VANGUARD
Elder Statesman and legal icon, Afe Babalola (SAN), has advised universities against awarding honorary degrees to those who do not merit it, in both characters as well as individual contributions to the nation’s growth and development.
The legal luminary said this on Saturday at the 14th Founders Day celebration, and 11th convocation of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), declaring that only distinguished persons would continue to be recipients of such degrees.
This is just as he advised the Federal government to revisit the large number of new universities it has approved in the last few years, and ensure conformity with the rules.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the founder of ABUAD, said there was the need to emulate the institution, where honourary degrees are not based on any other considerations than selfless service to the society and the nation at large.
According to him, award of honourary degrees by the institution is not for the highest bidder and would never be.
He said the choice of the trio of former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Emir of Lafia, Justice Sidi Bage Muhammad Rtd, and the Managing Director of BOVAS Oil and company Limited, Dr. Victoria Adunola Samson, as the 2023 awardees was in itself instructive, and therefore not by accident.
NAN reports that while Justice Sidi Bage Muhammed 1, Emir of Lafia Bare-Bari, bagged the Degree of Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Secretary of the Commonwealth, bagged the Degree of Doctor of Letters, D. Lit Honoris Causa, while Dr. Samson, MD, BOVAS and Company Limited, bagged Degree of Doctor of Letters, (D.Lit) Honoria Causa.
He described the trio as “great citizens of the world who have changed the world through their chosen fields”.
“In the beginning, honourary awards were not only very serious, they are also very important and respected, in that they were bestowed only on those who have made significant contributions to academic and learning, and not seen as reward for those who have donated money to Universities.
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