A former Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), has urged alumni associations to replenish society and their alma mater through sustainable initiatives.
He made the call in a convocation commencement speech delivered at Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, on Sunday.
Its theme was: “Go and replenish the earth: Man’s misconception of God’s mandate.”
Olanipekun, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), said the divine mandate to replenish the earth does not mean increasing the world population but impacting one’s society positively.
He listed a “galaxy of some individuals who replenish(ed) the world positively”, including a former professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City, Ruth Goothesman, who donated $1 billion left for her by her husband, who died in 2022, for tuition-free programmes for medical schools in some selected medical colleges.
“That is a positive way of replenishing the world,” Olanipekun said.
He also listed scientists like Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday, James Maxwell, Arthur Compton and Sir Isaac Newton, whose inventions changed the world.
Olanipekun said Florence Nightingale, a foremost English social reformer and statistician, replenished the world by volunteering as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War.
He named Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as others who replenished the world with ingenious contributions to logic, rhetoric, physics, mathematics, metaphysics, ethics, economics, psychology, and politics.
The senior lawyer also mentioned Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Lord Denning, and Hilda Bassey, among many others as impact makers, who replenished the world.
Olanipekun told the graduating students that they must add value to society and their alma mater.
“Universities in the world rely on their alumni associations in diverse areas of development.
“No wonder, the alumni associations of some leading universities have established endowment funds through which they regularly and continuously assist their alma mater.
“Universities themselves also have endowment funds which are subscribed to by public-spirited individuals.
“Harvard University has an Endowment Fund that, as of two years ago, stood at $53.2 billion, while the Nigerian government’s budget for 2022 was N17.13 trillion, equivalent to $48.1 billion.
“This translates to the fact that, as of the year under review, Harvard University’s Endowment Fund dwarfs the Federal Government budget by $11.4 billion.
“Yale University has an Endowment Fund valued at $41.4 billion, as of 2022, making it the world’s second-largest University Endowment Fund after Harvard University.
“A good number of the world’s oldest universities remain what they are today because of the immense contributions and sustained assistance they receive from their alumni from time to time,” he stated.
Olanipekun urged the Babcock alumni to continue to replenish the institution.
