In her address at the ceremony, the Pro-chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University, Ambassador Nimota Akanbi commended the Federal government for its effort in ensuring a boost in the educational sector by restoring relative peace in the North Eastern part of the country.
She charged stakeholders in the country not to relent in ensuring that education reaches the doorsteps of every Nigerian child from basic to tertiary level, saying that no society can progress if its educational sector retrogresses.
“We are living in times of great changes and a lot of socioeconomic and political turmoil. We have in the recent past experienced a period when the educational sector was challenged, especially in this part of the country, but with God on our side, this period is fast becoming history.”
“It is a cardinal responsibility upon parents, government and every stakeholder to guard the godly principle of making education a universal right. As appointees of the federal government, our major task is to ensure that we promote the policies of the government and think alike in the pursuit of our goals and aspirations. We are ready to ensure that any policy of the federal government will be given the attention it deserves”, she said.
Nimota Akanbi also charged the graduands to make use of the training they acquired during their period of study at the institution, saying “you have every reason to feel elated because you have joined the privileged class of the educated, therefore whatever you decide to make of your future is in your hands”.
In his address at the occasion, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Saminu Abdulrahman Ibrahim said that a total of 8,496 graduands made of 480 for diplomas, 5,637 for first degrees, 1,518 for PGD, 770 for masters and 90 for PhDs.
He said that out of the total of first degrees, 118 obtained first class, 1,618 obtained second class upper, 2,609 obtained second class lower, 1,231 obtained third class and 61 got pass degrees.
He congratulated the graduands for their various achievements and charged them to be good ambassadors, saying they will not only get paid for knowledge alone, but for bringing something to the table.