77 year old woman bags degree at UNILAG | EduCeleb
Abdussalam Amoo
2nd April 2019
Motivated by the need for continuous learning, a 77-year-old woman has bagged a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) on Tuesday, 2nd April, 2019.
Mrs Bridget Okonji was among the 1,008 graduating students of the Faculty of Education in the University awarded a first degree at the institution’s 2017/2018 Convocation Ceremonies.
She studied in the Department of Educational Foundations under the university’s Sandwich programme.
She described herself as a widely travelled retired officer.
“I am a retired officer. I have worked in a lot of countries around the world and also in Nigeria, where I finally retired,’’ Ms Okonji told journalists after the conferment of the degree award.
To the septuagenarian retiree, the achievement was a dream come true.
She added that she went for the degree programme because she did not want to sit at home after retirement.
“You know when you retire like that, you will not want to stay at home and be dying slowly,” she said.
According to the retiree, no one should feel too old to go to school as learning remains a life-long adventure.
“Education has no limit. It is from cradle to death in order for one to add value to the society,’’ she said.
She advised parents to do their best to give their children the best education.
“Every woman who has an opportunity of having a child must strive to bring that child up properly through education so that he or she does not become a problem to the society in future,’’ she urged.
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of UNILAG, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe told the congregation that a total of 3,795 students from the Faculties of Arts, Education and Environmental Sciences were being conferred with first degree on Tuesday.
These include 603 from the Faculty of Arts and 382 from the Faculty of Environmental Sciences aside the 1008 from education.
Also, students from the Faculties of Science and Social Sciences were awarded first degree on Tuesday in the evening session of the first of the three day Convocation Ceremonies.
According to him, the university will graduate a total of 12,843 students at the ceremonies. These include 7,438 awarded undergraduate degrees and 5,405 for postgraduate degrees.
EduCeleb.com gathered that three students emerged best graduating students with a 4.96 Cummlative Grade Point Average for 50th Convocation of the university.
They are Adeniyi Adeyeye (B.Sc. Insurance), Chinaedum Ogbechi (B.Sc. Business Administration) both of Management Sciences, and Joedicta Ekeh (B.Sc. Pharmacy).