Obasanjo, UNESCO Chieftain and others bag Honourary Degrees.
The Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, is a man who means different things to different people, be it in Law, education, agriculture, arbitration, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, hard work, determination, writing and publication of law books as well as turning hopeless impossibilities into enviable possibilities among many of his other pastimes.
His primary constituency is humanity. His manifesto is service to mankind. He is not political but nationalistic, not of royal blood but noble in deeds and character, not arrogant but dignifiedly proud of his nation and profession, not violent but fearsome because of his towering, intimidating and impeccable professional profile which he has painstakingly built for 50 years.
It is therefore not surprising that his ovation reverberates from Ewi’s palace in his root in Ado Ekiti to the Alaafin’s palace in the ancient city of Oyo where he has been awarded frontline chieftaincy titles. His personality equally rings bells in Aso Rock where his name echoes as Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) and “Mr. Legal Fix It”. On the international scene, the name Afe Babalola resonates far away in England on the Roll of Honour of the European Business Assembly in Oxford as the 2007 Winner of the prestigious Queen Victoria’s Commemorative Award.
It is indeed a man imbued with all these qualities that could attract two Nigerian Presidents, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to some of the activities marking the maiden convocation of his three and half years old university within a spate of 33 hours.
Even though I cannot be on oath to say no Nigerian, dead or alive, has been able to achieve this feat, it is has become part of history that Babalola succeeded in bringing Obasanjo and Jonathan to Ado-Ekiti, one after the other, to celebrate the monumental success of the nascent university that graduated its first set of 103 students on October 21.
Shortly after commissioning the dual carriage way leading to the university which was named after him, Obasanjo, who was at the convocation dinner the previous day where he danced to King Sunny Ade’s music, proceeded to ultra modern 7,000-seater Alfa Belgore Multi Purpose Hall where he was awarded a Honourary Doctorate Degree.
In his acceptance speech, the former President and promoter of Bells University, Otta, who once described ABUAD as a model to emulate, was unsparing in his out-pouring of kindly words for Babalola and the nascent university.
First, he thanked the university for naming the thoroughly and smoothly macadam-med dual carriage way leading to the university after him, before relapsing into his now well known biting witticism about the Honourary Degree awarded him when he said “the degree wey I no get, he dash me”.
Riding on Babalola’s back who had earlier described education as a most potent weapon to fight disease, poverty and lack, Obasanjo added a caveat that education is indeed the most potent and important instrument to sustain democracy and good governance.
Affirming that he has been with Babalola on many joyous occasions in the past, including when he was installed Aare Bamofin of Yorubaland by the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi and during his 50th anniversary at the Bar, Obasanjo enthused that he was indeed very happy to be at the maiden convocation of Afe Babalola University, the day he described as the happiest moment so far in Babalola’s life.
He acknowledged that even though Babalola is not a politician, he has impacted his community, his profession and the country at large more than any politician. He congratulated the graduating students for the rare opportunity of acquiring good education from a good university and advised them to continue to build on the good beginning they have acquired to enable them attain great achievements in their different endeavours.
According to him, it is only after they have successfully built on their good beginning that their education will become meaningful in truth and in deed.