The 18th Convocation ceremony of BOWEN University, Iwo, Osun State, held on Saturday, November 4, 2023, ended emotionally for one of the graduating students, Oluwatunmise Ola-Giwa and her father, Olapade Musa Giwa.
Oluwatunmise, 19, who read Theatre Art in the private university was not expecting her Chicago, USA-based father to attend the ceremony as the father did not give an inkling of his resolution to honour her with his presence at the graduation ceremony.
In other to avoid the leakage of his home coming, the father did not discuss with any of his family members his plan to come home for the graduation of his first daughter.
Giwa, who kept his plan to his chest flew into the Muritala Muhammed International Airport situated in Ikeja Area of Lagos State, Nigeria, in the evening of Friday, November 3, 2023, and made sure that he got to Ibadan same day so that he could be in Iwo town the following day as soon as possible.
At the venue of the convocation, he hid himself from his daughter but witnessed the entire graduation ceremony from the back of the hall used for the official convocation.
As the convocation was officially declared closed, Oluwatunmise, in her blue laced-with-red graduation gown walked to where she knew her family members would be sitting, waiting for her. Locating her family members, and well-wishers, she calmingly knelt to greet them one after the other as a mark of respect when greeting the elders.
Oluwatunmise had not greeted up to five persons among several persons she needed to appreciate for turning up for her graduation when she suddenly sighted her father at a close distance.
Oluwatunmise was shocked, ran and jumped into the already prepared arms of her father, held her tightly without minding staining her father’s white clothes with her heavy make-up, and burst into tears. The father also became emotional as he was wiping off his tears. It took a while before the duo were able to pull themselves together and pose for pictures. The father presented her with some gifts, after which merriment followed.
The Baptist faith-based university graduated 834 students. The breakdown shows 730 undergraduate students, 65 unclassified students, and 39 postgraduate students. The breakdown of the postgraduate students shows 17 M. Sc. and 14 Ph.D.
At the graduation ceremony, where Opeyemi Oyelakin was declared as the best graduating student, 82 made First-Class, 338 made Second-Class honours (upper division), 222 made Second-Class (lower division), 83 made Third-Class, and five in the Pass grades.
Also, the university graduated 65 MBBS students.
The institution also conferred an honourary Doctor of Media (PhD honoris causa) on the founder of Channel Television, John Momoh.
God when. This is sweet ❤️