West African Students
Union (WASU) has conferred the 2014 WASU Gold Platinum Award on the Dean, Church of Nigeria and Archbishop of Province of Niger Delta, His Grace, Most Rev. Ignatius C. O. Kattey, JP for his pragmatic leadership and a role model of West African soil.
A six-man WASU delegation-led by its Head of Parliament, Kelvin Paulineous of Cape Coast University, Ghana and General Secretary, Comrade Bamikole Oladele Babs, University of IIorin, said Kattey is the 56th awardee of WASU’s Hall of Fame since its inception 20 years ago.
At a special investiture last Friday at the 2014 Synod of the Diocese of Niger-Delta North, held at St. Barnabas Anglican Church, Elekahia, WASU noted that part recipients of the award included Al-Hassan Watera, former Gambia President; Prof Wole Soyinka, M. Ibrahim, Kwame Nkrummah, former Ghanian Prime Minister and Justice Alfa Belgore of Nigeria.
Babs, in his speech before Kattey’s investiture, said the nomination of Kattey for the prestigious award followed due process having been submitted by a national jury consisting of eminent personalities and friendly organisations across the region and ratified by WASU parliament.
He said Katty is worthy to be honoured and celebrated being “a silent achiever, a man of gallant leadership capabilities, a man of enviable administrative meticulousness, dexterous sagacity and a distinguished plenipotentiary of West African Students”.
He recalled the welfare packages aof Kattey through which many students have benefited from his youth empowerment projects, while numerous other students are presently fulfilling their dream of being formally educated,
WASU also lauded Kattey’s commitment to education, youth empowerment and grassroot development and called on others in all tiers of government to emulate Kattey’s pragmatic qualities of a good leader.
Babs acknowledged that the challenges of leadership were enormous, but enjoined Kattey to see the honour as a catalyst that would spur him into greater works in a bid to making positive changes in the larger society.
According to Babs, the dream of building a better society is sacrosanct and tedious, but believed that a collective and collaborative efforts of all well-meaning citizens would go a long way in fast-tracking greater development of the society.
Archbishop Kattey who is also Bishop, Diocese of Niger Delta North thanked WASU for the honour and assured that he would not relent in giving quality service to God and humanity.
Other members of WASU investiture delegation were Kuri Kaba, University of Science & technology, Kumasi-Ghana; Aziz Kamara, Florah Bay College, Sierra Leone, Peter Mogiza – University of the Gambia and Kaku Dominic – University of Togo, Lome.
The Tide learnt that WASU was founded in 1975 at the University of Science & Technology, Ghana and the regional students’ body is affiliated to the International Union of Students (IUS) and has a consultative working relations with UNESCO, UNICEF, ECOWAS and the African Union (AU).

Samuel Eleonu

L-R: Director, Distance Learning Centre, University of Ibadan, Prof. Bayo Okunade, Director, Open and Distance Education, National Universities Commission, Dr Suleiman Ramon-Yusuf, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), University of Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, Registrar, University of Ibadan, Mr Olujimi Olukoya, at the first distinguished lecture of the University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre in Ibadan last Wednesday.