A Non-Government Organization, Democracy and Good Governance Forum, has lauded the Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, for the exceptional academic feat performed by a female indigene of the state, Dr. Lateefat Abiola, in far away Ukraine.
Abiola was decorated as the best graduating medical student at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in Ukraine on June 30, this year.
She scored an impressive 95.6 per cent to emerge the best not just at her university where she beat 564 other students, but also overall in Ukraine.
In a press release issued in Osogbo on Wednesday and signed by its Chairman/Convener, Comrade Tunde Oladunjoye, the forum commended Governor Aregbesola for his “great vision, dedication and unrelenting commitment to the socio-economic transformation of the State of Osun”.
The forum also expressed delight in the remarkable efforts of Aregbesola in the important area of human capital development in the state, noting that it was no doubt the commitment of the “forward-looking governor” that propelled him to award the brilliant girl along with her colleagues, state scholarships to complete their medical training in Ukraine.
The forum also commended the lucky girl for her rare academic feat, noting that the announcement that her academic score was the best in the entire Ukraine was a thing of pride not only for Osun State, but also for the whole of Nigeria.
There were 49 other students from Osun State in her set, sponsored to the school by the government of Aregbesola despite paucity of funds in the state.
“The decision, which has now yielded a bountiful dividend is a good testimony to the brilliance, pro-activeness and public- spiritedness of the governor himself,” the forum noted.
Abiola was one of the 85 medical students of the University of Osun left stranded after the National Universities Commission in 2012 refused to accredit the course for lack of a medical school.
In 2014, when Governor Aregbesola came on board, he decided to fully sponsor the 85 students that belonged to two different sets to complete their Medical Studies at the Kharkiv National University, reputed to be the only university in Ukraine that has produced three Nobel Prize Laureates.