A Seventy-one-year-old retiree, Bolaji Ojo-Oba, has joined 4,430 newly admitted students at the University of Ibadan (UI) for the 2025/2026 academic session after gaining admission to study Law.

Ojo-Oba, a former Secretary-General of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), was among the fresh students formally admitted during the institution’s matriculation ceremony held on Wednesday in Ibadan.

The septuagenarian, who spoke shortly after the event, said his decision to return to the classroom was driven by a long-standing passion to study law.

“I have always had an interest in studying law, and now that I am less busy, I have decided to pursue my dream of studying law,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, while addressing the new students, said the fresh intake emerged from a rigorous and highly competitive admission process.

According to him, no fewer than 46,916 candidates applied to the university through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) as their first-choice institution for the 2025/2026 academic session.

Adebowale explained that 4,171 candidates were admitted through the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), while 259 secured admission through Direct Entry, bringing the total number of newly admitted students to 4,430.

He noted that the figure represents about 9.4 per cent of the total number of applicants, underscoring the competitiveness of admission into the premier university.

The VC, therefore, urged the matriculating students to uphold the institution’s long-standing culture of discipline, diligence and academic excellence throughout their stay in the university.

However, in his matriculation lecture titled “University Education: The Journey, The Gains and The Responsibilities,” Founder of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Nigeria (RAIN), Olusola Ayoola, charged the new students to embrace hard work and personal responsibility in their academic pursuits.