The Honourable Minister, who was obviously overwhelmed by what she saw during a guided tour round the campus, eulogized the Chancellor, Dr David Oyedepo, for the vision and his patriotic zeal in translating the vision into realty.

“His vision fell in line with the vision of our founding fathers. He came all the way from Kwara State to Ogun State to establish this edifice, because he believes that though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand in Nigeria”, the Minister said, adding that if all Nigerians thought along that line, “we would have moved from a developing country to a developed nation”. The Minister who lamented that some proprietors saw the establishment of private universities as another avenue of making money by over populating their Universities, thanked Covenant University authorities for upholding NUC standards in terms of provision of adequate facilities with minimal student population.

She charged students and staff to maximize the benefits of the serene, secure and spiritual-holding environment available at the university by ensuring that the university's vision of producing the best future leaders for Nigeria and Africa is achieved. She also urged them to ensure that they pass on the torch of excellence at CU to others coming behind while it’s still brightly gleaning to the next generations.

The Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof Okebukola on his part, also announced to the delight of the university community that of all the 23 private universities in Nigeria today, that Covenant University was clearly right on top of them in terms of quality programmes. He also said that Prof Aize Obayan, the Vice Chancellor, was equally unanimously selected among all the 23 Vice Chancellors of private Universities “as the best for 2005”.


For Prof Adu, who is also the Vice Chancellor of University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, what he saw at CU was “simply marvelous, fantastic, fantabulous, gracious,” and has proved wrong the critics of private Universities in Nigeria.

While Prof Amali, who also is the Vice Chancellor of University of Ilorin, summarized his impression thus: “...a thing of beauty is joy forever! We drove into campus that is beautiful, a campus that is impressive, a campus well laid-out, well thought out, well planned. We also assumed that the academic programmes from what we have heard and we have read in the newspapers and elsewhere are also beautifully planned and executed. I will inform my President, Prof Ndebele of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, that I have been here today on behalf of the Association of African Universities and that somewhere in Nigeria we are making a breakthrough”.

The august visitors who later paid courtesy call on the Chancellor in his office, were received at the University gate by the University management team led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Aize Obayan.