OOU Unveils Plan For N20bn Endowment Fund, As OSUPAA Reunites After 39years

Professor Oluwatoyin Ashiru, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State has said that the Institution is working on the OOU 40th Anniversary Endowment Fund, designed to raise N20 billion to secure the university’s future. He dropped this hint while speaking at a special global reunion organised by the Ogun State University Pioneers Alumni Association (OSUPAA) at the Academic Inn, Ikeja, Lagos. Ashiru noted that the University wants to have the trust invested to support academic activities, scholarships, research, innovation centres, campus improvements – and create a legacy that lives forever.

He pointed out that he deliberately delayed the first payment into the endowment account because he wanted the OSU Pioneers to be the pioneer donors. “If you were the first to enter the classroom, you must be the first to plant the seed.” He charged the old students to let their donation be the rock on which the endowment fund is built.



Ashiru who was the Chairman of the occasion said that their gathering is more than a reunion party, that it is a celebration of courage, resilience, grit, grace, friendship, success, and the glorious OSU pioneering spirit. “You are a unique class – the trailblazers who built the foundation of OSU/OOU when there was virtually nothing: no campus, no fence, no classrooms, and barely enough lecturers – just raw determination. “You are the Moses Generation – the ones who entered the Promised Land of education when the “Red Sea” of infrastructure had not yet parted.

You had lectures in the heat of Ago-Iwoye and Ijebu Igbo, without fans, chairs, or tarred roads. “Yet you thrived. You turned adversity into achievement.

From Ago-Iwoye to the world, you conquered every frontier – in law, medicine, politics, industry, and royalty. Giving the update on the University, he said that under the transformative leadership of the Vice Chancellor, Professor Johnson Ayodeji Agboola, and with the support of the Governing Council, OOU is not just growing – it is glowing. “From governance to technology, we are preparing our students not just to get jobs, but to create them to meet the demands of the future.

We introduced 18 new courses, aligning education with the demands of today and tomorrow. He pointed out that at the last convocation, all graduating students received their certificates and transcripts on the same day — an unprecedented feat in Nigerian universities and that the University’s academic calendar is fully restored. He said that the University is one of the few institutions in Nigeria running a stable schedule.

Funmilola Olotu the Chairperson of the Pioneers Alumni Association, a former Port Manager of Apapa Port Lagos, earlier in her remarks, said that the set remains unarguably a unique set. “We are rare breeds who experienced the off campus system and free make up of natural brown powder from the dust of Ago-Iwoye town. Long trekking was a natural hobby for us in the seemingly guinea-pig experiment of our forbearers that became the unparalleled and monumental success of today.

“Now we are the cynosure of all eyes, traversing the globe, having shattered glass ceilings as we keep breaking new frontiers. Today we are rubbing shoulders with our counterparts from the older and popular universities. “That experience plus the kind of quality training we received then really prepared us well for life after graduation.

And today, we are thanking God for making us who we are in our respective fields” The Highlight of the event was the presentation of awards of excellence to some of the members both living and dead who have contributed significantly to the association..