From Tony Osauzo, Benin
Matriculating students of Igbinedion University Okada (IUO) were enjoined to strike the right balance between academics, extracurriculars and social life as they strive for academic excellence.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Lawrence Ezemonye, gave the charge at the oath-taking ceremony of the institution.
He explained that matriculation was a special milestone that provides opportunity for freshmen and women to be inducted as bonafide members of the academic community, adding that the ceremony was significant because it provides the opportunity for the fresh students to pledge their unalloyed and total allegiance to the authority the university, through the administration of the matriculation oath and subsequent signing of the bond of adherence to good behaviour all through their stay in the university.
He congratulated the students for being lucky to gain admission into Igbinedion University out of several thousand that applied and assured them that their choice of university was not misplaced.
Professor Ezemonye who christened the 2022/2023 new set of students as Sapphires, charged them to keep in focus the goals and reasons why they are in the university.
The guest Speaker at the event, Ambassador Jonathan Oluwole Coker, in his lecture titled “The Interconnection of Culture, Research, Entrepreneurship and Knowledge, urged the students to put on their innovative caps to create new products to serve humanity.
Noting that Okada and Edo State are the centres of Culture, Ambassador Coker also enjoined the students to carry out research and innovative ways of promoting culture, just as he charged them to make use of the opportunity to receive education and make good friends.