By Boluwatife Oparinde
The Registrar, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago Iwoye, Elder Olufemi Ogunwomoju has made a call to students to be in pursuit of excellence which is a mark of spiritual and physical maturity.
Elder Ogunwomoju made this call on Thursday July 23, 2021 at 2021 Academic Summit at the Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji-Arakeji, where he delivered a lecture with the topic, "Excellence: A Culture to Secure the Future"
The OOU Registrar who defined excellence as a matter of choosing and being the best in whatever is done, stated that God wants us to be the best in whatever we do.
He highlighted that, "you can be successful without being excellent. Not all successful people are excellent but all excellent people are successful."
He also described excellence as a mental attitude, a habit and a desire, furthering that, "excellence means being your best, being better tomorrow than you were today."
Elder Ogunwomoju also identified the ingredients of success as wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
Expantiating on these ingredients, he explained that more people now perish because they lack understanding, and also because of incorrect or wrong application of knowledge.
According to him, "these three concepts are intricately related such that Excellence depends on their correct usage and application. It is possible to have one without the other yet you cannot fully benefit from one without having the other two. However, you cannot have Excellence without having wisdom, knowledge and understanding."
While he practically explained excellence as a culture to securing the future, Elder Ogunwomoju expressed that, "It is often said that my people perish because they lack knowledge."
"However, more people perish now because they lack understanding. With the advent of technology, knowledge is now at our fingertips, but people now perish due to incorrect or wrong application of knowledge," he added.
The university administrator pointed out some principles of excellence to include, having the hunger for excellence; having a goal; doing what you love; believing you can do it; building concrete strategy and plans; learning from the best; avoiding self limitations; not giving up, amongst others.
He also expressed that there are material rewards of excellence which according to him, "attracts favour and luck; opens doors where average people cannot enter; there will always be room for you (there is always a space at the top. In an aircraft, the Ist Class compartment is never full, unlike the Economy)."