Mariam Afonja and 11 other first class graduands of the First Technical University, Ibadan, have been offered automatic employment.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Ayobami Salami, announced this during his address at the first convocation of the institution.
He said, “I hereby announce that all the First Class graduands who are interested in academic pursuits are hereby offered automatic employment immediately after their National Youths Service. In addition, I am happy to announce that we have secured the support of our local and international partners to award scholarship to all of those that accept the offer, to enable them have international exposure through Master degree training in the United States of America, and split-site PhD degree programmes.”
The highly elated Salami told the gathering that apart from successfully graduating its first set, Tech-U had a lot of success stories to tell.
He said, “The golden feat of today comes on the heels of several other landmark achievements that the University has recorded within the short time of its existence. So phenomenal has our growth been that, in the latest ranking by the National Universities Commission (NUC), the First Technical University is 7th among all the state universities ranked. We are the 27th of all the universities ranked in Nigeria. Yet, we are just less than five years old. That is a solid independent validation of our efforts by the regulatory agency; an indication that we are moving fast in the right direction.
“When COVID-19 first struck, we were one of the first tertiary institutions that promptly responded to the challenge by producing two prototype ventilators and usable face masks. And during COVID lockdown, we ran an uninterrupted academic session in a year that the pandemic disrupted programmes in most other universities. This is a major reason this convocation is holding today, because our academic calendar suffered no disruption; not even for one day!
“The past 4 years also witnessed a steady expansion of Faculties at Tech-U, with the recent addition of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Management as well as the Faculty of Basic Medical and Health Sciences. The University which took off with 15 academic programmes in 2018 now has 30 academic programmes approved by the NUC. I am happy to announce that apart from the Nigerian Police Academy, this is the only university that runs B.Sc. degree in Forensic Science in Nigeria.
“In terms of facility, our growth has also been considerably fast. The University that started with just two buildings donated by the Central Bank of Nigeria, as we stubbornly chose not to start at a temporary site, is today graduating her first set on the same campus, now with several edifices built through Internally Generated Revenue and life-saving interventions by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).”
The Chancellor of the university, Chief Tunde J. Afolabi, also advised the graduands to assert themselves educationally and morally.
Afolabi, who is the Chairman of AMNI Petroleum, said,
“Dear graduands, while I congratulate you for this great achievement of yours, I want to reiterate that the import of the story of the beginning of your citadel where you are graduating from today is that things happen first through idea and are concretised when you focus and implement. The reality of the new world into which you are graduating is that it is extremely competitive and somewhat brutal. You win laurels and defeat the monster with ideas – good ideas about what you really want out of life! If I hazard a guess, it will include but not be limited to comfort, recognition, adding value, making a difference, developing spiritually and aspiring to make heaven, etc.
“Graduating today is a good step towards achieving your aspirations but this is just the beginning. Going forward, you have to be equipped with the spirit of appreciation. Appreciating your parents/guardians or sponsors who denied themselves to pay your bills through school, your teachers and the good people you have come across on your journey through school, your environment and ultimately God, goes a long way to defining your path. Through appreciation you find space in your heart to find role models in any or some of these contacts. You need to find your role models and your dreams. You have to find your passion and whatever you do, you do with passion and with fear of God.
You must be able to plan. You must have daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, short term, medium-term, long-term plans. When you plan, you mitigate failure, when you fail to plan, as they say, you plan to fail. It is important that you plan your life. The fuel of achieving your plans is discipline, hard work, dedication and consistency of purpose.
“As you journey in your new life, you must be prepared to take chances, take risks and not be afraid to fail. If you recall the popular but old IQ test with nine dots, and you are tasked to draw five lines with a pencil within these nine dots without lifting the pencil, you know that the only way out is to draw outside the box. A lot of issues that will confront you will require that you are not afraid to go outside the box. You have to, a lot of the times, think outside the box. You have to have initiative, creativity, boldness, courage and resilience to take risks and to overcome fear. Fear is an albatross. You must learn to defeat fear this early part of this journey.
“My prayer is for all of you to do well and become very successful in life. Our dear pioneer students, all eyes are actually on you. Wherever you go, ensure you justify the learnedness invested in you and the confidence reposed in you. Make your parents, school and country proud by being excellent academically, socially and morally in your sayings and deeds. when you get a job, do it with zeal and resourcefulness. Pay attention to your attitude because that is what will give your brilliance life. And for those of you who will be establishing your own businesses, I encourage you to do so. It is never too early.”
