He appealed publicly as a valedictorian of the UNILAG’s 2021
postgraduate graduating set at their convocation ceremony, which was the
53rd edition held on campus and with the representative of President
Muhammadu Buhari, Dr Chris Mayaki, who is the deputy executive secretary of the
National Universities Commission (NUC), in attendance.
He said the unpaid salaries had taken a huge toll on both
his immediate and extended families particularly during the eighth month’s
industrial action by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) when he had to contend with many financial challenges such as payment of
rent, children school fees, feeding and hospital bill for his aged mother, who
was down with a serious ailment.
According to him, it was a tough time financially for me and
my family during the ASUU strike as I had no money to meet many important and
unavoidable commitments.
“So, I will appeal to the Federal Government to pay the
withheld salaries not only to the lecturers but to all university workers, who
are being owed,” he said.
Yinusa, who also graduated as the overall second best in his
department at the undergraduate level in 2014 and now with the best PhD Thesis
in Science, however, thanked his lecturers, project supervisors, and his
wife and other family members for their support during his studies, saying he
would certainly do better in class and other endeavours with his new academic
attainment.
In his remark in an interview at a sideline, the oldest
graduand at the event, an 83- year-old journalist, Dr Dayo Duyile, said with
his new academic attainment, he is now fulfilled as a journalist.
He said it took him about 40 years to achieve the dream of
becoming a doctoral degree holder in Mass communication.
He said he was longing to go for his PhD programme just
after his master’s degree when he was 35 years old but for some reasons
including the time factor that prevented him from doing so all along.
“But I thank God for making the dream a reality now and I
will continue to study and become a professor.”
Dr Duyile had worked in various media organisations in Nigeria including Nigerian Tribune and Daily Times and he is currently a lecturer, researcher, journalist and book writer.