This news was culled  from INFO DAILY November 16, 2023

60-year-old Farouk Sanni has emerged as the best graduating student in the department of sociology at the University of Ibadan.

Farouk Sanni, a retired banker, said he felt accomplished studying sociology in his quest to understand why people behave the way they do.

Sanni said he had read accounting at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, as an imposed course 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 from UBA. Sanni said he 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 University of Ibadan.

“Studying in a class where you have those who are of the same age as your children can be very challenging, but I was magnanimous to accommodate what happened.”

“Some called me daddy, some called me Mr Sanni and 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 focused.”

Speaking on the feat of Mr Sanni, Dr Oludayo Tade, a lecturer in the department, said the best graduating student had a chair that he tied to a tree, where he read under a tree in the faculty of the social sciences.

“This 60-year-old Sanni graduated with first class in sociology from the University of Ibadan as the best student in his set and won 8 awards.”

“He has two undergraduate children at UI at the moment. Until he graduated, he picked up and dropped off 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, and he said, Oga, I have bought everything they need for them. Staying with them will distract me, Sir,” he said