Dear Elders, Colleagues, Friends of the CoMUI Community,
I pray for a glorious and beautiful 2023 for you and your family! There shall be showers of blessing!
I woke up on Sunday 1 January 2023 to receive this message from a truly great alumnus of the 1984 MBBS Class. This message came in at 7am:
“Happy New Year to you Madam Provost. What a glorious day it is. With the special Grace, Mercy, and Blessings from Almighty God, as my first act in this new year of 2023, I just released my instalment #3 of 5 in the amount of $2,500 to the school.
I have also e-mailed the receipt to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and copied you at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
With this payment, I am now at $7,500 (N6m). I will pay the remaining two payments in due course, to get me to my new goal of $12,500 (N10m).
Thank you very much for all you are doing for our school, Madam Provost.
I wish you and yours, a Happy and Very Prosperous New Year. Madam Provost.”
What a great way to start 2023. My dancing steps were extra special during the thanksgiving Church service I attended later that morning. My joy was palpable. I am so blessed by this generosity and thoughtfulness. Our alumni are a true blessing!
At 7pm, I received another message from an alumnus of the MBBS Class of 1986:
“Happy New Year to you! Just forwarded another N1,500,000.00 for the Hostel Project as part of my contribution. The agreement with us in Macon is N5,000,000. I am working to fulfil that goal, God Willing. Some of us in Macon, like Muraina, already completed his.
Thank you, and God bless!
We shall feature our awesome alumni in due cause and you will get to know these truly blessed givers including the MACON group. I believe that featuring our distinguished alumni is very important for several reasons and I state just a few:
- It helps to change the mind-set and it reveals the importance of generous, sacrificial giving
- It reveals the importance of alumni in sustenance of institutional systems and structures
- Our distinguished alumni will serve as role models to CoMUI students and the youth of Nigeria. In a situation where there are few role models, especially in leadership, featuring our distinguished alumni brings hope to our youth
- When we showcase our alumni giving to CoMUI, a strong message is released that the Alumni care and are building, and this gives a louder voice to the Alumni;
- The more the Alumni build systems and structures in CoMUI, their influence and power gets larger as they start to take charge of more aspects of the running of the institution and this is healthy and will ensure a bright future;
- Who knows? Things may shift and government may decide to experiment and hand over some of the first-generation universities to alumni to run, as happens in several world-class universities. - Alumni need to prepare for that possibility ....
I am convinced that it will be a great year as our alumni show unparalleled generosity towards their Alma Mater. In a few weeks’ time, I will give a full update of donations received so far and the progress made on the building project. However, I must let you know that the Building Committee has been working extremely hard and, as at today following a very systematic, transparent and rigorous process, contractors have been selected for the first phase of the project.
I am grateful to the Co-Chairs and the entire Committee, including the Technical Adviser and the Design Group.
With deep gratitude.
Olayinka Omigbodun
Professor of Psychiatry & Provost.