The Chancellor of Landmark University and Covenant Universities, Dr David Oyedepo has revealed how his adopted son, children of governors and a relation to a Nigerian President were rusticated from the school at different periods for failing to keep to the laid down standards.
The Chancellor, who doubles as the founder and general overseer of the Living Faith Church, said that the core values of the school were drawn from the background of the need to raise changed people who will change their world.
According to him, there was zero attention to character when the school first started and needed to create a platform that helps enhance the character aspect of learning and it is showing today.
“I must say this; Governors have come to pick their children from our campus. The daughter of our first Vice-Chancellor was rusticated from the University for one year, my adopted son was thrown out for one year at Covenant, so there is no white cow in the system and that makes everybody shake and fear.
“If I must mention it, one of our former Presidents had a relation that had a son rusticated and called me, I said I am sorry, I do not get involved, please talk to the Vice-Chancellor.
“He said can I have his number, I said no and we are still friends. Because the moment you make rules and you abide by the rules yourself, everybody is forced to follow, and that is what we are trying to do.
“We are in dire need of leaders in our country and we will be wishing till death until we start raising the kind of leaders we want by taking them through the principle of this kind of training so that they can be there to effect changes.”
His Full Note Below;
The Core Values were drawn from the background of the need to raise changed people who will change their world. We are poised to bring back to the fore the character di- mension of learning at the Univer- sity level, like we usually say they are found worthy in character and learning. There has been zero at- tention to character when we came onboard, so we needed to create a platform that helps enhance the character aspect of learning and it is showing today.
For instance, the Nigerian graduate report publica- tion ranked Covenant University Number One in the list of Nigerian Universities with the most employ- able graduates having 90% employ- ability rate. That is the effect of the Core Values, it helps to equip our students on the pathways of life so that they can be relevant to the so- ciety and I think we are achieving that.
There is a university in America where they have 16 of our gradu- ates undertaking postgraduate stud- ies and when Professor Okebukola went there on official functions, they said we have 16 Nigerians here and they are unique, their packaging, commitment and intel- ligence is unique, they said they are from one Covenant University, he said oh I am not surprised I am part of that University too. He was very proud of those children.
He gath- ered them together and had a chat with them because of the quality of training. The whole essence of what we are doing is to raise world changers who will first need to ex- perience the changes themselves. Leave God behind, you are empty, throw integrity to the trashcan, you are finished, lack sacrifice, you can- not be a successful leader; a sacri- fice gives his best and beyond his best to lead a cause in which he believes.
All those things are there to help equip the student to be relevant because relevance is key. You cannot be relevant and not be significant. What we are trying to do is to ensure that platform is cre- ated overtime and the same thing is taking place in here, Landmark University. Most institutions to- day now have Core Values.
They did not have any before, you just live anyhow and finish anyhow, if you finish, that is what we do with the Core Values. Examina- tion malpractice culminates in summary dismissal from our sys- tem, we cannot be raising people who will deal with corruption and are corrupt themselves.
Examina- tion malpractice at 500 level, no mercy! We are convinced that he has been doing it since 100 lev- el otherwise there would not be need to do it at 500 level, and we have a psychological basis for that.
There is no way you will go for ex- amination malpractice at 500 level in Engineering, if you have been passing your exams since 100 level. So we are also out to sanitize the intellectual platform of our na- tion.
I must say this; Governors have come to pick their children from our campus. The daughter of our first Vice-Chancellor was rus- ticated from the University for one year, my adopted son was thrown out for one year at Covenant, so there is no white cow in the system and that makes everybody shake and fear.
If I must mention it, one of our for- mer Presidents had a relation that had a son rusticated and called me, I said I am sorry, I do not get involved, please talk to the Vice- Chancellor. He said can I have his number, I said no and we are still friends. Because the moment you make rules and you abide by the rules yourself, everybody is forced to follow, and that is what we are trying to do.
We are in dire need of leaders in our country and we will be wishing till death until we start raising the kind of leaders we want by taking them through the princi- ple of this kind of training so that they can be there to effect changes.
