by Tayo Joseph Lagos Nigeria
Lagos state university on the Grand finale of its 21st Convocation Ceremonies, is awarding honorary doctorate degree to some eminent Nigerians Today, March 23, 2017 , They are Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mrs Folorunsho Alakija, Chief Kessignton Adebutu (Baba Ijebu), and Professor Peter Okebukola. The event will play host to dignitaries from all forms of life most notably of the Governor of Lagos state, Akinwunmi Ambode.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote
Alhaji Aliko Dangote GCON born 10 April 1957 is a Nigerian billionaire, who owns the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities. The company operates in Nigeria and other African countries, including Benin, Ethiopia, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, and Zambia. As of February 2017, he had an estimated net worth of US$12.5 billion. Dangote is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 67th richest person in the world and the richest in Africa; he peaked on the list as the 23rd richest person in the world in 2014.He surpassed Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi in 2013 by over $2.6 billion to become the world’s richest person of African descent.
Folorunsho Alakija
Folorunsho Alakija is a Nigerian businesswoman, one of the richest African women and also one of the richest black women in the world. In 2014 she unseated Oprah Winfrey as the richest woman of African descent in the world. She is a business tycoon involved in the Fashion, Oil and printing industries. She is the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group which consists of The Rose of Sharon Prints & Promotions Limited and Digital Reality Prints Limited and the executive vice-chairman of Famfa Oil Limited. Alakija is ranked by Forbes as the richest woman in Nigeria with an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion As of 2015, she is listed as the second most powerful woman in Africa after Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the 87th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
Kessignton Adebutu
Kessignton Adebutu is the billionaire who owns the multi-million Naira betting business -Premier Lotto (Baba Ijebu). He was born on October 24, 1935 at Iperu Remo in Ikenne Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Prof. Peter Okebukola
Prof. Peter Okebukola was born on February 17, 1951, in Ilesha, Osun State, in South-West Nigeria, to Pa Daniel and Madam Lydia Okebukola, both of blessed memory. He finished his secondary education at St. Malachy’s College, Sapele, now in Delta State in 1967, where he was adjudged the best overall student in the West African Schools Certificate Examination. He proceeded to Remo Secondary School, Sagamu, in Ogun State for his GCE Advanced Level certificate. In 1969, he won the John F. Kennedy Essay competition. He attended the prestigious University of Ibadan, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in 1973. Between 1979 and 1984, he earned his Master’s and Ph.D degrees in Science Education from the same university. Significantly, he enjoyed the Federal Government scholarship for his undergraduate and postgraduate pursuits. Okebukola’s trajectory in Nigeria’s academic landscape has been a phenomenal success. At the age of 19, he began his career as a science teacher at Holy Saviour’s College, Mushin, in Lagos. He also taught in several other schools, including Ososa Grammar School, Ijebu-Ososa, Ogun State, where at the age of 23, he headed the Department of Science; Christ Apostolic Church Teachers College, EfonAlaaye, Ekiti State; Okemesi Grammar School and Oyo State College of Education, Ilesha, between 1974 and 1984. In 1984, he joined Lagos State University as a Senior Lecturer and rose to become the Dean, Faculty of Education, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and later, Acting Vice-Chancellor of the Institution in 1996.
He was also a Visiting Professor at the Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. At various levels he distinguished himself as a cerebral scholar with remarkable footprints of excellence. Many of his publications can be found in the world’s top science education, computer education and environmental education journals. Peter Okebukola did specialized training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, both in Cambridge, United States of America. A specialist in higher education, science, computer and environmental education He is the first African to win the United Nations Scientific Cultural Organisation’s Kalinga Prize for Communication and Popularization of Science in 1993. He has served as Consultant to a number of international organisations. His appointment as the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) by the former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in 2001, marked a positive turning point for university education and administration in Nigeria. From 2001 to 2007 as the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), he superintended over the quality assurance of all the universities in Nigeria. He set new benchmarks in the course of his administration as the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Universities Commission. He was able to achieve a lot by setting minimum standards for the country’s universities, conducting system-wide accreditation of programmes that lead to sanctions on failed programmes and shutting down of illegal satellite campuses of universities. The contextualization of the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)/Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines on cross-border higher education, establishment of new private universities and their annual quality audit as well as the development of strategies for institutional accreditation. As an excellent academic, he was motivated by a strong desire to champion a new direction in Nigeria’s education sector, he recommended that government at all levels should conscientiously devote a minimum of 26 per cent of their annual budget to education to rescue the nation’s tertiary institutions from staggering crisis of catering for a student population far greater than their capacity and the sector as a whole from chaos.
