The Osun State University has graduated 1946 students during an -online convocation of the institution, the first of its kind in the history of the nation’s public universities in Nigeria.

The institution awarded 35 First Class on a total of 1946 graduates during its 9th convocation ceremony for 2020, held on Monday.

The Osun State Governor and Visitor to Osun State University, Gboyega Oyetola, in his speech, challenged universities in the country to lead Nigeria out of the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the entire world.

He also charged the institutions to look inward and invest more in research, innovations and technologies as a permanent way to prepare the world for eventualities that may come in the future.

Addressing the participants, Governor Oyetola said the time had come for the leadership of the nation’s tertiary institutions, particularly universities, to prove their strength in finding solutions to the numerous challenges confronting the country.

In the same vein, the Pro-Chancellor and the Chairman Governing Council of Osun State University, Yusuf Ali charged the Federal and the State Governments to increase the level of funding to the universities for research and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure development.

Yusuf explained that COVID-19 had provided a rare opportunity for Nigeria universities’ academics to join the bandwagon of other universities all over the world.

According to him, “For us as a University, it was as if we saw this current pandemic in a crystal ball. Serious effort in the last two years had gone into the development of our ICT infrastructure on all the campuses and this act of foresightedness had made it possible for the University to conduct the first ever virtual Uniosun 9th Convocation, the first of its kind among all the higher institutions in Nigeria.”

The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Labode Popoola, disclosed that the university conferred 35 First Class out of the 1946 graduates during the 9th convocation ceremony for 2020.