The management of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, has attributed the delay in the exit of the institution from the national grid to the reorganisation that occurred in the Ministry of Power.

The Vice Chancellor, Prof Eyitope Ogunbodede, had on Monday, July 15, while declaring open the African Institute for Science Policy and Innovation International Biennial Conference, held at the campus said the institution planned to exit the national grid by October and generate its own energy.

However, Ogunbodede, while addressing a pre convocation press briefing on Friday, explained that the independent power project of the university was still on course.

He explained that the new completion date for the power project, through which the university would generate 8.08 megawatts of electricity, had been shifted to the end of year 2019.

He said, “There was reorganisation in the Federal Ministry of Power and change of leadership occurred. The completion time was initially December 2019, but the fast pace of work on the project made us to target October for the completion.

“Reorganisation in the Federal Ministry of Power is the reason we could not meet that target. But this December, we plan to exit the national grid. The project is on course.”

Giving the breakdown of the graduands, Ogunbodede said 7,208 students would earn degrees of diplomas in various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

He said, “Of this number, 4, 756 are classified bachelor degrees, while the rest 536 are unclassified. Furthermore, 124 of these graduands have First Class Honours; 1,795 have Second Class Honours (Upper Division), 2, 256, have Second Class Honours (Lower Division), while 542 and 39 are graduating with Third Class Honours and Pass respectively.

“Similarly, of the 1, 917, postgraduate degrees; 59 are postgraduate diploma, 923 are Professional Masters, and 675, 52, and 208 are Masters with Research Thesis, Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy respectively.”

According to him, during the convocation, three eminent Nigerians will receive honorary doctorate degrees of the university. They are a marketing communications practitioner, Mr Biodun Shobanjo, President of African Export- Import Bank, Dr Benedict Oramah and chairman, First Bank of Nigeria, Plc, Mrs Ibukunoluwa Awosika.