On Sunday, July 28, 2024, Babcock University conferred our Principal Partner, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, CFR, an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Law and Administration at its 22nd Convocation Ceremony. Chief Olanipekun, SAN, CFR, also delivered the Commencement Speech during the Convocation Ceremony. In his address titled “GO AND REPLENISH THE EARTH: MAN’S MISCONCEPTION OF GOD’S MANDATE,” he emphasized the importance of effectively managing the nation’s population growth through population regulations. He mused that for millennia, man has misinterpreted the biblical injunction to “go and replenish the earth” as a directive to recklessly populate the earth without prudence. He stated that “to live up to the genuine meaning and goal of this God-given mandate, our attention must be on gifts to humanity rather than an unrestrained population, which inevitably chokes the available finite resources in a variety of ways.”
Still on the issue of overpopulation, the legal luminary and statesman, stated that “My research has not yet assisted me to locate any particular man in the world whose success has been measured or determined by the plurality of the children he has flooded his immediate environment with rather than the magnitude of his success and positive impacts on his environment.”
He urged Nigerians to examine China’s growth model, particularly how the People’s Republic managed its population to complement its economic and social progress. Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, CFR, urged the graduating students to “be conscious of the fact that the cowl does not make the monk; thus, certificates may/will not determine the level of your success in life, except you activate them by way of hard work, industry, diligence, courage, dynamism, honesty, innovation, creativity, thoughtfulness, kindness, and the fear of God.”; and not to become discouraged or overwhelmed by societal challenges and pressures.
Dignitaries from many fields attended the occasion, including His Excellencies, Dr. Dapo Abiodun, CON and Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, the Governors of Ogun and Ekiti States respectively, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, CON, Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board; Prof. Folashade Ogunsola, OON, FAS, Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos; Prof. Timothy Adebayo, Vice Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University; Bukola Onikepo-Smith, MD/CEO FSDH, who was also conferred with a doctorate degree and Mr. Bode Dada, President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, were also present at the event.
