Farouk Sanni, a retired banker, who said he felt accomplished with studying Sociology, won eight awards as best graduating student in the Department.
He said his quest to study Sociology was to understand why people behave the way they do, saying he had read Accounting at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife as a course imposed on him by an uncle.
Alhaji, as fondly called, the best graduating student, narrated his experience at the 75th Convocation Ceremony at the University of Ibadan.
According to him, he took up the challenge to stay healthy and pursue his quest to understand human behaviour after retiring at UBA Bank and had to write JAMB to be admitted to study Sociology.
Sanni, who bagged eight awards as a result of the feat, said he wrote JAMB with his child, who is now studying Law at the same university.
“Studying in a class where you have those who are of the same age with your children can be very challenging, but I was magnanimous to accommodate what happened.
“Some called me daddy, some called me Mr Sanni while some will even say ‘he may be a daddy but he is not my father’. I experienced a lot of things, but as an old person, I was able to remain focussed,” he said.
Speaking on the feat of Mr Sanni, Dr Oludayo Tade, a lecturer in the department, said the best graduating student had a chair which he tied to a tree where he read under a tree in the faculty of the Social Sciences.
“This 60-year-old man, Mallam F. K. Sanni, graduated with First Class in Sociology, University of Ibadan as the best student in his set and, with that, won eight awards.
“He has two undergraduate children in UI at the moment. Until he graduated, he picked and dropped his two children at lecture halls, and most of the time, I met him reading under the tree on Saturday and Sunday.
“On Ileya day, I saw him at his usual reading space under a faculty tree, where he had brought a chair tied to the tree to use whenever he came around to read.
“I asked him jokingly: Alhaji ni Ojo Ileya. He said ‘Oga, i have bought everything they needed for them oooo. Staying with them will distract me, sir.”‘
