting the decadence of morales among students due to exposure outside the campus, Akanbi in his address yesterday, canvassed a mandatory on-campus residence for all students of tertiary institutions in the country.

This according to him would help to check negative influences from outside campus that lead students to be involved in anti-social and criminal activities of which the now common internet fraud is inclusive.

He said: “Exposure of negative influence outside the university campus is majorly responsible for the involvement of some students in internet fraud, substance abuse and other untoward crimes.”

Akanbi stressed that accommodation of students on the campus would not only enable them to imbibe academic culture and discipline but also insulate them from negative influence off-campus areas where the jurisdictions of the schools do not cover.

He said the on-campus residence for all students could be facilitated by the government’s support and called on relevant government agencies to plan for and make it mandatory for the students to live on campus.

Akanbi added: “We earnestly seek the support of government and the NUC in the formulation of policies that will make it mandatory for all students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria to live on campus.”

The Vice-Chancellor noted that in an effort to put an end to off-campus residences, the university had engaged in the private sector driven hostel accommodation projects which consist of 10 mega hostels each of which provides 120-bed space on the campus.

He said the university had zero tolerance for indiscipline and misconduct as he disclosed that 87 students were expelled between 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 academic sessions.

He said the expelled students were found guilty of involvement in examination malpractice, drug-related offences, internet fraud, robbery, and some other anti-social behaviours.

Akanbi disclosed that a total number of 6,620 first degree students would graduate at the convocation ceremonies that cover two sessions of 2019/2020 and 2020/2021.

He explained that of the total 6,620, 3,864 belong to the 2019/2020 session and that the remaining 2,756 are of the 2020/2021 session while disclosing that a total of 98 students from the two sessions graduated with First Class Honours.

Akanbi also said that there were 321 graduating higher degree students in 20219/2020 and 96 in 2020/2021.