The University of Benin yesterday honoured some eminent personalities who made unique contributions to its progress and national development with honorary doctorate degrees at its 48th convocation ceremony.
This came as President Bola Tinubu disclosed that the federal government was working towards granting autonomy to universities in the country.
Represented by the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Abubakar Momoh, he said the idea was to improve the universities for better service to enable them compete with their peers worldwide.
ent to commend the management of the university, Prof Lillian Salami, for promoting excellence and infrastructure development as well as innovation to propel it to greater heights.
“The federal government is working towards the introduction of university autonomy. This new policy direction is premised on our conviction that university autonomy will provide funds for universities to develop. This administration believes that this is the right step in the right direction in order to reposition tertiary education in Nigeria,” he said.
At the ceremony, a former governor of Lagos and former minister of power, works and housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola; wife of Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, Mrs Betsy Obaseki; Engr. Gbenga Olu Komolafe, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and Pharmacist Dr Paul Enebeli among others were honoured by the university.
Enebeli, who was honoured with Doctor of Science, Honoria Causa, described the award as the peak in the pack of awards he had received over the years.
His Majesty Orcivirigh, Professor James Ayatse, Tor Tiv and chancellor of the university drew government’s attention to what he described as the precarious funding situation of tertiary institutions in Nigeria just as he thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for rescinding the earlier directive to universities to remit 40 percent of their internally generated revenue to the federal government.
