ADB President, Adesina is Keynote Speaker at AUN’s 12th Commencement in July

The American University of Nigeria (AUN) has announced the President of the African Development Bank Group (ADB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, as the keynote speaker at its 12th commencement ceremony scheduled for July 10, 2021, at the Aliyu Musdafa Commencement Hall.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Executive Director, Communications/University Spokesman, Mr. Daniel Okereke.
According to the statement, Dr. Margee Ensign, who was reappointed as President by the AUN Board of Trustees in June, has described Adesina as an internationally regarded and outstanding administrator and change agent, a distinguished Nigerian whose choice as keynote speaker underscores the university’s global development perspective.

“We are so honored at AUN to have Dr. Akinwumi Adesina as our keynote speaker at this historic commencement,” said Ensign. “He is one of the most distinguished and well respected Nigerian public figures in the world, and I hope his speech will inspire our graduates, all of whom have received a first-class and development-oriented education, to become active players in the global economy. We eagerly look forward to receiving him and his delegation at our safe and secure campus in Yola.”

According to the statement, AUN, Africa’s first Development University offering American-style liberal arts education through a technology-driven pedagogy, will be pulling off a historic first on three fronts with the graduation ceremony.

“Having passed the threshold of 32 uninterrupted academic semesters, AUN’s Class of 2020, whose graduation ceremony was put on hold in compliance with prevailing COVID-19 restrictions, will join the Class of 2021 in what will become the university’s first double commencement ceremony.

“The ceremony will also see the graduation of AUN’s fist Law School class. They will be receiving their graduation certificates from a returning President Ensign. who administered their Community Oath of Allegiance five years ago during their matriculation ceremony in 2016,” the statement read.

One of Nigeria’s most celebrated public officers, Adesina, who served as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture from 2011 to 2015, was first elected President of the 80-nation member African Development Bank Group on May 28, 2015. In appreciation of his work helping to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of Africans, he was unanimously re-elected for a second five-year term on August 27, 2020.

Adesina graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics (First Class Honors) from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1981. In addition, he holds a master’s degree (1985) and a PhD in Agricultural Economics (1988) from Purdue University, United States of America, where he won the outstanding PhD thesis award for that year. Adesina also won the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Fellowship in 1988, which launched his international career.

The African Development Bank Group, under Adesina’s bold and visionary leadership, achieved the highest capital increase since its establishment in 1964 when on October 31, 2019, shareholders from 80 member countries raised the general capital from US$93 billion to a historic US$208 billion. The African Development Bank Group responded boldly and swiftly to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the ADB launched a landmark US$3 billion COVID-19 Social Bond. This was followed by a Crisis Response Facility of US$10 billion.

Adesina joins the distinguished international elite who have delivered keynote speeches at AUN’s commencement, including South Africa’s global icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former European Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. David Macrae, and Columbia’s cabinet minister and champion of education, Ms. Victoria Colbert.

The American University of Nigeria, which offers 45 majors and 19 minors from its Schools of Arts and Sciences, Business and Entrepreneurship, Information Technology and Computing, Law, and Engineering, is a diverse community with a global faculty and admits students from every state of Nigeria and from across the world.