Redeemer’s University Holds 10th Anniversary, Seventh Convocation

ALL is now set for the grand-finale of the Redeemer’s University (RUN), Ede, Osun State 10th anniversary and seventh convocation ceremony, scheduled on Tuesday, September 29.

The twin event tagged “10th Anniversary, 10 Days, 10 Events,” which kicked-off last Monday, September 21, is a veritable testament of the significant milestone recoded by the university since its establishment in 2005.

Director, Centre for Advanced Sensors and Environmental Systems (CASE), State University of New York, Binghamton, USA, would deliver the anniversary and convocation lecture on Monday, while award of degrees, presentation of prizes and conferment of honorary degrees will hold on Tuesday, September 29.

At a press conference held at the school’s auditorium last Monday, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Debo Adeyewa, said as part of its achievements, the school has emerged the best-rated university in research among higher institutions in West and Central Africa.

We gladly do recall that the first case of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Nigeria was diagnosed at the Redeemer’s University’s African Centre of Excellence for the Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) Laboratory. I must equally add that only two laboratories are recognised in Nigeria for the accurate diagnosis of the Ebola virus by the American Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and Redeemer’s university is one.

Still driven by the desire to have impactful relevance on the society, our researchers, alongside other collaborators, most recently published new findings showing the ancient roots of the deadly Lassa virus. The research, which is the first of its kind in the history of virology, was published on Thursday, August 13, 2015 edition of Cell, a scientific journal.

Another milestone was the winning of $1.54 million research grant to support research and training of Africans in the field of genomics and building scientific infrastructure under the Human, Hereditary and Health in Africa (H3Africa) funded by a partnership between the United States, National Institutes of Health and the United Kingdom’s
Wellcome Trust.

He, however, lamented that despite the feats recorded by private institutions in the area of research, government has shut its door against them by ensuring that only state and federal universities have access to what he described as ‘public fund’.

The don appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to put a stop to the marginalisation of private tertiary institutions in the accessibility of funds for research.

Adeyewa opined that in order to reposition the education sector, the Federal Government should invest heavily in tertiary institutions, make education accessible to all children and ensure a level playing ground in the disbursement of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).