I never had a girl friend – Covenant University’s best graduating student

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.