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By Olajide Adekunle
In a generation where academic excellence increasingly competes with the allure of instant gratification, social-media fame and dangerous shortcuts to success, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s decision to reward Lagos State University’s two best graduating students with N20 million each is far more than a generous gesture. It is a statement of values.
It is a statement about education, discipline, hard work and merit. More importantly, it is a powerful message to young Nigerians that excellence still matters, and that society is prepared to recognise and reward it.
At the grand finale of LASU’s 29th and 30th Combined Convocation Ceremonies, Governor Sanwo-Olu announced the cash rewards for the institution’s best graduating students for the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 academic sessions. The beneficiaries are exceptional examples of what sustained intellectual discipline can produce.
Ayilara Olawale, of the Department of Project Management Technology, emerged as the overall best graduating student for the 2024/2025 academic session with a remarkable CGPA of 4.96, graduating with First Class Honours.
For the 2025/2026 academic session, Adebanjo Samuel Oluolamide, of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, emerged as the overall best graduating student with an outstanding CGPA of 4.97, also graduating with First Class Honours.
These sterling feats represent years of lectures, examinations, assignments, sacrifice, discipline and perseverance. The ₦20 million reward therefore carries significance beyond its monetary value. It tells students that their intellectual efforts are seen. It tells families that their sacrifices matter. And it tells a generation searching for role models that there is still honour in knowledge, diligence and legitimate achievement.
For years, Nigerian society has wrestled with a troubling contradiction. We tell young people that education is the foundation of a successful life, yet much of the culture surrounding them increasingly celebrates instant wealth, conspicuous consumption and overnight fame.
The result is a confusing social message. A young person can spend years studying, researching, attending lectures and preparing for examinations, while watching others appear to achieve wealth and celebrity through shortcuts that require little patience, discipline or productive effort. This is why public recognition of academic excellence matters.
Sanwo-Olu’s intervention is a form of social signalling. It makes excellence visible. It tells students that intellectual achievement is worthy of celebration and that the pursuit of knowledge is not a wasted investment. Money is important. But the message is arguably more important. The timing could hardly be more significant.
Young Nigerians today have unprecedented access to technology, information and opportunities. But those same platforms expose them to pressures and influences that can distort their understanding of success.
The pressure to become wealthy quickly can encourage dangerous choices, including cybercrime, drug abuse, cultism, fraud and other forms of social vice. Against this background, society must deliberately promote credible and constructive models of achievement. The stories of Olawale and Adebanjo provide precisely that.
Their achievements were not built on shortcuts. They represent the outcome of commitment, intellectual curiosity, discipline and sustained hard work. Their success offers young people another definition of achievement: knowledge over ignorance, competence over pretence, discipline over indulgence and perseverance over shortcuts. That alternative pathway must be made attractive.
There is also a powerful psychological dimension to the governor’s gesture. Recognition motivates. When students see exceptional performance being acknowledged publicly and materially, excellence becomes tangible. It ceases to be merely an instruction from parents or lecturers and becomes something that can be seen, celebrated and emulated.
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A student sitting in a LASU lecture hall can look at the achievements of the institution’s best graduating students and understand that extraordinary effort can produce extraordinary outcomes.
The financial reward also gives the beneficiaries an opportunity to translate academic achievement into further opportunities. It can support further education, professional development, research, entrepreneurship or other productive ventures. In that sense, the reward can become a bridge between academic excellence and wider economic impact.
The scale of the LASU convocation further underscores the importance of the occasion. A total of 20,604 students are graduating across the two academic sessions, while 375 graduands are receiving Doctorate degrees at the grand finale.
Every one of those graduates represents a story of perseverance. Behind every certificate are parents and guardians who sacrificed, lecturers who taught and mentored, institutions that provided opportunities, and students who endured the demands of academic life.
Olawale and Adebanjo stand out because they achieved extraordinary academic results, but their recognition should inspire the entire graduating class. The lesson is not that everyone must graduate with a CGPA of 4.96 or 4.97. It is that everyone should strive for excellence in whatever field they pursue. Excellence is not limited to coming first. It includes integrity, competence, discipline, continuous improvement and the determination to give one’s best.
The gesture also raises a larger question about Nigeria’s development priorities. A prosperous society cannot be built with physical infrastructure alone. Its most valuable infrastructure is its human capital.
Universities produce the engineers, scientists, doctors, teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs, administrators and innovators who will ultimately determine the quality of a nation’s development. Investment in education is therefore not merely a social obligation. It is an economic strategy.
When a government publicly rewards exceptional academic performance, it reinforces the message that intellectual capacity is valuable to society and that education remains a credible pathway to personal advancement and national development.
But Sanwo-Olu’s gesture should not end with applause. It should provoke a broader commitment to excellence. Young people need to hear consistently that wealth without integrity is not success; fame without substance is not achievement; and shortcuts that destroy the future are not progress.
Society must also reconsider what it chooses to celebrate. The student who develops an innovative solution to a difficult problem deserves recognition. The researcher who expands the boundaries of knowledge deserves attention. The young entrepreneur who creates jobs deserves encouragement. The student who refuses to cheat deserves commendation. The professional who applies knowledge to solve real-world problems deserves respect. That is how a culture of excellence is built.
Ultimately, the ₦20 million awarded to each of LASU’s two best graduating students should not be judged simply by the size of the cheque. Its greater value lies in what it represents. It is a reward for diligence, an incentive for scholarship, a recognition of discipline and an encouragement to thousands of other students.
At a time when young people are constantly exposed to messages glorifying instant wealth and reckless lifestyles, Lagos State has chosen to place two academically outstanding young Nigerians in the spotlight. That is a choice worth celebrating.
Governor Sanwo-Olu’s gesture sends a simple but powerful message: there is dignity in learning, honour in hard work and reward in excellence. For Olawale and Adebanjo, the ₦20 million may help finance the next chapter of their lives. For thousands of other students, however, the greater reward may be inspiration, the belief that their own effort can also be recognised.
.Adekunle, writes from Isolo, Lagos
