-By Ridwan Ojewale, ABH PRESS
The ex-president of ABH literary and debating society, Emmanuel Busayo Omotosho has been pronounced winner of the prestigious Provost award for the (2k14) MB;BS/BDS graduating class. The popular award which seeks to honor graduating students who have distinguished themselves in community services and leadership capacities is to be presented at the college’s induction ceremony of the 2k14 set on a date yet to be announced. Details about the awards have however been made public in the “order of proceedings” for the university’s convocation ceremony set for Monday, 12th of November, 2018.
Busayo Omotosho, fondly called Dr. Bee, was a great public speaker and debater in his days as a student with many titles and awards to his personality. The YALI (Young African leaders’ Initiative) fellow is a (two-time) winner of Cicero oratory competition (organized annually by the Unibadan Medical Students Association) and the Bola Ige oratory competition (in honor of the late minister of justice) in 2016. As the president of ABH literary and debating society, he led ABH L&D to victory at the 2017 edition of Jawwar (the biggest student debating tournament of the country). His administration also organized various programs as the Akinkugbe champions’ debate and leadership training sessions in Alexander Brown Hall.
Mr. Omotosho, when asked about how it feels to win the highly coveted award, had said; “I feel happy. It feels like an icing on the cake, like all the efforts I put along things that were not academics paid off. Because I didn’t give a run for academic prizes. It’s something I’ve always had an eye for so it feels really nice”.
Earlier in the year, the immediate past Public relation officer of THE SOCIETY (in the Busayo –led administration), Miss Akinola Omobola had also won the award in the 2017 graduating class of physiotherapy department. Omobola who was one of the university of Ibadan students who represented Nigeria at the Unilever Africa Idea Trophy challenge in South Africa last year is an astute public speaker, a quality she confessed has put her forth. In her words; “I think I won the provost award also because everything that I’ve really succeeded in, like everything that has really made me proud is actually related to public speaking. And that was what my department knows me for. I remember my H.O.D then used to call me ‘co debaters’. I was for speaking. It’s not really like I like talking, people just happen to listen to me when I talk”
The immediate past vice-president of the Central Literary and Debating Society (also in the Busayo-led administration), Orator Muraina Kehinde was as well one of the two candidates for the (Provost) award in the BMLS graduating class of ’17. He however lost narrowly to Femi Adewemimo, the pioneer president of Nigerian Medical Laboratory Science Students’ Association, Unibadan chapter (NIMELSSA UI). The ABH L&D has thus produced three candidates in the three graduating classes of the college for the year and two, have emerged winners.
In a similar development, yet another graduating senior orator of THE SOCIETY, Subomi Omoleye (also of the 2K14 class) bagged four academic prizes awards (Departmental prize in Anaesthesia, Parke Davis prize in Anaesthesia, best student in psychiatry OSCE and best student in Igbo Ora posting) at the ongoing convocation ceremony. Subomi was an astute orator and debater of ABH L&D who alongside Ridwan Ojewale won the Leadership & Excellence center’s debate for the hall in April, 2018.
It is however noteworthy that despite winning the prestigious Jawwar trophy twice in a row and advancing to the semi finals in three consecutive years, winning various public speaking awards as well as producing the vibrant student leaders and value adders, THE SOCIETY has in recent years lost out in the hall’s award of ‘Best society’. Perhaps, luck would catch up with them in the coming years should they continue to “do amazing things”.
The provost award is a prestigious award of the college of medicine UI, which seeks to honor students with outstanding feats in leadership, community service and the extra-curricular activities in their various forms. The selection process slightly varies across departments; while MB;BS/BDS class apply with evidences of achievements as certificates and attestation letters, BMLS and Physiotherapy departments select via popular voting/scoring along the set criteria.
