www.unilorin.edu.ng
vc@unilorin.edu.ng
THE LIFE OF PURPOSE
Text of the Address Delivered by the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ilorin, Ilorin,
Professor Is-haq O. Oloyede, on the Occasion of the second part of the 27th Convocation
Ceremonies of the 2010/2011 Graduands of the University of Ilorin on Tuesday, October
25, 2011 at the University Auditorium
THE LIFE OF PURPOSE
It accords me immense pleasure to welcome you to this gracious occasion on behalf of the Chancellor, Senate,
Congregation, staff and students of the University of Ilorin. I especially welcome our distinguished Visitor and
President, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, to our
University. I also heartily welcome the Governor of Kwara State, the first elected alumnus of the University to
the position, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed. From our amiable Chancellor, His Royal Majesty, the Dein of Agbor
and His Royal Highness, our father and Chairman of the Kwara State Council of Traditional Rulers, the Emir
of Ilorin, to each and everyone of our invited guests, especially my esteemed Vice-Chancellors, we feel
honoured by your distinguished presence and we warmly welcome you to our campus.
The Visitor, the Chancellor, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the University system occupies a strategic
position in the development of any nation. Most of the advances of the developed world originated from the
fertile minds and intellectual resourcefulness of the academia. A university education is key to unlocking the
vast potentials of the human mind and transforming the society. Ours is a University in its quintessential
form.
The University of Ilorin was established in 1975 along with six other universities as a result of the vision of the
then Federal Military Government of Nigeria to develop the national manpower resources and bring
development to the country. The University, by the criterion of the time of establishment, belongs to the
second generation of Nigerian universities, but by any standard now, it is a first generation University and it
is fast emerging a world class citadel of learning. In line with my address yesterday to the first batch of our
graduands this year, I share the belief that the purpose of life is the life of purpose and the life of the
University of Ilorin to date has been defined by a deep sense of purpose.
It is in this light that while congratulating our graduands whose successes are being celebrated today, I want
to emphasise the need to live purposefully. The life of purpose is that which is devoted to the pursuit of the
Golden Rule and the ultimate good, not selfish interest. There are so many crises, so much violence, poverty,
hatred, crime and bloodshed in our world because we misplace priorities and fail to understand life. We all
have a limited number of days to sojourn here on earth and we owe ourselves, our nation, and humanity as a
whole, a responsibility to live purposefully and meaningfully.
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It is to this abundant life of purpose that we as a University commit the graduands of today. They are the
graduands of the College of Health Sciences, Agriculture, Engineering and Technology, Law and the
Postgraduate School. These Faculties largely consist of programmes of a minimum of five years. They have
been trained to make people healthier, feed better, control their environment better and be law abiding. They
have also been trained as scholars as molders of minds.
Convoking today in this category are 719 first degree and 620 higher degree graduands, making a total of
1,339. While the breakdown for the first degree graduands consists of 355 graduands of the College of Health
Sciences, 260 from the Faculty of Agriculture, 287 from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology and 159
from Law, making 719, the table of the distribution of the higher degree graduands is presented again thus:
Faculty
Agriculture
Arts
Basic Medical Sciences
Business
and
Social
Sciences
Clinical Sciences
Communication
and
Information Sciences
Education
Engineering
and
Technology
Law
Science
TOTAL
POSTGRADU
ATE
DIPLOMA
0
Total
MASTER’S
3
107
24
MBA/MPA/
MILR/MGIS
/MPH
0
PhDs
7
9
3
10
116
27
200
-
27
0
39
30
9
0
95
30
4
39
8
122
-
2
30
14
191
17
80
19
27
62
399
69
4
0
8
72
23
27
87
620
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Adding this number to the 3,991 graduands whose batch convoked yesterday, the total graduate output for
the 2010/2011 academic session is 5,330. All in all, the University produced 4,710 first degree/ diploma and
620 higher degree/postgraduate diploma graduands during the session, making a total graduate output of
5,330 for the year. It equally graduated 24 diploma, 23 First Class, 875 Second Class Upper, 2,544 Second
Class Lower, 1,019 Third Class, 99 Pass as well as 126 MB;BS candidates during the session. At the
postgraduate level, the University produced 80 postgraduate diploma, 399 Master’s, 69 professional
postgraduate and 72 doctoral graduands.
The Visitor, the Chancellor Sirs, I am proud to announce that the University of Ilorin has been effectively
positioned as a research University along with its pre-eminence in teaching and community service. This is
evident in the published Annual Report, which I will shortly present to the Visitor. The University hopes to
continue to raise the standard of research high so as to be able to compete favourably with other well known
research universities in the world.
Apart from pioneering the Computer-Based Test method for the screening of admission candidates and
University students, a method that has gained acceptability to many Nigerian universities, the University of
Ilorin has maintained an uninterrupted academic calendar that had paid off in the quality of our staff and
students. We have created an oasis of discipline and we have performed comparatively well in university
ranking just as we have succeeded in reviving academic culture and integrity.
While our staff continue to stand tall in academic circles through their academic publications and
participation various learned conferences across the world, our students also excel at inter-university
competitions and in the world of work. The policy of the University is that rather than complain endlessly, we
can work hard and make a little change within the limits of our ability.
As mentioned during the Press Briefing of last Monday (October 17), against 849 academic publications
recorded at the end of 2008/2009 session and 1,014 publications recorded last year (2009/2010), the
University staff this year published 2,225 academic publications. This is the breakdown, Faculty-by-Faculty:
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FACULTY
AGRICULTURE
ARTS
BASIC MEDICAL SCIENCES
BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
CLINICAL SCIENCES
COMMUNICATION AND
INFORMATION SCIENCES
EDUCATION
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOG Y
LAW
SCIENCE
Total
Number of
Local
Publications
19
43
54
47
98
9
Number of
National
Publications
54
65
70
88
99
23
42
27
37
37
413
68
27
84
63
641
Number of
International
Publications
Total
87
94
138
95
215
160
202
262
230
412
47
97
57
44
297
1,171
79
207
111
165
397
2,225
The Visitor, the Chancellor Sirs, the University of Ilorin continues to be positively distinct as a catalyst for
positive development. Though the University is global with an increasing range of international mix in terms
of staff and students, yet it is nationally responsive. It is our hope that the University in the years ahead will
continue to fulfil its mandate and remain a leading provider of quality higher education to generations of
Nigerians. It is in this light that I hereby present the 2010/2011 Annual Report of the University of Ilorin to
Your Excellency, the Visitor, Sir.
The Annual Report provides major highlights of the activities we engaged in the last session. For example, we
have upgraded teaching facilities, assured quality in our examinations, maintained 100% full accreditation of
the University programmes, awarded scholarships to 96 outstanding students, encouraged staff and student
exchange with our international partners, sponsored or facilitated the sponsorship of 470 staff to conferences
and workshops, increased staff-student ratio, attracted staff talents from almost all the states of the
Federation and 17 world countries, promoted a good number of qualified staff, re-invigorated research with
training and funding, hosted and organised scores of conferences, workshops and seminars, forged further
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collaborations, enhanced academic publications qualitatively and quantitatively, upgraded our botanical
garden with additional animals for research and leisure, invested in fitness programmes, further landscaped
and greened the campus, planted additional trees making 619 hectares of plantations (530 hectares of Teak
(87 hectares planted in 2008; 100 hectares in 2009; 150 hectares in 2010 and 193 hectares in 2011), 28
hectares of Date Palms and two hectares of Citrus and Mango as well as 45 hectares of Jatropha, among
others), acquired liaison offices in Lagos and Abuja and invested in sports, especially hosting the 13th West
Africa University Games, revved up academic culture, restored academic integrity and done others that space
will not allow me to list.
In doing all these, we have tried to be organised, focused and methodical. The members of Senate would
recall that in my inaugural address to Senate on October 26, 2007, which I called “Regeneration For A New
Age”, I outlined the policy thrust of my “Agenda” which consists of the trendy tradition of an ICT-driven
University, research, student records, Annual Reports and Accounts, Welfare and Justice among others. I said
then that “I am determined to offer my best with the hope that my best will be sufficient, even if it is not
enough.”
I also said that day that there is no doubting the fact that we live in the Information Age. As such, we have
strengthened our information dissemination mechanism through our weekly Unilorin Bulletin, powered by a
versatile and dynamic mind, while our Radio station, Unilorin 89.3 FM, had continued to make impact on the
airwaves from its temporary location even before the actual station was commissioned by the Visitor,
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, represented by the Honourable Minister of Education, Professor
Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, last Saturday, October 22, 2011.
This focus has informed our convocation addresses, the first parts of which complement the others. If our
distinguished guests would recall, on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at the 24 th convocation ceremonies, I
addressed the graduands on “The Beginning of the Beginning” while on the following day/Founder’s day at
the convocation of the second batch of the same sets of graduands, my address was on “The End is the
Beginning”. At the 25th convocation ceremonies in 2009, also, I focused on “What we Want” at the Press
Briefing held on Monday, October 19, 2009 while the same theme continued in the convocation address,
“Why we Want what we Want”, delivered on the Founder’s day of October 23, 2009.
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The same connection or continuum informed the 26th convocation addresses of “Seize the Day” and the “The
Day after Today” delivered last year on October 22 and 23, respectively since there is always a day after each
day. While I talked on “The Purpose of Life” yesterday, today, I speak on “The Life of Purpose” because the
purpose of life, as I said earlier is, the life of purpose. This goes on to show that we try to key our activities
into one another and all what seems disjointed in the University are actually connected since life itself is a
network of various but inter-related phenomena.
Before I round off, the University expects so much from its beloved graduands. Those of you here are now
members of the Alumni Association and I enjoin you to always remember your alma mater. Whatever you can
do to lift your University higher, please do and you will be blessed more. If Americans say theirs is God’s own
country and they have the right to say so, our belief in the University of Ilorin is that ours is God’s own
University. Be good ambassadors of the University and make purposeful living the hallmark of your lives. It
shall be well with you.
The Visitor, the Chancellor Sirs, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the University owes a lot of people and
institutions gratitude, permit me to mention some. We appreciate our dear President and Visitor to our
University; we thank the Minister of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC). We are
grateful to the immediate past Governing Council. We acknowledge our Vice-Chancellors of various
universities who took time out of their busy schedules to join us. I thank my colleagues in Senate and
Management. We appreciate all staff and students of the University for making UNILORIN possible. I appeal
to all our benefactors and stakeholders to still support us in cash and in kind as we plan to host the West
African university community for WAUG. I am indebted to my family, my wife and children, for their support
and understanding. I recognise all men and women of goodwill who have contributed one way or the other in
making the University of Ilorin a success story.
I thank you all for your kind attention, appreciate you once again for coming and wish you journey mercies
back to your destinations.
To God be the Glory.
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