Not Too Old For School – 74 Year-old Ex-soldier Secures Admission to Study Law at Obafemi Awolowo University

My mother who is in her mid-fifties says this often whenever we her children try to tease her with our knowledge of new technology or new things we had learnt in school. “You think I cannot go back to school? I’m not too old, I can still go to school.” Every time she says this, we’d just laugh and say it is impossible. “What would you be doing in a classroom?” we’d say.

How wrong we were. There is certainly no age limit to learning and acquiring knowledge, it only depends on the methods used to acquire such knowledge. For us, we thought it would be awkward to see her learning in a formal school classroom (that is apart from Church or other such social institutions).

Well, that was for us. Certainly not for 74 year-old Layiwola Adegunju.

Punch News reports today that a 74 year-old retired soldier was among the 5,000 new students at the 50th matriculation ceremony of the institution in Osun state recently.

“A 74-year-old retired colonel Layiwola Adegunju, has secured admission to the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, to study Law.

He was among the 5,000 new students that got admission to the university, out of the 72,500 candidates that applied for admission to OAU.

This was contained in a statement on Tuesday by the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Abiodun Olarewaju, after the 50th matriculation of the institution.

According to the statement, the septuagenarian, who is from Erunmu, Ibadan, Oyo State, was the cynosure of all eyes at the ceremony attended by the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Bamitale Omole, all the principal officers of OAU, the new students and their parents and relations.

Omole, while speaking at the ceremony, commended the father of four for his courage and determination to search for knowledge in spite of his age.”

Mr. Adegunju would be receiving lectures along with students who could be his grand children or great grand children. The bravery and determination with which he sought for and accepted admission into an institution of high repute at the age of 74 is totally admirable. For someone to have served the country as a soldier, up to the point where he attained the rank of a Colonel and then return back to school to study a course such as Law, he definitely still has great plans for Nigeria.

People like Mr. Adegunju are rare. Reading, understanding and writing tests and examinations at the University level requires a high level of concentration, mental accuracy and physical strength which a lot of young people are still lacking.

How wonderful would it be to have such a wise mind as a colleague in school or a as a student to lecture; to share desks with someone with the kind of wealth of experience he must have. His lecturers and course mates are definitely in for an interesting ride.

With this action, he has shown that there is no age limit to dreaming, setting goals and achieving success.

Congratulations to you, Mr. Adegunju. I pray that you achieve all that you have set out for in this endeavour.

News Source: Punch News