The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kolawole Salako has discribed that the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Alumni Association as a pride to the University.
Professor Salako stated this at the 20th Anniversary, Investiture and Award Dinner of the Alumni Association, Abuja Branch held at the Nigerian Airforce Conference Centre, Jabi, Abuja.
From Left, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kolawole Salako, the Deputy Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Chiedu Mafiana and the Executives of FUNAAB Alumni, Abuja Branch at the occasion
According to him, Alumni Associations globally play important roles in helping to shape the future of the University by representing the views of its members and contributing to building a virle alumni community that will facilitate a world class university status.
The Vice-Chancellor, commended the Alumni Association, noting that it was difficult to bring people together.
Professor Salako, further stated that the Alumni Association has the mandate to bring up the upcoming generation more so because. “You are all achievers. You have all made your marks, he said.
Commenting on the Association’s tenacity for excellence, while pointing to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Development, Professor Lateef Sanni, the Vice-Chancellor noted that the Association has produced a Principal Officer for the University pointing to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development), Prof. Lateef Sanni.
In his Address, the Deputy Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Chiedu Mafiana expressed gratitude to the Association for the honour bestowed on him, saying that one important lesson he learnt when he was a young academic in FUNAAB in the late 1980s was that “For you to think that the student you are senior to today, you would be his/her senior forever”.
He stated that this could never be so, reiterating that the students the lecturers taught today were seeds that were planted and to be harvested later,
Corroborating the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mafiana stressed that Alumni Association was a component of development in Universities anywhere in the world.
A group photograph of Guests, Executives and members of FUNAAB Alumni, Abuja Branch after the 20th Anniversary
He noted that Alumni were international ambassadors of the University, adding that they were the vocal constituency of the system.
Professor Mafiana stated that FUNAAB is a great citadel of learning that made him, and commended the University’s Professors as outstandingly awesome among academics in the country.
He, paid glowing tributes to the organisers of the event, saying that pioneering as executives of an association was a difficult job.
Congratulating the Vice-Chancellor on his well-deserved appointment, the Deputy Executive Secretary of NUC stated that Professor Salako has been wearing the crown responsibly.
Earlier, the Abuja Branch Chairman of the Association, Sir Macaulay Okoebor said that if not for FUNAAB, he wouldn’t have had the opportunity of seating with the Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and other eminent Scholars in the University.
Highpoint of the occasion was the presentation of the Vice-Chancellor’s portrait to Professor Salako; the decoration of Professor Chiedu Mafiana as the Life Patron of the Association and awards to other deserving members of the Association.
Present at the event were the Wife of the Deputy Executive Secretary, NUC; National President, FUNAAB Alumni Association, Mr. Olusola Tobun as well as several Alumnus from different parts of the country.