The Management of University of Calabar (UNICAL) says it will confer honorary doctorate degrees on two young Nigerian entrepreneurs, Dr Innocent Chukwuma (proprietor of Innoson Motors) and Dr Kamoru Ibitonye.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Florence Obi, disclosed this on Tuesday in Calabar at a news conference to mark the 34th Convocation of the university, billed for Saturday.
She said award of the honorary degrees to the two young Nigerian industrialists was in recognition of their contributions to national development.
“We shall be honouring two distinguished Nigerian industrialists: Ibitonye and Chukwuma. They both will be conferred with Honorary Doctorate Causa of Business Management.
“We are honouring them for their contributions to national development as employers of labour,” she said.
The vice chancellor further said that 4,955 graduands would be convoking during the ceremony.
According to her, 22 of the graduands have first class degree; 1073, second class upper degrees, while 2,763 will graduated with second class lower degrees and 547 with third class degrees.
Obi added that other categories of graduands included those that had Diplomas, Post Graduate Diplomas, Master’s degrees and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees.
The vice chancellor noted that it was a ritual for the university to hold convocation every year.
She said that despite the total shutdown of universities for long in 2020, the institution had to mop up and clear all outstanding issues.
“We worked tirelessly since academic activities resumed to ensure that we did not break away from the tradition,” she said.