The visit by the management and alumni of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) to Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Wednesday in Abuja evoked nostalgic feelings about his activism and humble beginnings.
The visit was primarily to invite him to the 50th Anniversary of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) scheduled for March 17th to 22nd, 2025, which he promised to honour.
Akpabio took the opportunity to reflect on his undergraduate days at UNICAL, marked by deprivations and student activism.
According to a statement by his media office, Akpabio reminisced about his time at the university and described the upcoming 50th Anniversary event as remarkable and worth celebrating.
“We will be there in full force to support you. We will also take the catalogue of things you intend to do. We can tick the ones we can also assist you to do,” Akpabio, an alumnus of the school, said.
Akpabio who was a Speaker of the Student Parliament said: “I was one of those who fought for the interest of the students.
“I was one of those who never had the privilege of sojourning in the main campus where you could have constant electricity. Instead, I chose to be in Malabo with all the mosquitoes.
“It is really a thing of joy to be alive to see the University at 50. It is also a great thing of joy to see a delegation coming to invite me to join you.
“This visit today is a very uncommon visit which will result in an uncommon transformation of the University beyond 50.”
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Professor Florence Banku Obi, who led the delegation, said their mission was to invite the Senate President to the historic event and inform him of the line-up of activities for UNICAL at 50.
Professor Obi who announced that the Senate President was penciled down as an Ambassador of UNICAL at 50, said Akpabio did so much for the University when he was Governor of Akwa Ibom State.
“We have come here today to tell you we have come of age as a University…We want to let the world know that we have actually come of age as a second generation University in Nigeria,” Professor Obi said.
