OLAKUNLE OLOGUNRO, BEST GRADUATING STUDENT, DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN

All parents pray that their efforts -physical, spiritual and monetary – on their children be crowned with success. To the parents of Olakunle Ologunro, the best graduating students from the department of English, University of Ilorin, their prayers are already answered.

Among a horizontal sea of heads, there is always a vertical one. The head, Olakunle, stands out not because of his height, he possesses certain qualities which distinguish him among others.

This groundbreaking achievement is not an easy task. Olakunle had obviously worked assiduously, made lots of sacrifices to emerge the best graduating student of the 2019 set in his department.

Ope Adetayo, a 300 level student in the same department, testified to Olakunle’s brilliancy and commitment to studies. Here is what he wrote about him.

“I remember the first time we met, under the Faculty of Arts pavilion on a sunny afternoon. In between then and now, memories have been made, brotherhood has been fashioned, and forever has been created.

What would this school have been without you? What would studying English have been without you? What would I have been without you, without our almost-daily late-into-the-night nocturnal discussions?

The humour, the hope, the shared miseries (I know we are not normal sha because we have trivialised life to an extent that we are living on auto-cruise), and the shared victories are all parts of what have made me.

Departmental best is a token from life; believe me, you have always deserved better. But I am glad you got this, I am glad no else did but you because in the whole department, we don’t have a more reliable, uncompromising lodestar to guide us.

I know you have not left me here because all our late-night discussions are yet to materialize. But the startling assurance that we will not see each other almost every day again is painful.

I will miss you. All of us will miss you.

Last night, we both concluded, somewhat symbolically, that we have bid our time enough. And it is high time we started. When the party finally ends, we have got to do what we have got to do.

I love you, man. I do.”