Step beyond ordinariness, UNILORIN VC charges graduates.

The Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Professor AbdulGaniyu Ambali has charged the graduates of the university to step beyond the ordinary and put in more efforts in whatever they do.

He gave this charge recently, during the 31st convocation ceremony of the university's graduates of Humanities.

In his speech titled: 'Extra-Ordinary Effort,' Professor Ambali reminded the graduates that the world today is more competitive than before and having degrees alone are not sufficient. He therefore urged them to continue learning new things even after their first degrees.

Citing the example of Nokia, the well-known brand in cell phone technology and how they lost-out in business, he said: "Nokia was a fantastic company, and they didn't do anything wrong in their business, but the world changed too fast and their opponents and competitors were too powerful for them.

"They missed out on learning, they missed out on changing and they lost the opportunity and sank under."

In his concluding remarks, he said: "If you think your certificate is all that you need to succeed in life, you are living in the 2oth century. You need skills; you need innovation; you need an extra-ordinary mind-set in this 21st century.

"If you put in an extra-ordinary effort, you will become an extra-ordinary graduate, who achieves extra-ordinary results. If you invest just an ordinary effort, you are just an ordinary person," he stressed.

A professor of African and African-American Studies, Professor Jacob Kehinde Olupona at the event, reiterated the fact that access to good education is not a privilege reserved for only the rich, but a constitutional right that must be enjoyed by all Nigerians.

In a lecture titled: �Educational Reform and Nation building in Nigeria,' he maintained that Nigerians must be passionate about the protection of the educational rights of its citizens, stressing that private schools which have been seen by many as the alternative to public schools, cannot fill the void, because they are not accessible and affordable to everybody.

He therefore proposed that the public school system should be viewed as the norm and standard, while private school system should only be an alternative.

"In reforming our educational system, the focus should be on promotion of entrepreneurship skills and exposure to strong moral trainings in our schools. Also, parents must be involved in the schools as institutions, and not just in how their own children are performing."

He also maintained that it is only with a strong educational system that we can reform our national image, ethos and unity as a country.

"If we truly want change in our country, we must begin to rethink and reinvest in our education system," he concluded.

Meanwhile, the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama has challenged African leaders of their failures to lay down concrete foundation for the younger generation. He said this at the 40th anniversary of the University of Ilorin on Friday, 23 October.

Mr Mahama, while speaking on a lecture titled: 'African Agenda 2063: Fighting Poverty and Ensuring Prosperity in Africa,' noted that African leaders must appreciate their human resources, and guide it to attain total freedom.

He urged all 54 countries that constitute the Africa Union (AU) to ensure the aims and agenda of the union were achieved for younger generation to fulfil their destiny.

Mahama, who eulogised role of past African nationalists in liberation of the continent from colonial masters, said only sound education, peace and utilisation of human resources that is endowed in the continent could bring real freedom for Africans.