Why universities defer convocation ceremonies

Most Nigerian universities hold convocation ceremonies annually at the end of each session during which graduands found worthy in character and learning are awarded their respective degrees. Thereafter certificates are presented to them. However, a number of universities have deferred their graduation ceremonies for one reason or another and in a few universities, graduands have […]

Most Nigerian universities hold convocation ceremonies annually at the end of each session during which graduands found worthy in character and learning are awarded their respective degrees. Thereafter certificates are presented to them.
However, a number of universities have deferred their graduation ceremonies for one reason or another and in a few universities, graduands have not convoked for five years. They are mostly given statements of results to seek for jobs before their graduation ceremonies.
About 40, 000 graduating students from three universities roaming the streets with no certificates but statements of results following deferred convocations have finally breathed a sigh of relief after combined convocations were held in their respective universities.
A total of 25, 878 students from the University of Abuja and 8,127 from the Abubakar Tafawa Belewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, who completed their degree requirements between two and five years ago participated in the combined ceremonies organized three weeks ago at each institution.  The number will likely go above 50, 000 students with the forthcoming combined convocation of the University of Maiduguri in April. 
The failure of the universities to hold the convocation ceremonies at the end of each calendar year has made so many graduating students to seek for jobs with statements of results, often rejected by employers.
At the University of Abuja’s 15th to 20th combined convocation ceremony held on February 27, seven years after the last one which was held in 2008, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Michael Adikwu, disclosed that he was happy because the 7-year-old jinx of deferring convocations was broken. Earlier, the VC had visited the National Universities Commission (NUC) where he was told that thousands of graduates from the institution haven’t got certificates following postponement of several convocations.
Prof Adikwu said “we wanted to have the convocation last year but we didn’t feel like giving out the certificates we used to know, those printed here in Nigeria, because many people have forged them and they are all over the place.
“We approached a company in UK to produce a certificate with a lot of features, something that looks like the Naira notes but superior to the Naira note.  There are about seven different identity features in our new certificate so it is going to be very difficult to forge. That was what delayed the convocation.
“I want to say that henceforth it should become a yearly affair, it shouldn’t be accumulated convocation because what makes a graduate feels that he is a graduate is to see that he has his certificate,” adikwu said.
The university graduated 25, 878 students comprising of 20, 461 undergraduates and 4, 261 post graduate students. Of the post graduate students, 331 had doctorate degrees, 2, 233 had masters’ degrees and a total of 1, 697 got postgraduate diplomas.
 Eight persons graduated with first class degrees, spanning the 2009/2010 to 2014 academic sessions. The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who was among the graduates, obtained a PhD in law. Senator Abdulfatai Buhari was also among the graduates.
Also, the convocation saw to the investiture of the new Chancellor of the university, Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris, and the conferment of honorary degree on a former Vice President of Nigeria, Chief Alex Ekwueme; former chiefs Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Kutigi and Justice Maryam Aloma Muktar as well as former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
 ATBU also celebrated its 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd combined convocations on the 23rd January, 2016, four years after the last one that took place in 2010. The Vice Chancellor, Professor Saminu Abdulrahman Ibrahim, said the university hasn’t been able to conduct its convocation ceremonies regularly as a result of the security challenges in the North-east. He pledged that the institution will henceforth strive to conduct the event yearly.
Meanwhile, the combined convocation witnessed the graduation of 8, 127 students out of which 845 received diplomas, 5,577 bagged first degrees while 1, 620 received Post Graduate Diplomas and Masters and 85 were awarded Doctorate Degrees.
Among the graduates, 32 obtained first class degrees, 1,203 bagged second class upper degrees, 2, 702 second class lower while 1, 481 and 136 graduates received third class and pass degrees respectively.
President Muhammadu Buhari at the occasion asked that all universities should ensure that the graduation ceremonies were done yearly.
Meanwhile, the University of Maiduguri is also set to celebrate its combined convocations in April 2016 after the last one that took place in 2010; however the delay may not be far from the insurgency ravaging the state.
In a related development, Usmanu Danfodio University Sokoto on Tuesday made an announcement inviting graduands to her 2011/2012 (32nd), 2012/2013 (33rd) and 2014/2015 (34th) combined graduation ceremony and 40th anniversary on March 19. Thousands of students will be awarded various degrees.
The president of the Nigerian Academy of Science, Professor Oyewale Tomori, in a pre-convocation lecture of the University of Abuja said it was not fair to wait for the approval of the ministry to hold a convocation ceremony.
“A university without tradition is a rudderless university without an anchor, which will soon be tossed to and fro by forces it has surrendered to. I think time has come for our universities not to surrender their autonomy by allowing the Nigerian system to chip away at their tradition of excellence orderliness and rule of operation.”
The Executive Secretary of NUC Prof. Julius Okojie noted that academic ceremonies are rituals and the rituals must be followed.