Bishop Oyedepo Tasks Africa On Innovative Thinking, As Covenant Varsity Graduates 104 First Class

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Oyedepo

The Chancellor of Covenant University, David Oyedepo, has said that the only way African countries can overcome the scourge of poverty and underdevelopment is to develop an innovative and productive knowledge base.

He said that quality education was fundamental to national transformation, as no country ever makes progress without a well-fortified educational system. Oyedepo said this in an address during the 10th convocation ceremony of Covenant University in Ota, Ogun state, at the weekend.

He stressed that being the cradle of civilization; it is regrettable that the African continent still wallows in ignorance, adding “Greek historians, artists and mathematicians went to Egypt for education around 600 B.C. We were the cradle of civilization and enlightenment, until something went wrong.

It is instructive to borrow from the example of Israel, which is now one of the most powerful countries in the world, because of quality education.”

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Charles Ayo, in his address, said that the school produced 1315 graduands including 104 first class, 610 second class upper, 510 second class lower and 91 third class degrees. Others in the post graduate category include 115 masters, eight post graduate diplomas and 20 Doctors of Philosophy (PhD) degrees.

According to him, the best graduating student for the class of 2015 was Oti Ebubechukwu Emmanuel, who made a Cumulative Grade point Average (CGPA) of 4.96 from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He noted that the school was on course in meeting its mission of being among one of the top 10 universities in the world by virtue of its illustrious strides lately.

The keynote speaker, Director, UNIDEP, Senegal, Professor Adebayo Olukoshi, in his lecture titled National Re-orientation toward Transformational Leadership in Africa, challenged the class of 2015 to be a active citizens, who should question and critically analyse the government of the day on policies, speaking up when the right of fellow is trampled upon.

He said it was time for Africans to take and define its destiny and on what terms to interface with other parts of the world, as what presently obtains was that outsiders define the fate of the continent.

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