In his speech entitled ” Walk and Work the Dream” at the 36th hybrid convocation ceremony of the institution in Ilorin on Saturday, Professor Abdulkareem, told the graduates to be resolute in whatever may be their experience or circumstance as they brace up for a new phase of life.
“The next phase of life that will be your next experience requires critical thinking. Just as you had your dreams before you gained admission into the university, so also you need to work and walk the dreams,” he stated.
The Vice-Chancellor, who quoted Joshua Marine that ” challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful,” asserted that if the graduates do not make attempts and also experience some falls, there can be no success story to tell.
He charged them to dare the odds by venturing into noble projects that could catapult them into prominence.
Professor Abdulkareem, said the reality today is that white collar jobs are almost non existent in Nigeria, hence the need for critical thinking outside the box that can birth innovation and invention.
He further charged the graduates to be in the vanguard of those that will pull Nigeria out of her numerous challenges and be job providers rather than job seekers.
The visitor to the institution, President Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented by Professor Ignatius Onimawo, described Unilorin as a pride to the nation.
He said the institution had remained largely peaceful in the last two decades and has become an example of the best of what a university should be, adding ” I must say that the nation is very proud of what you have turned the university into.”
In his own address, the Pro-Chancellor of the institution, Malam Abidu Yazid, said those who prophesize that Nigeria is doomed to fall are beset with a deep sense of inferiority complex which says only foreign nations can succeed but not Nigeria.
“Like all nations of the world, Nigeria, had its own measure of problems,” he stated, adding that ” a resurgent Nigeria is a threat to no one.”
He admonished the graduates to allow the spirit of the Team Unilorin Project and the ‘Better by Far’ mantra continue to spur them to be good ambassadors anywhere they find themselves at home or abroad, particularly bearing in mind the excellent character inculcated in them at the University.
A total of 10,922 graduates with 180 in First class, 2,836 Second class Upper Division, 4,879 Second class Lower Division, 1,110 Third class, 14 pass and 140 MB:BS passed out in the 2020/2021 academic session.
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