…Confers Honorary Degree On Fashola, Fayemi, Gbajabiamila, 5 Others

Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Thursday, announced a cash reward of N10 million for Ojo Aminat Yusuf, the best graduating student of the Lagos State University.

Sanwo-Olu made the announcement during the school’s 26th convocation ceremony for the awards of diplomas, first degrees, PGD, MSc, professors, PhD, Conferment of honorary foctorate degrees and others.

The event also marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of LASU.

Yusuf who graduated with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.00 (First Class Honours), is the first to do so in the history of the school.

The governor said he would give Yusuf N5 million from his personal pocket, while another N5 million would be given to her by the state government.

“I’ll be giving her a token donation of N5 million. My state government will give her additional donation of N5 million,” Sanwo-Olu said.

Meanwhile, speaking to journalists, Yusuf, said the events of the past few days had motivated her to share in brief her story, in a bid to inspire many others who are in similar situation as she was and are striving towards excellence.

She said: ”I called for financial support only under compelling circumstances, after I have exhausted all options.

“As a result, I experienced some serious financial constraints during my two plus four years stay at LASU.

“In 200 Level, second semester, just because I needed to get a browsing phone and get trained in computer skills, I saved up about 90 per cent of my feeding allowance.”

According to Yusuf, for most part of her days as an undergraduate, she lived in the university premises, because she had no hostel, and going home everyday would have been absolutely inconvenient for her.

“I remember fantasising about achieving a remarkable feat in this prestigious university.

“I first did Diploma in Law programme, which runs for two years, in which students are taught compulsory law courses, with a view to offering direct entry admission to top class students.

“I studied really hard and prayed so fervently towards achieving excellence; I graduated from the programme with a CGPA of 4.98 and this was the best in my set.

“The possibility of graduating with such grade motivated the yearning to graduate with a perfect CGPA at the undergraduate level,” she said.

Other highlight of the event was the conferment of honorary doctorate degrees on former Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola; Chief of Staff to the President, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila; former Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, First Lady of Lagos, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, among others.