Honourary Degrees

Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

The University of Ibadan, UI, will confer honorary degree on Nigeria’s legal icon, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, at the forthcoming convocation ceremony of the institution.

Babalola, the founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, will be conferred with the degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D) honoris causa.

Disclosing this, the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka, who led a delegation to intimate the intending recipient of the award said that the honour is in recognition of his invaluable contributions to national development in the field of Law, Education, Community Development and philanthropy.

From left, Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka and Aare Afe Babalola, his wife, Yeye Babalola and ABUAD Ag. VC,, Professor Smaranda Olarinde

Justifying the reason for the award, Olayinka said, “Since the pioneering set of students resumed for studies at Ado Ekiti in January 2010, Afe Babalola University has established itself firmly as a leader in the Nigerian University System and it is poised to achieve greater achievements in the coming years as a fully residential university. The founder is a two-term former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University of Lagos. He is very passionate about education and he is a regular contributor to the public debate on how to reposition and re-engineer the Nigerian higher education sector. Aare Afe Babalola, a man of numerous preferments, has been a great supporter of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ibadan in terms of being an Adjunct Faculty for many years and he has also contributed significantly of his treasures to the beautification of the Faculty. He donated the Aare Afe Babalola Nuclear Medicine Building to the University College Hospital and this facility will be used by the Department of Nuclear Medicine which was recently approved by the Senate of the University of Ibadan”.

Olayinka stated that during the visit to the legal icon, the delegation was conducted round ABUAD saying, “We were highly impressed with the state of the art facilities. We also visited the core academic areas, including the highly regarded College of Law, the Postgraduate College, College of Sciences, College of Management and Social Sciences, the Planetarium reputed to be the first of its type in Nigeria, the ABUAD Farm, ABUAD Moringa Farm, the Bakery, the Saw Mill and the Centre for Industrial Research. We drove past the Students’ Hall of Residence. We also visited the Talent Discovery Centre”.

Others to be honoured alongside the legal icon are: the former Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Emeritus Ayodele Falase, Honorary Fellowship of UI, FUI, Foundation Dean, Faculty of Technology, UI, Professor Folagbade Aboaba, who donated Aboaba Building in Faculty of Technology, Honorary Doctor of Science, former Dean, Faculty of the Social Sciences UI and former Special Adviser to the President, Professor Emmauel. C Edozien, who donated the Distinguished Fellow in Economics building to UI, Honorary Doctor of Science, and former Executive Director, Consortium for African Research and Training in Africa, CARTA, and currently Distinguished Professor, Drexel University, in the USA, Professor Alex Ezeh, Honorary Doctor of Science. Through the CARTA Project, Ezeh has assisted in facilitating the completion of the PhD of no less than 10 members of staff of the institution.