Campus News

A Guinness World Record, an NIPR Award, and other feats

Still basking in the euphoria of the historic smashing of the Guinness World Record for the Longest Mathematics Lesson by one of its students, the nation’s most sought-after University, the University of Ilorin, last Wednesday (April 16, 2025) added another colourful feather to its already well-decorated wig. On that day, the Better-by-far citadel won ‘the Best Corporate Share of Voice (Social Media)’ institution at the 2nd National Spokespersons Summit (NSS) in Abuja. In simple terms, the award is for the university that made the most effective usage of the social media to gain the most traction among its stakeholders, internal and external.

Organised by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, the award was given to the University in recognition of its excellent exploration of the social media to maintain consistently efficient communication and engagement with its relevant stakeholders.

Even though the award was for the University as a corporate entity, it was as a result of the fantastic work being done by the New Media Team, a newly created Unit under the Directorate of Corporate Affairs. The arrow head of this feat is the University’s Social Media handler, Mr Temitope Omoniyi, who also won a separate Certificate of Award for himself at the grand ceremony that held at the prestigious Abuja Continental Hotel in the heart of the nation’s capital city.

Omoniyi, a Principal Information Officer at the Directorate of Corporate Affairs, received the spectacular award on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN.

Presenting the award to Omoniyi, the Vice President of the NIPR, Prof. Emmanuel Dan-Daura, fnipr, commended the University of Ilorin for doing quite well in the exploration of different social media platforms to promote goodwill and understanding between the institution and its relevant publics.

 This is, without doubt, another big win for the multiple award-winning University, especially since the inception of the Egbewole Administration in October 2022.

Remarkably too, in the 2024 maiden edition of the National Spokespersons Summit (NSS), the University’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Kunle Akogun, emerged the first runner-up in the Corporate Governance category of the NIPR Award, bagging a prized Certificate of Excellence in Public Relations.

Earlier on Sunday, April 13th, 2025, the Vice Chancellor’s Mida’s touch and inimitable inspirational leadership had materialised when a 400-Level Mathematics student of the University, Kazeem Sanusi, set a new Guinness World Record for the ‘Longest Mathematics Lesson.’ Kazeem achieved the feat with a marathon lecture spanning 31 hours, 42 minutes and 54 seconds non-stop teaching at the University’s Auditorium Basement. This groundbreaking feat surpassed the current record of 26 hours by over five hours.   

With the expected official confirmation of Kazeem’s new record by the London, UK-based Guinness World Records Limited (GWR), whose representatives were on ground to monitor the proceedings of the Unilorite’s breath-taking teaching, the record breaker is surely on his way to global fame. And with this, he would have succeeded in placing the University of Ilorin once again on the global map of universities where the otherwise unthinkable feats are achieved!

Expressing happiness over the achievement, the Mathematics prodigy said that he was motivated to take on the challenge by a personal desire to contribute meaningfully to Mathematics education by making it more visible and celebrated.

We recall that early last year, another Unilorite, Owoyemi Qudus Adebayo, also achieved an otherwise unimaginable feat by completing five skin fade haircuts in an amazing record time of 14 minutes, 56 seconds. With that, he broke the previous fastest skin fade haircuts record of 18 minutes, 57 seconds set by Enrico Springfield from South Africa.

TOWN & GOWN notices a curious correlation between these two Unilorite World Record setters. They are both into the studies of numbers: while Kazeem is rounding up in the Department of Mathematics, Qudus, who was also in 400 Level in 2023 when he achieved his feat, graduated from the Department of Statistics. There seems to be more in the study of numbers than meets the uninitiated eyes!

Other recorded feats in the less than three years of Prof. Egbewole’s purposeful vice-chancellorship include conferment of ‘The Most Outstanding University Award’ on UNILORIN by The New Telegraph newspaper in 2024; sustenance of the University’s winning streak of over 11 years back-to-back as the nation’s preferred choice of admission seekers for which it recently won the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) National Tertiary Admissions Performance Merit Award (NATAP-M) with a prize money of N500 million; a harvest of national and international honours and awards won in quick succession by UNILORIN lecturers and students; sterling performances by some of the University’s Faculties in global academic performance rating; rating of the University as the 3rd Best university in Nigeria based on the quality and quantity of scholarly outputs of its academic staff members for three straight years on Elsevier/Scopus – SciVal; ranking of four of the University’s Faculties and 11 of the courses offered at the institution among the world’s best by the Times Higher Education (THE) in 2023; rating of the University as the 9th Best Value University among the 149 universities in Nigeria; rating of the University among the top 21% Best Value Universities globally; development of drought-tolerant and striga-resistant hybrid maize by a team of the University’s researchers; successful hosting of the 3rd Summit of the D-8 Network of Pioneers for Research and Innovation (D-8 NPRI) in an unmistakable manifestation of the steady progress in the University’s internationalisation drive; establishment of two new Centres, especially the Centre for Blue and Regenerative Economy, the Centre for Cultural Studies and Creative Arts; and the Centre for Gender Studies — in line with the University’s community service mandate; signing of more than 100 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with various universities across the globe; launch of the U-INSPIRE initiative to expand the skills acquisition programme for undergraduate students; conferment of the prestigious NIPR Fellowship on the Vice Chancellor in recognition of his immense contributions to the advancement of Public Relations practice through his exemplary management style.

            So, with the whiff of the University’s golden jubilee already in the air, all these monumental achievements recorded in the run-up to the anniversary will definitely add pep to the celebration and surely make it a worthy merriment.