July 30, 2013 by Samuel Awoyinfa
Michael Eromhonsele
| credits:
Michael
Eromhonsele sacrificed romance for excellence and emerged the best
graduating student of Covenant University in Ota, Ogun State at 20, SAMUEL AWOYINFA reports
Twenty-year-old Eromhonsele Michael was
the cynosure of all eyes at the eighth graduation ceremony of the
Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, on Friday. He was the best
graduating student of the institution. To achieve this feat, he obtained
a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.92, out of a possible 5.0, to
beat 1,465 other undergraduates.
He says his first few days in the
university campus were uneventful. According to him, he was a bit
confused because he was not used to the prayer regime that he had to be
part of at the faith-based institution. Spirituality is one of the core
values of CU. But as soon as he found his rhythm, there was no looking
back for him.
He says he did not allow himself to be distracted by his friends or the opposite sex as he concentrated on his studies.
Listing some of the factors that helped
him to achieve that feat, he says, “First, I must acknowledge God’s
favour and his assistance. Second, I did not entertain any form of
distractions. I did not attend parties, and I did not have any
girlfriend or what you may refer to as a lover. I concentrated on my
studies.”
What about his study style? Eromhonsele
reveals that apart from the serene environment in the school, which is
conducive for learning, he loves to read late into the night.
According to him, he started reading from 10.00pm and he won’t stop until 1.00am.
“Those are the hours I found most
convenient to read. As soon as I closed my book, I went to bed. I woke
up at 7.00am, and got ready for my classes. Lectures start at 8.00am,”
he adds.
Apart from being the best overall
student, he was also the best in the College of Science and Technology
where he studied Civil Engineering.
Eromhonsele, who is his parents’ second
child, explains that they contributed in no small measure to whatever
success he recorded in the university. He stresses that they constantly
reminded him of his background and they advised him not to lose focus.
Eromhonsele had his primary school at
the University of Benin Staff School, while he attended both University
of Benin Demonstration Secondary School and Greater Tomorrow Secondary
School for his junior and senior secondary school education.
“My parents were very supportive. They
always reminded me of the home I’m from, and they also urged me to take
my studies seriously,” he notes.
He explains that his mother, Charity
Eromhonsele, is a business woman, while the father, Gabriel Eromhonsele,
a civil engineer runs a consulting firm in Benin, Edo State. He says
his father is a native of Igueben.
Apart from his parents, Eromhonsele did
not lose sight of the contributions of his lecturers, who, he says,
impacted him throughout his stay in the institution. Their pieces of
advice, he adds, went a long way in shaping his outlook on life.
Talking about the lesson he’s taking
away from the CU, Eromhonsele says he’s learnt that “the people one
surrounds himself with in life will determine how far one will go.”
Again, he advises that there is no future without God, and that he has learnt to put Him first in everything he does.
After obtaining a first degree, what
next for Michael? Beaming with smiles, he says, “I have already got
admission to University of Surrey in the United kingdom to read
Structural Engineering for my Master’s degree. I chose this particular
course because I feel the need to improve on the structural aspects of
construction works.”
Eromhonsele is already missing his
teachers and friends as he confesses, “Definitely, I miss my friends and
the lecturers, most especially my course supervisors. But I am happy,
it is for good.”
The eighth convocation event was not all about Michael alone. A total of 1,466 students graduated during the event tagged Release of Eagles 2013.
The breakdown showed that 114 made first class, 720 made second class
upper, 565 obtained second class lower division, while 67 were in the
third class category.
The Chancellor of the CU, Bishop David
Oyedepo, while delivering his address, identified leadership as the
greatest challenge facing the 21st Century Africa.
While he said that leadership was not an
endowment but a commitment to the future, he noted that leadership “is
an art that must be continuously and intelligibly developed.”
Oyedepo, who spoke under the theme,
‘Living the Covenant Dream – Our Leadership Development Mandate,’
explained that the mandate of the university was a commitment to
promoting the man-child model of education aimed at making men out of
children, provoking accelerated maturity intellectually and emotionally.
He stressed, “The thrust of our vision
is to create leadership imbued with strong character. We want to build
people of depth, a revolutionary army of intellectual giants, a people
to be envied, young men and women in pursuit of vision, driving with
unquenchable passion, countless exploits in every direction, a people of
honour set to take the world by storm.”
Oyedepo, who advised the graduating
students to soar in their respective fields, said they were taught that
leadership was taking the lead, setting the pace and blazing the trail
in one’s field.
He added, “Leadership is not occupying a
seat; it is accomplishing a feat. It is not occupying a position; it is
making outstanding contributions. It is not occupying a place; it is
setting a pace.”
He observed that the country was “full
of ‘expert analysts’ of our multi-faceted problems, but we lack expert
solution providers.”
Oyedepo, therefore, said the country
needed the right kind of education that could raise the right kind of
leaders, and promote the right kind of values.
In his keynote address, the Minister of
Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, advised the graduands to make the right
choices, as the choices they make could make or mar their future.
He pointed out that the people they
surround themselves with, the place they choose to start their career
and where they live, among others, matter.
“Success is about choices. My message
to you is to be careful, diligent and strategic in those choices, as
they will set the trajectory for your life,” Nebo added.
He told them to be transformational leaders who would take the country to the next level of development.
Speaking earlier on the convocation lecture titled Repositioning African universities for excellence: Theory and practical perspectives,
a former Executive Secretary, National Council for Tertiary Education,
Ghana, Dr. Paul Effah, identified lack of commitment to a functional
differentiated system or institutional segmentation as a major
difficulty facing higher education in Africa.
He noted that emphasis had been placed
on grammar type of education to the detriment of technical, vocational
education and training.
Besides, Effah said, another problem was the near neglect of science and technology.
He said, “This is not unexpected, as
most of the educational systems in anglophone Africa were modelled after
the British tradition which frowned on TVET and career-focused
training. It is common to find many senior high school graduates
trooping to the universities for admission, while student-places high in
TVET institutions remained unoccupied.”
Effah stressed that the development was
due largely to the social status and image associated with university
education. Quoting Lord Bowden, he said, “Universities were seen as
centres of privilege with very little to do with industry, commerce and
society.”
He advised African universities not to
be just relevant to the community in which they exist, but also focus on
their mandate and seek excellence in what they have been enjoined to do
and translate this into raising the standard of living and general
conditions of the people.
Describing research as a core function
of a university, Effah said many universities in Africa had failed to
meet their standard requirement on publications.
He said a recent study by the Centre for
Higher Education Transformation in South Africa, undertaken in eight
flagship universities in Africa, revealed that in terms of publications,
only University of Cape Town achieved a ratio of one article per
lecturer per year.
He added, “At the Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan University, the ratio was one article per academic every
three years. At Makerere in Uganda, the ratio was one article per
academic in five years. At the other universities, including those in
Ghana, each academic was likely to publish, on average, only one article
every 10 or more years.”
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Ayo,
who said spirituality was the arrowhead of the institution’s seven core
values, added that last year, after the 10th anniversary of the
university, it got a mandate from the Board of Regents to get CU listed
among the top 10 universities in the world within the next 10 years.
This, he stressed, they had christened “1 of 10 in 10.”
He said, “To make CU one of the best
universities in the world, we have toured some renowned universities in
the US and the UK to adopt some best practices in our operations. We are
collaborating with them in terms of faculty and student exchange, joint
research collaboration and joint degrees at both graduate and
postgraduate levels.”
He said to achieve this feat, the
institution’s concerted efforts within the next five years would include
improving infrastructural facilities and quality teaching, exhaustively
reviewing its curricula, pursuing further collaborations and linkages
with renowned universities and improving the university’s Webometric
ranking, among others.
Britain’s government on Monday defended a controversial campaign
featuring vans with billboards urging illegal immigrants to “go home or
face arrest”, after criticism from a senior minister.
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