To conclude this discourse, we must do the following: Continue to link and contextualise our education, generally and specifically. University education needs to reflect our sociocultural space, lest they become irrelevant. The search to catch up with the Globe’s Fourth Revolution while we literally skipped or frog-jumped industrialisation, which the Industrial Revolution in the West began in the 19th century before they got to where they are now is abysmal.

Given where we are now in Nigeria, we must engage vigorously in cutting-edge research at each of our universities. The effort by TETFund to help the nation arrive at a certain research policy destination is encouraging. A National Research Development Policy is worthwhile. We must develop in that direction for a National Research Policy.

Beyond that and as Professor Awhor Ogugua (2023) proposes, we should establish some research universities ‘with world-class facilities’ if we must contribute to global knowledge creation, accelerate national development and have well-trained Ph.Ds.

All these call for greatly enhanced appropriation of funds to education, especially tertiary education. The contribution of TETFund to content development and physical infrastructure without which our universities will be mere shells and shadows is salutary. But it must not be a replacement for increased budget appropriation to the universities, where the current allocation to capital and research projects is miserable.

Finally, the narration of the sºeducation lies in the hands of the storyteller – in the humanities, where all the scientific and technological advancements ongoing today in rocket science, biotechnology, and Artificial Intelligence will be given expression in human and humane values, in the art of storytelling. In the story of Omonijon the nurturing of the animals and the humans in compassion, human feelings, ethical dimensions, kindness, justice and so on and so on.

The world continues in transition, and the universities must strive hard to dictate the space.
I have arrived, temporarily. Let the yearning and longing of Omonijon complete the story:
Omonijon mi re
Wo mo se were wo hoin bo…
Omonijon mire
Omonijon Mi re

What a journey it has been for Professor Olu Obafemi, an immaculately deep thinker of our clime whose frame, scant and slight, does not capture his bewitchingly expansive frame of ideas and knowledge that flourish beyond our shores. We cannot thank him absolutely or more than enough as a florist in the expansive garden of flowers, who has given us a natural rose from the splendid inside of his splendid garden of roses of ideas and knowledge that are ideas and knowledge.

The petals of his rose will ever remain where they should remain in the splendidly splendid inside of our collective memory. His rose’s petal will never be lost there. And its enormous green stalk will remain very natural and naturally natural and woos us like a love-philtre. Indeed, Professor Olu Obafemi’s “University Education in a Society in Constant Transition” is a love-philtre and an intellectual-philtre at the same time.

At this point, the columnist and readers of this column and those who read the discourse for the past four weeks would like to say how grateful they are to the Federal University, Lokoja that provided the platform where the text was originally presented. To cut a long story short, we join professor Olu Obafemi to “commend the University” Vice Chancellor, Professor Olayemi Akinwumi, a Distinguished Professor of “History, a Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria (HSN), and former President of the Historical Society and a distinguished Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters” for the honour given Professor Olu Obafemi to deliver the Convocation Discourse, the Convocation Lecture, at the University of Lokoja’s Combined 6th and 7th Convocation ceremony on October 19, 2023.

Is there anything, more for the columnist to say? Yes, of course. I think it will be nice or nicer of me to thank our readers once again; and to now request them to respond, as they deem fit, or as their respective inspirations dictate to do to what has gone on here for the past four weeks. This column they should regard without qualms as their household of ideas. We shall serve them fresh and as natural rose that comes from the naturally natural garden of a natural florist. This we state with every ounce of humility that is humility.

Now before we wave our temporary goodbye, those now in charge of TETFUND that ASUU founded should do more than well to take a good hard look and a hard good look at what manifested here in the last four weeks.
Wo mo se were wo hoin bo…
Concluded.
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.