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Plumber’s son emerges FUTA’s best student

November 27, 2012 by Sunday Aborisade, Akure 79 Comments

Nurudeen Adegoke
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Twenty-six-year-old son of a plumber whose mother is also a trader in Iseyin, Oyo State, Mr. Nurudeen Adegoke, has emerged the overall best graduating student at the 24th convocation ceremony of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, on Saturday.

Adegoke, who read Mathematics, shone like a star at the occasion as he won other awards and had to shake hands on different occasions with special guests and other principal officers of the university to receive his prizes.

He told our correspondent that the road to his success was rough and challenging as he had to put in personal efforts to get himself through his degree programme at FUTA.

He said, “I really worked very hard. No unserious student can survive the rigour at the Mathematical Science department from where I graduated. I was very prayerful too.

“Right from my first day in FUTA, I was determined, focused and diligent. I was humble too because humility is very essential in anything one is doing.

“I was at the Osun State College of Technology, Esa Oke, for my Ordinary National Diploma in Statistics. I got direct admission to FUTA, doing everything on my own.

“My dad is a plumber while my mother is a petty trader. I am really from a humble background. Being the first child of my family, I made up my mind to be serious and hardworking so that I could help my parents in taking care of the academic needs of my younger ones.

“I always had it at the back of my mind that I must pass very well if I really wanted my certificate to be useful to me and I was always prayerful and focused.

“I used to get involved in tutorials. I didn’t play with my academics. I am not sure I had any social life because I didn’t want any form of distraction,” Adegoke submitted.

He advised students to face their academics instead of engaging in activities that would not add value to their main reason of being in the university in the first instance.

The Chancellor of the institution, who is also the Emir of Lafia, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Isa Mustafa, described the five-year degree programme at FUTA as stimulating and intellectually enriching.

He congratulated the graduates for attending an institution with world-class academic curricular which made it the best university of technology in Nigeria.

He admonished the graduates to be entrepreneurial and creative and to tap from the vast natural endowments and economic resources in the country instead of looking for salary jobs years after graduation.

He said, “I exhort you to be lawful, peaceful, and God guided in your pursuits of livelihood. I beseech you to follow the path of honour, integrity and righteousness at all time.”

The pro-Chancellor, who is also Chairman of the Governing Council, Brig.-Gen. Raji Rasaki, said FUTA would remain focused in its determination to contribute towards the development of quality human capital to meet local and global needs.

He also pledged that the university would continue to intensify efforts to attract indigenous and foreign students at both undergraduate and post graduate levels by acquiring facilities that meet their demands.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adebiyi Daramola, said 15 out of the 1,960 students that graduated had a first class degree while 561were in the second class upper division.

He added that 998 graduates were in the second class lower division; 331 in the third class; while 55 of them graduated with a pass.

Daramola said the university agreed to confer honorary degrees on Lt. Gen Theophilus Danjuma and Prof. Daniel Mireku-Gyimah from Ghana because of their generous contributions to human capital development.

He reiterated his determination to “take FUTA to the market place” by focusing on policies and programmes that would lead the institution to a higher height of global recognition for excellence.

He said, “We are also going to harness, package and market the great potential of the university to be financially solvent.

“We are starting by focusing on completing all on-going projects, upgrading our entire infrastructure to international standards. It is a daunting task that requires a lot of reforms, system re-engineering and economic utilisation of human and material resources,” he added.

Daramola also explained that through the introduction of entrepreneurial training to the students, electrical and painting jobs that were usually contracted out were now being handled by the university’s works and services personnel with the active participation of students, saving the institution, millions of naira.

He commended the  Ondo State, Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, for his efforts when the university was in the process of acquiring one of the state’s housing estates near the campus for its centre for continuing education which is responsible for pre-degree programmes and short-time certificates.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who was represented on the occasion by the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, charged the university to focus more on research which he described as a veritable tool for development.

Mimiko, who was also represented on the occasion by his deputy, Alhaji Ali Olanusi, pledged the continuous support of the state to the institution and provision of an enabling environment for the members of staff and students at all times.

NATURAL DISASTER IN JAPAN

Japan's tsunami dock washed up in US state of Oregon 7 June 2012 Last updated at 09:29 A huge dock torn from a Japanese port by the 2011 tsunami has washed up 8,050km (5,000 miles) away on the US West Coast after crossing the Pacific. The 165-tonne structure made of concrete, metal and tyres, and studded with starfish and barnacles, arrived on a beach south- west of Portland, Oregon. It has tested negative for radiation, but scientists say a host of invasive marine species may have hitched a ride. Police are guarding the dock while officials decide what to do with it. A plaque on the 20m-long (66ft) structure, which was first mistaken for a barge, shows it came from the port of Misawa in northern Japan. It has taken 15 months to drift across the Pacific to Agate beach since the earthquake and resulting tsunami shook it loose. Two other docks from the same port are still missing. The structure is one of a number of items that have washed up on north American shores. Experts expect a surge of debris in the coming months, with the bulk of it due in the winter. Danger to shipping? The senior senator for Oregon, Ron Wyden, has asked the body tracking the debris to redouble its efforts saying something as big as a dock could pose a danger to ships at sea. This April, the US Coast Guard used cannon to sink a crewless Japanese ship that drifted to Alaska after the tsunami. A month later, a Japanese owner of a Harley- Davidson motorbike swept away by the tsunami was amazed to find out that it had been washed up inside a container on a beach in Canada - about 6,400km away. Japanese scientists estimate that some 20 million tonnes of debris were generated by the earthquake and the incoming rush of water. Most would have stayed on land, and a fair proportion pulled out to sea would have sunk rapidly. But it is possible a million tonnes of debris is still afloat. A starfish native to Japan was among the marine life still clinging to the structure. John Chapman, a research scientist at Oregon State University said hundreds of other organisms, such as tiny crabs and algae, posed a "very clear threat". "It's exactly like saying you threw a bowling ball into a china shop. It's going to break something. But will it be valuable or cheap glass? It's incredibly difficult to predict what will happen next." Police have been deployed to stop people climbing on it. Traffic jams A spokesman for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, Chris Havel, said two options were being considered for its removal. The dock could be towed off the beach and floated somewhere for disposal, or cut up on the beach. The plaque has been put in storage. "We're working with some salvage experts to get advice on whether it's even possible to move it, whether we have to wait for some certain conditions, like another high tide, or whether there's some other way to do it," he said. The owners of the port in Misawa have said they do not want it back. Meanwhile, local residents have been causing traffic jams in the beach car park as they come to see it for themselves. Kirk Tite, who was visiting the beach with his son, said: "It's kind of scary seeing this wash up here because we all surf. "If this crossed the Pacific.