FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, will on Saturday, Jan 20 be conferred with a Doctor of Philosophy in Christian Theology by the National Open University of Nigeria.
The Open University will also be graduating a total of 14,769 students from various Faculties at its 7th convocation ceremony to be held in Abuja.
Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, who made this known at a pre-convocation news conference on Monday, described Obasanjo as a humble learner.
The convocation ceremony would witness the conferment of Certificates, Diplomas, Bachelor Degrees, Postgraduate Diplomas, Masters and PhD Degrees.
Adamu said the convocation lecture, entitled: “Restructuring and True Federalism” would be delivered by the Vice-chancellor of Igbinedion University, Edo State, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae on Friday.
He noted that the Senate of the University has approved that Obasanjo should be awarded a doctorate degree in Christian Theology.
He said the convocation ceremony would be historical, first, for graduating the largest number of students at the same time in the history of university education in Nigeria.
“The second reason why this convocation will be very historical is the fact that we are graduating first PhD candidate. Despite the fact that the University has been in existence all these years, we have not been able to produce PhDs.
“Obasanjo is former President of Nigeria who started his PhD programme from the crash. He did all the examination that the PhD student is supposed to do. He did his proposal and Thesis defence and his result was approved on Thursday last week by the University Senate.
“The PhD is very important to us for two reasons: Number one, you are never too old to learn. Former President Obasanjo was about 80 years old when he started the PhD programme. He has finished it this year when he is about 81 or 82.
“An 81 or 82-year-old man doing PhD programme is a clear message that no one is too old to learn. It is also a message that nobody is too powerful to learn.
“This is because Obasanjo was a former Head of State of this country and an elected President, with an international reputation all over the world, yet, he subjected himself to the rigours academic work and acquired a doctorate degree,” he said.
The Vice-chancellor said based on this Obasanjo sterling example, the University has received several applications from other older people to come to study at the University.
He noted that it was incidentally the former President Obasanjo that revived the National Open University when its operation was suspended because of various challenges.
He enrolled as undergraduate and finishing with PhD because of passion for learning and improving himself, Adamu said.
He disclosed that the Open University has over 450, 000 students enrolment out of which 180,000 are active students.
He announced that the University has offered scholarship up to PhD for all inmates in Nigerian prisons who possess qualification and are willing to acquire University education.
Adamu disclosed that while two inmates would be graduating on Saturday from the Enugu Study Centre, over 400 other inmates are currently pursuing their studies across prisons in Nigeria.