The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has directed the management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC to restore electricity in every nook and cranny of Ilesa and its environs without further delay.
Aregbesola who described electricity as an essential amenity in the society said, the role of power in promoting socio-economic activities in the society can never be waved away.
Governor Aregbesola stated this while playing a host on the management team of IBEDC who was on a peace mission to his office, at Government Secretariat, Osogbo.
Aregbesola expressed displeasure over the misunderstanding which eventually led to the total disconnection of power supply to the ancient town and its environs.
Governor Aregbesola who described Osun as a land of virtue, expressed disappointment on the report that some officials of the company were allegedly beaten up in the course of exercising their duties.
The Governor said it is regrettable that some people believe the only way to express their feelings and as well resolve matters on electricity is to resolve to fight and desecrate the IBEDC authority, which he said was against the social conduct.
Governor Aregbesola condemned in its entirety the way and manner at which some officials of the electricity company were reportedly maltreated in the town while performing their legal duties.
He said” this act must be condemned anywhere in the country because it is illogical, unreasonable and uncultured for anyone in his or her interest to resolve to fight with officials of electricity company.
“We are in a state that preaches “Omoluabi ethos” and as a matter of fact, our administration would not for any reason tolerate any act of indiscipline.
“We shall continue to portray our state in good light, just as we are determined to maintain law and order.
Governor Aregbesola lamented over what he regarded as mere loggerheads which could have been peacefully resolved in time past, just as he directed the authority of the company to jettison its grievances in the interest of peace.
Governor Aregbesola who described the traditional rulers as symbols and mirrors of the society, however called on the monarchs to always intervene in any anomaly and as well continuously foster love, unity, peace and tranquility.
He therefore implored the traditional rulers, stakeholders and the general public to support the government in strengthening peaceful co-existence between and among the people in the state.
Earlier, the Managing Director, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), Mr. John Donnachie commended Governor Aregbesola for his prompt intervention, promising to deploy his men on immediate re-connection of the electricity in the town and its environs.
Mr. Donnachie ,who condemned the action purportedly taken by the residents of the town, said the company would not tolerate any form of gross indiscipline; assault and molestation from any member of the public irrespective of such person’s position or rank in the society.
He therefore urged people in the country to continuously cooperate with the company just as he promised better services.
Category: Politics
The Governor of Osun Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has inaugurated a 9-man Committee to swiftly reposition all the four State Owned Tertiary Institutions for greater performance and productivity.
Governor Aregbesola hinted that the newly inaugurated committee was constituted in a bid to turn around the education system in the state in line with the state policy on education.
Aregbesola who recounted the laudable achievements of his administration said, much had been immensely recorded in the education sector just as the present administration was committed to the provision of quality and quantity education.
Governor Aregbesola who lamented over the state of education prior to his emergence, said the challenges which his administration met in education sector informed him to embark on massive education reclassification and restructuring which according to him had yielded positive results in years past.
He disclosed that his government met poor performance of students in education which informed his government to device several means of revamping and resuscitating the lost glory in basic and tertiary educations in the state.
Governor Aregbesola revealed that the recommendations of the various constituted panels by his administration had it that prior to his inception in office, public education system had been poorly managed as over 70 percent of students leaving the state High Schools not being matriculable.
He stated further that the matriculable ones among the students prior to his coming were very horrible and challenging as this prompted him to implement and intensify plans to put an end to the disheartening occurrence.
According to him, “For this reason, we came up with initiatives which premised on a clear passion and commitment to provide opportunities for those who for whatever reason have deficiency in their secondary education.
“This informed the need to provide remedial facilities in all our tertiary institutions aside university just as we directed the authorities of both polytectnic, college of technology and colleges of education to provide facilities for basic education which will be largely for remedial studies for those with deficiencies in their secondary education to makeup and be properly equipped with required knowledge while being fully admitted for regular studies”, he added.
He disclosed that initiative was aimed at making tertiary education to be locally made and accessible to the teeming prospective admission seekers, saying the state agitated for skilled-manpower particularly in the area of need, like construction industries, trading, catering, book keeping, carpentry, plumbing, electrical works and several urgently needed vocations.
He said, “We did these to ensure that our youths who have had sound academic knowledge are adequately provided with required technical and vocational skills.
“We equally compelled our tertiary institutions especially polytechnics and colleges of education to admit some trade men and women as well as artisans who are interested on the need to improve their skills and craftsmanship in their various areas of disciplines.
“For the colleges of education, we saw the need for regular training and retraining of our teachers including those teachers at Elementary schools, Middle schools and High schools because we believed that for us to get the best from our teachers we need to motivate them.
“In the need for them to be acquitted with modern techniques of teaching and for refresher programmes, we realized that our colleges of education are short on this, therefore, we organized pedagogy.
Speaking on the responsibilities of the committee, Governor Aregbesola said, “We setup this 9-man Committee on repositioning our tertiary institution so as to be sure that what we charged our tertiary institutions upon are well implemented and properly tracked”.
He added, “Your oversight function is to verify the implementation of all the reforms we have initiated and enunciated in all the four institutions.
“We are clear on our minds. We want polytechnic, college of technology, as well as colleges of education that would be involved in the present and future needs of the society just as we equally want polytechnic that would be well connected to the society and provides its needs at all times”.
Governor Aregbesola noted that it would be glad indeed if the state has colleges of education that are clearly focused on building virile and competent graduates that can compete excellently with their counterparts globally.
He said, “All our ideas are to turn our institutions to pacesetters and models in the country because it is anachronistic if we have a college of education in the state and the teachers in the state could not have facilities for retraining and acquisition of modern knowledge in teaching techniques.
“It would be very sad indeed if we have polytechnic or college of technology that occupied technicians, electricians, technologists, craft people among others but yet could not have facilities for training and retraining.
“For these noble reasons, we have inaugurated this committee to ensuring that our objectives for these institutions are completely achieved.
Aregbesola hinted that the committee was also inaugurated in order to be sure that the resources available in all the institutions are properly and judiciously used.
The Governor said the newly inaugurated committee would be empowered to carry out audit in the course of its exercise, saying the state was keenly interested to know the quality and quantity of every circumstance.
He maintained that the committee needs to bring to its knowledge by ensuring that every naira available for the institutions is being spent judiciously.
“We want to know through this committee, how the staffing is affecting the judicious use of the very limited financial available resources for these institutions in order to equally know how corrections would be made along the line.
“We want to find out and check the indigenous programmes available in all our tertiary institutions, as well as the additional assignments such remedial study, pedagogy, technical and vocational study given to them through this newly inaugurated committee.
“We want our tertiary institutions to be properly set up and targeted at achieving the purpose of which they were being saddled”, Aregbesola opined.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the 9-man committee who doubles as the Acting Vice Chancellor, Bola Ige University, Osogbo, Professor Oguntola Jelili Alamu commended the state government for continuously repositioning education most importantly the basic education in the state.
He also said the current government under the leadership of Governor Rauf Aregbesola has created a wider platform of making education more interesting, attractive and relevant to the people within the state and beyond.
Professor Alamu who pledged the committee’s commitment towards the realization of its aims and objectives, said every member of the committee would not rest on his oars at ensuring total reformation, restructure and transformation of all the state owned tertiary institutions.
Professor Alamu who bemoaned over what he regarded as poor orientation of parents, identified examination fraud as one of the major challenges facing education.
He said parents need to be educated on the need to refrain their wards from writing fraudulent terminal examinations such as West African Examination Council, WAEC, National Examination Council, NECO and so on at what he described as miracle centres where the results were believed to be easily and conveniently manipulated and engineered.
He described the government initiatives as laudable, assuring the committee’s commitment in the actualization of the set goals.
According to him, “this committee which I am chairing would ensure the prompt actualization of the state objectives at restructuring and repositioning the state owned tertiary institutions.
” We will make sure that we embark on initiatives that would impact meaningfully in the lives of the people and our state at large just as we are ready to put in our best as we will continuously support the state government”, he added.
Professor Alamu however promised that the committee would champions all the cardinal objectives of the state as they are ready to ascertain that the graduates of all the state owned tertiary institutions are equipped with requisite knowledge and skills to become employer of labour.
Members of the committee include: Professor Olasupo Ladipo; Professor Layi Fagbemi, Professor Duro Ajeyalemi, Dr. Yemi Adegbite.
The Permanent Secretary, Office of Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Segun Olorunsogo has directed all agencies of government to adjust their 2016 draft budgets to comply with present realities and submit on or before next week Tuesday.
Similarly, all agencies are expected to come up with policy objectives specific to their new status and arrangements.
The Permanent Secretary pointed out that budget ceiling, new budget heads and subheads as well as organogram have been included in the call letter issued by the Ministry of Economic planning, Budget and Development.
He therefore enjoined all agencies of government to clear the soft copies of the adjusted 2016 draft estimates with both the Budget Department and Computer Unit before submitting the soft copy and forty hard copies of their final draft budgets on or before Tuesday, 15th March , 2016.
It will be recalled that due to the current economic downturn and dwindling of revenue accruable to the state from the Federation Accounts, the State Government took steps to reduce the cost of governance by slashing the number of ministries from eighteen to twelve hence the initial 2016 draft estimates have to be reviewed downwards to reflect the current economic situation of the state.
The newly appointed Council Managers of Local Council Development Areas in the state of Osun have been advised to be committed to duty and see their new positions as a call to service.
The Chairman, Local Government Service Commission, Elder Peter BABALOLA,stated this on Wednesday during a brief meeting with the out-going Heads of Local Government Administration and the newly appointed Council Managers held at the Multi -Purpose Hall of the Commission..
Elder BABALOLA, who was represented by Commissioner 1 of the Commission, Hon. Kehinde Olamolu said all council managers with effect from Thursday morning should report to the Heads of Local Government Administration of the council of the mother Local Council Development Area they are posted while urging all Heads of Local Government Administration to hand over government properties with them to the new council managers.
According to him, officers on Grade level 15 and above should remain in their various Local Government Areas and await further directives from the Commission.
Speaking earlier, the Commissioner II,Barrister Adebamgbe Omole, who commended the Heads of Local Government Administration for their performance urged the new council managers to take a cue from them saying in a bid to make a change and achieve result,new council managers must do things differently.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary of the Commission, Mr Dayo Olaluwoye stated that the major task before the new council managers is to generate revenue in the various local council development areas in order to increase their IGR.
While commending the State Governor for creating local council development areas in accordance to the yearnings and aspirations of the people, he charged the council managers to be focused and determined in facing the challenges ahead of them.
Assassinated Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Late Chief James Bola Ige, was on Wednesday honoured as the visitor to the Osun State University and Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola named the state-owned university after him.
This was part of a sweeping renaming of all the tertiary institutions in the state which was announced at the convocation ceremony of the university where oil magnate and founder of the Rose of Sharon Foundation, Mrs, Folorunsho Alakija was unveiled as the new Chancellor of the institution.
Other institutions renamed were: Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke will now be Bisi Akande College of Technology; Osun State Polytechnic Iree now, Sunday Afolabi Polytechnic; College Of Education, Ila Orangun now Adeyemi Oyeduntan College of Education and the College of Education Ilesa which will now be Lawrence Omole College of Education.
Others are UNIOSUN College of Law, Ifetedo now Kayode Esho College of Law; College of Social Sciences and Management Okuku, now Olagunsoye College of Social Sciences, Okuku; College of Agriculture Ejigbo, now Isiaka Adeleke College of Agriculture, Ejigbo; College of Education Ipetu Ijesa, now Ezekiah Oluwasanmi College of Education and College of Humanities and Culture, Ikire, now Eniola Atanda College of Humanities and Culture
This was even as the new Chancellor, Alakija, described her conferment as the Chancellor of UNIOSUN and the Award of Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business administration as another glass ceiling broken by womanhood.
Aregbesola commended Dr. Alakija who with her investiture becomes the first female Chancellor in any university in Nigeria for counting the University worthy and accepting to serve as the Chancellor of the university when she could have easily turned down top universities in Europe and America with the same request.
He enjoined Dr. Alakija to join the state in the desire for an institution that exists for the society and advancement of mankind, saying most Nigerian universities are too withdrawn and unconcerned from the society an its problems.
Aregbesola said, “I therefore want this university at three levels to affect our society.
The first is at the level of teaching which should prepare the students for post graduate life by equipping them with life sustenance skills, especially technical and entrepreneurial education.
“Secondly, the universities should tailor its researches into immediate and prospective challenges of mankind in health, food, housing, infrastructure, societal organisation and the seemingly unknown aspects on nature and so on.
“The essence of the education enterprise is for man to be able to conquer nature and dominate the environment. This should translate into better life for all. An end should come to the idea of research for getting promotion which then gathers dust in a shelf somewhere.
“Thirdly, the universities should also be engaged in society through public service, by bringing their knowledge and research findings to bear directly in needed areas as their counterparts in other parts of the world are wont to do”. The Governor emphasised.
Aregbesola advised the university to re-programme itself to be able to raise funds without burdening government and its students.
He stressed that there are lots of firms and individuals who will like to endow chairs, courses, programmes and projects willing to pay any amount to have themselves immortalised in a place like a university, saying not all of them merit it, but people deserving them must be reach out to.
Speaking earlier, the new Chancellor harped on the central role of academic empowerment so as to guarantee economic growth among the people of the country.
According to Mrs Alakija education cannot and can never be over-emphasized because the lack of it could only bring poverty of body, mind and of living.
The Chancellor said being educated would give anyone the opportunity to play significant role and articulate his or her own agenda for change within space such individual occupies.
She called on all stakeholders involved in policies and programmes design for education to be committed education, saying the nation will be the better for it.
She said: “I feel extremely humbled, proud and excited to be receiving this conferment as Chancellor. I also appreciate the Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business Administration (DBA) (Honoris Causa), which came in as a surprise.
“Whatever role you are playing here today, it is obvious we all have a common goal, one that borders on Academic Empowerment for Economic Growth amongst our people for the benefit of Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world.
“We all have a role to play to articulate our own agenda for for change; to change the world. If we can make a commitment to do something differently from now on, our world will be a better place to live in.
“Nigeria will flourish with the input from all of you gathered here as you embark on this exciting journey called life.”
The Chancellor also admonished the graduands to always be conscious that they form part of the threads with which the story of the university’s woven together, urging them to be good ambassador of the school wherever they find themselves.
In his inaugural speech, the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Jelil Guntola Alamu, remarked that the University has been sustaining it’s reputation as an institution purposely established to promote academic a excellence and sound moral education.
He revealed that the University has continued to grow in leaps and bounds with the recent accreditation of six more programmes by the National University Commission, bringing the programmes the school is running to 32 mature academic programmes.
Professor Oguntola equally disclosed that the university has become a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) as well as signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).
According to the Don, the school also excelled both nationally and internationally as students of the state, who participated in debating competition organised by African Regional Inter-University Debate Competition organised by UNESCO, came 3rd overall.
“Osun State University continues to sustain it’s reputation as an institution established to promote academic and moral standard.
“My greatest joy today is the relative peace and high level of academic excellence attained by the institution since I became the Acting Vice Chancellor about a year ago,” he said.
In his valedictory speech, the overall best student of the institution for 2014/ 2015session, Peter Oluwatobiloba Daniel, was full of appreciation to the God, his parents, lecturers and the Government of Osun for the establishment the University.
Daniel, with the best CGPA of 4.81 from Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, said he achieved the feat by steady and dedicated commitment to his academics.
He encouraged other students to plan well and follow their plans with dogged determination, saying “Whatever you conceive, you can achieve. Just keep on trying and the sky will be the beginning.”
Speaker, State of Osun House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Najeem Salaam has warned those who are not saddled with the responsibility of speaking for government to desist from making comments on policies, issues and government business, saying that avoidable friction should not be brewed among the stakeholders in the state again.
In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Mr. Goke Butikakuro, Speaker Salaam stressed that it became imperative to warn government officials and politically exposed persons whose duty were not speak on contending issues in government to excuse themselves from doing so, because the intervention of the parliament was at stake.
Speaker Salaam said it has been brought to his notice that labour force was allegedly reconsidering its position on memorandum of understanding which has thus far engendered industrial peace in the state, because some politically exposed persons were arrogantly taken their (workers’) understanding on the salary issue for granted.
He then urged the workers to continue to maintain peaceful working relationship with the government, promising that the state assembly under his watch was monitoring the economic situation in the country in general and State of Osun in particular, and would seek upward review for them as soon as the revenue generation notches up.
Speaker Salaam further appealed to the workers to shun shenanigan of some elements who were labouring hard to drag the state down, saying their antics was to use the economic meltdown to buoy up their politicking, not to defend the interest of the workers.
He said: “I would want to appeal to our workers to continue with their patriotism, for we have no other state we can call our own, and it is a statement of fact that our state would not be in perpetual cash crunch; thus our workers would not be permanently stagnated on the current structured pay.
We salute our workers for their resilience, understanding, and for placing the state’s interest above personal interest. Let those who are hellbent in fracturing the relationship between the government and workers know that their disservice is out of vogue.
The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Tuesday said that his administration will make judicious use of its revenues in such a way that increasing the number of councils will least constitute any financial burden.
This was even as he dissolved the management committees of the existing 30 Local Councils and Area Office and their Executive Secretaries, deputy executive secretaries, members, Special Advisers and other functionaries.
The Governor stated this in a state broadcast to the people of the state on the creation of additional 31 Local Council development Areas, 3 area Councils and two administrative offices.
The request for additional local councils by the people of the state after several legal procedures was sent to the state House of Assembly in form of an executive bill.
The House looked into the bill, set up a committee and subsequently, a referendum was held on February 19, 2015 in which the people of the state overwhelmingly gave a Yes vote on the bill.
The House passed the bill creating 31 new Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), three Area Councils and two Administrative Offices, signed into law by the governor.
Aregbesola, speaking on why the state is creating more councils at this special time of financial challenges, held that his administration has given it sufficient consideration, saying he has put in place procedures that will cost less and safe money thus bringing rapid development.
He added that the primary responsibilities of the newly created councils are to bring development to the people, market management, revenue mobilisation and generation among many others instrumental to the yearnings of the people.
The Governor stated that the state will be saving huge cost with the new system adding that the same number of staff will still run all the councils and no new appointments will be made to existing ones.
He hinted that the entire local government system will be managed by Council Managers for three months, adding that managers shall be appointed and deployed by Local Government Service Commission from among the substantive grade level 14 officers in the local governments.
He said, “Many would be wondering and asking: why create more councils at this special time of financial challenges? We have also given sufficient consideration to this. With this new parliamentary system, it will cost less to run the new councils and save a lot of money for the government than in the past.
“The primary responsibilities of our new local government system are sanitation, market management and revenue mobilisation and generation. This is consistent with local government administration worldwide.
“The beauty of this new system is its parliamentary nature, which requires the chairman and the vice chairman to be elected by the councillors from among their own ranks, thereby saving cost,” The Governor told the people of the state.
He added that the creation of additional local government should not be seen as being alien in the sense that In advanced western democracies, the local government controls the police and provides many municipal services to the people.
The Governor also highlighted the importance of the local government, saying that the usefulness of this smallest tier of government cannot be overstated.
According to him, “It is where the government is designed to be closest to the people. While you need to follow some protocols for reasons of security and tight schedule before having an audience with a minister, a state governor or the president, you can walk in on your local government chairman or other officials of council.
“Also, because the geographical space of the local government makes it the smallest unit of administration, it is easier to get things done at this level. The local government is also the ideal training ground for political leadership”.
The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Tuesday called on Universities in the country to impact positively on the Nigerian society rather that the role of just admitting students and awarding certificates at the end of their academic exercise.The Governor while giving the charge at the fourth and fifth convocation ceremonies of University of Osun at the University’s convocation arena, main campus, Osogbo also named the university auditorium after the former Governor of the state, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.He held that university education should be a sector that should impact on the society, saying the country is daily beset with life threatening challenges in wars, hunger, diseases that are defying solutions.Aregbesola also admonished Universities to be prepared in providing leadership for the country to be able to overcome it’s present economic challenges.He stressed that their will be hope for Nigeria if Universities in the country start preparing students for a self-reliant post-graduation life and guiding society with the ideas and philosophy of change, science, technology, finance and entrepreneurship.”Our universities are primarily suffering from the crisis of mission. While they may have beautifully crafted mission statement, in practice, they are giving the impression that their raison d’etre is to admit students and award certificates to them at the end of their studentship.”How impactful on our society and governance have these institutions been? We are daily beset with life threatening challenges in wars, hunger, diseases that are defying medical solutions, homelessness and just anything imaginable. Of course, it could have been worse.”Where there is no vision, the people perish, says the holy writ. Lack of mission consciousness inevitably leads them to in-fighting and other self-inflicted crises.“It is therefore the case that apart from graduating students, another veritable product of Nigerian universities is jostling for power, influence and resources with factions as many as there are faculties and petitions as powerful and numerous as academic journals. Where there is no vision, the people perish, says the holy writ,” Aregbesola said.The Governor chided most Nigerian University for relying on grants and subventions, adding that no serious institution will think of surviving with subventions.He said, “Most universities are underfunded. They rely mostly on subventions from their proprietors. Yet, there is nowhere in the world where a good university lives only on subvention.“One of the disingenuous ways to fill the gap is to charge exorbitant tuition fees. While tuition is universal, it is lazy and unimaginative to make this the basis for generating revenues to sustain a university.“Universities must learn also to generate revenues through endowments and creative revenue yielding ideas in patents, copyrights and so on”. Aregbesola stressed.In his speech, the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Jelil Oguntola Alamu, remarked that the University has been sustaining it’s reputation as an institution purposely established to promote academic excellence and sound moral education.He revealed that the University has continued to grow in leaps and bounds with the recent accreditation of six more programmes by the National University Commission, bringing the programmes the school is running to 32 mature academic programmes.Professor Oguntola equally disclosed that the university has become a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) as well as signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).According to the Don, the school also excelled both nationally and internationally as students of the state, who participated in debating competition organised by African Regional Inter-University Debate Competition organised by UNESCO, came 3rd overall.“Osun State University continues to sustain it’s reputation as an institution established to promote academic and moral standard.“My greatest joy today is the relative peace and high level of academic excellence attained by the institution since I became the Acting Vice Chancellor about a year ago.Barring all odds, the University successfully completed 2014/2015 academic session promptly without any form of interruption in our academic calendar,” Prof Oguntola said.In his valedictory speech, the overall best student of the institution for 2013/2014 session, Adeyemo Kazeem Adekunle, was full of appreciation to the Government of Osun for the establishment the University.Adekunle, with the best CGPA of 4.7 from Civil Engineering Department, commended Osun Government for catering for thousands of students from Osun and other adjoining states.He stated that the school will continue to serve humanity in numerous significant ways as long as it is in existence.
Governor Aregbesola made the announcement in a broadcast to the people of the state at the earlier hour of today.
According to him, creation of the LCDAs which would be managed by council managers to be appointed by local government service commission from grade level 14 officers in the local government for three months, became necessary to bring government closer to the grassroot people.
“My good people, I am pleased to inform you therefore that in place of the old order of only 30 local governments and an Area Office, we now have additional 31 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), three Area Councils and two Administrative Offices in accordance with the requests which you democratically placed before us. The list of the new LCDAs, Area Councils and Administrative Offices, their territories and headquarters will be published soon and is also available at the State House of Assembly, Ministry of Local Governments, Chieftaincy, Water Resources, Rural and Community Affairs and Local Government Service Commission.
Aregbesola further revealed that, the new LCDAs would be saddled with the responsibilities of market management, revenue mobilization and generation and sanitation.
He maintained that the creation of the LCDAs, was in accordance with the law and general demands of the people of the state
The authority of Osun State University has disclosed that 51 students will graduate with first class in the combined 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 academic sections’ convocation coming up next week.
The University has also said it would graduate 3164 students from six Colleges of the institution for the two graduating set.
The Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof Oguntola Jelil-Alamu, disclosed this during the press conference organised as part of activities marking the fourth and fifth convocation in Osogbo, yesterday.
Prof Alamu who was excited by the number of students who graduated with first class in the university also expressed happiness over the performance of the graduates of the institution, saying they were already making them proud.
He noted that First class products of the institution had been completing their postgraduate programmes with distinction in foreign Universities.
According to the VC, in 2015, Olojido Oluwatoyin Esther bagged distinction in M.Sc. Accounting and Finance from University of Leeds, while Odesanmi Oluwatosin Racheal also came back with distinction in M.Sc. Analytical Chemistry from Loughborough University, stressing that the testimony was a fulfilment of the global competitiveness of their graduates, enshrined in the vision of the University.
While commenting on smooth and peaceful academic atmosphere in the institution, Prof Alamu said there was no record of violence which might have led to the clog in the wheel of the academic programme of the University.
The VC further said that the University had successfully completed 2014/2015 academic section promptly without any form of interruption in the academic calendar, saying “the stable academic calender had aided the pioneer graduates from the College of Law into the Nigeria Law School in October, 2015.”
While laying emphasis on the need for the graduates to be independent, Prof Alamu hinted that most of the graduates had been trained in various entrepreneurial skills.
Prof Aremu said in a bid to ensure that their graduates were independent, they had trained most of graduates and they would be collecting two certificate by end of the ceremony, the Bachelors’ degree Certificate and entrepreneurship skill set certificate.
Commenting on the quality of the teachers at the University, VC said the institution had very qualified lecturers which had tremendously improved the quality of the faculty and translated to globally competitive graduates from the university.
“Within the last of year, 29 academic staff bagged PhD degree from Nigeria, South Africa, Malaysia and United Kingdom”.
This University has another set of 29 academic staff currently at advance stage of their Ph.D programme in New Zealand, Australia, Germany among others.
He therefore vowed that the University would continue to sustain its reputation which according to him established to promote academic and moral standard.
The activities lined up for the convocation was the commissioning of the Central Research Laboratory by the Visitor to the University, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
The final convocation ceremonies will hold on 8th and 9th March, 2016 with the convocation lecture title “Sustained Tertiary. Education in Post-Oil Nigeria” to be delivered by Prof. Michael O. Faborode. While investiture of Chancellor and Award of First Degree (2014/2015 graduating set on March 9.