Varsities must place emphasis on character – Ajibola

Prince Bola Ajibola

Founder of the Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Prince Bola Ajibola, has said that it is no longer safe for higher institutions to impart only academic education to their students.

Ajibola noted this while speaking on ‘Education Plus’, being the university’s philosophy, at its sixth convocation.

No fewer than 248 persons graduated from the university on the occasion.

According to Ajibola, ‘Education Plus’ is built on learning and character.

He said, “Students in our institution may repeat a level not only because of academic failure but also because they fail in their moral and spiritual dispositions.”

He added that it was the principle that led the university to introduce a course entitled Global Citizenship, which all students must pass before their graduation.

Ajibola said if institutions of learning continued to lay emphasis on academic success, the society would only be building what he called “brilliant beasts”.

The proprietor, who is also a former minister of Justice and Chief Judge, said many of Crescent’s graduates had demonstrated moral excellence through exhibition of good character at job placements and further studies home and abroad.

He added that it was in pursuit of an all-round global citizenship that the university inaugurated a Proprietor’s Prize for the most well behaved male and female graduating students in the university.

Meanwhile, Prof. Ibraheem Gbajabiamila has become the university’s new vice chancellor.

Gbajabiamila, a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, took over from Prof. Kehinde Okeleye.

A statement from the school indicated that the new VC, who studied Microbiology from the University of London, also obtained a PhD in Virology.

He was a research fellow before his first appointment with the University of London, sojourning there for over 20 years and rising to the rank of Head of Extra Mural Science.

“Prof. Gbajabiamila who was later head-hunted for associate director in another London university where he had academic responsibility for part-time students, became visiting professor in the 2010/2011 academic session when he was appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor at Crescent University, Abeokuta,” the university added.