Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday rewarded the two students who emerged as the best graduating students of Lagos State University in the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 academic sessions with N20m each.
Ayilara Olawale, who graduated with a 4.96 CGPA in Project Management Technology, was the best graduating student for the 2024/2025 session, while Adebanjo Samuel emerged top for the 2025/2026 session with a 4.97 CGPA in Aerospace Engineering.
Sanwo-Olu announced the cash awards at LASU’s combined 29th and 30th convocation ceremonies at the university’s main campus in Ojo, Lagos.
The ceremony, which produced 20,604 graduates, was also the governor’s final convocation as the university’s visitor and the last for the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, whose five-year tenure is ending.
Rather than dwell only on the achievements of the university, Sanwo-Olu used his final appearance as visitor to challenge the graduates to turn their education into solutions for society.
He told them that the certificates they received represented sacrifices that often remained invisible to others.
“Some of you crossed this stage carrying stories that only your families know. You traded in the morning and read at night. You studied by phone light when the power failed. You buried loved ones in the middle of a semester and still returned to sit your examinations.
“Your certificates are not merely earned; they are testimonies. When you rise today, rise for every version of yourself that wanted to quit and did not,” he said.
The governor urged the graduands to extend their impact beyond personal advancement by contributing to knowledge and helping younger people coming behind them.
Sanwo-Olu also used the occasion to highlight what he described as LASU’s transformation from the institution established more than four decades ago under the late Governor Lateef Jakande’s vision of accessible higher education into a university with growing national and international visibility.
He said more than 84,000 prospective students had chosen LASU as their first-choice institution in each of the past two admission cycles, making it Nigeria’s most subscribed university in 2025 and 2026.
The governor cited LASU’s ranking by Times Higher Education as Nigeria’s best state university and fourth-best university overall, as well as its four consecutive years as the highest-ranked university in West Africa on the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking.
He also pointed to the university’s selection as the only institution in the South-West to host a N3bn TETFund Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Cyber Sciences.
“And now, LASU has been selected as the sole South-West home of the TETFund Three Billion Naira Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Cyber Sciences — placing this University at the very frontier of the technologies that will define this century,” Sanwo-Olu said.
“Excellence is no longer something LASU aspires to. Excellence is now something LASU is asked to explain.”
The governor’s account of his administration’s intervention at LASU included the construction of the Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu Library Complex, a new student union building, additional lecture facilities and student accommodation.
He said the projects were intended to ensure that the university’s physical environment matched its academic ambitions.
“Brick by brick, hall by hall, we matched the ambition of your minds with the dignity of your surroundings,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu said Lagos had also expanded its public university system from one institution to three under his administration, with plans for another university dedicated to medicine and health sciences.
He called on businesses, alumni and wealthy individuals to invest in LASU through research, scholarships, laboratories and endowed academic positions.
The governor also paid tribute to Olatunji-Bello, whose tenure he said coincided with a period of increased demand and visibility for the university.
“Appointing you in 2021 was one of the finest decisions of my tenure, and the records now speak for themselves: under your watch, this university became the most sought-after in Nigeria and the pride of West Africa,” he said.
“You did not merely manage LASU, Madam. You lifted her,” the governor said.
Olatunji-Bello, presenting her administration’s five-year record, said the university had expanded its academic programmes, secured research grants, improved accreditation outcomes and increased the use of digital services.
She said more than 50 infrastructure projects were completed during her tenure and that LASU’s internally generated revenue rose from about N3bn in 2021 to N13bn in 2025.
The convocation also saw LASU confer honorary doctorate degrees on industrialist Aliko Dangote, a prominent Nigerian financial expert and husband of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Akin Kekere-Ekun and banker Bola Adesola.
Dangote, represented by his daughter Fatimah Dangote, announced that first-class engineering graduates from LASU would be considered for employment by the Dangote Group after completing their National Youth Service Corps programme.
The Chancellor, Oba Olufolarin Ogunsanwo, urged the graduates to become problem-solvers rather than merely accumulate academic qualifications, while the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Babatunde Ogala (SAN), stressed the importance of research, innovation and technology to LASU’s future competitiveness.