Twenty-three years after graduation, 46-year-old Ambassador (Dr) Babatunde Adeyemo, Chief Executive Officer of Pelican Valley Nigeria Limited, returned to his alma mater, University of Lagos, on Friday, December 19, 2025 not as a student but for a distinguished award by the institution.
UNILAG, one of the first generation universities in Nigeria, honoured Adeyemo in recognition of his contributions to nation-building through leadership, excellence, and service to society.
It was at the event tagged, “2025 Dinner and Award Night,” where the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola, was the Chief Host.
Before the event kicked off, Adeyemo, who arrived the Akoka campus in company with his wife, children and staff, took his family for a leisure walk round some places he deemed remarkable in his undergraduate days.
In what looked like a mini tour, he guided his family and staff first to a place he called “Love Garden” which elicited a nostalgia of ‘serious and not so serious students’ hangout in his time. Situated beside the Unilag Senate Building, the location is reputed for its cool ambience, which is made possible by vegetations that provide all-round shades and complemented by enhanced square-like sitting arrangement. It was pulsating sight as a number of young male and female students were seen resting there while a few others were chattering.
Then the tour took them to the Lagoon Front, where the family, particularly the children beheld both the beauty and wonders of nature before taking them to a place he likened to a zone of ‘rise and fall, death and fainting.’ He bent low and pointed it out. It is the departmental notice board, where results are pasted. It has not changed position decades after. It still looks bland. He recalled that it was a zone some students would have loved to avoid, if they could.
Adeyemo, a renowned broadcast journalist, founded a top-notch real estate firm which is behind Pelican Valley Estate Laderin where unusual homes happen; Pelican Brief, where a smart city was ignited; and Pelican’s Ecostay Apartments and Pelican Greenish Acre Farm Estate – all located at the Laderin Abeokuta Kobape corridor of Ogun State, Nigeria.
He is also the Founder of Oko Opo Widows Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that caters for widows, children, and the downtrodden members of society.
A bold dreamer, young Adeyemo gained admission to the University of Lagos in 1998 to study Labour and Industrial Relations at the Faculty of Management Sciences, graduating with flying colours in 2002.
After an unblemished career in journalism, Adeyemo veered into real estate where he is using integrity, due diligence and quality delivery not only to change the narrative in the real estate business in the last 15 years but also to set enviable records in providing top-notch homes to the upwardly mobile Nigerians at home and in the diaspora.
Like the saying goes, a golden fish always stands out in the pond. His class and course mates, some of whom are senior lecturers and associate professors in the department today, were not surprised that Adeyemo was found to be a good ambassador of the department, faculty and the university. And they all turned up to identify with him on his day of honour at the university.
It was thunderous applause and ovation when he took the stage for the Distinguished Alumnus Award for Exemplary Leadership and Service to Society, which was presented by the Director of Academic Planning, Professor Matthew O. Olori.
Speaking, the Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Professor Abdul-Hameed Sulaimon, captured succinctly why Adeyemo deserved the honour bestowed on him.
Prof. Sulaimon described him and other products of the faculty as future leaders and change agents prepared to navigate an increasingly complex and dynamic world.
He assured of the faculty’s commitment to delivering relevant education, impactful research, and real-world solutions.
“The Faculty of Management Sciences thrives because of collaboration, shared purpose, and unwavering commitment. The celebration is not merely about awards; it is a reaffirmation of our collective belief that meaningful progress is achieved through teamwork, integrity, and sustained partnerships between academia, industry, and society,” he said.
Adeyemo, not a stranger to awards, said he was particularly happy for the UNILAG award, saying he would not take the institution for granted.
The real estate entrepreneur said that the integrity, character, diligence, excellence, persevering spirit and being thorough, all of which defines his life and real estate business today, were honed at his alma mater through the rigours of teaching, supervision and guidance imparted in him by lecturers, course mates and the university administrators.
Adeyemo was not the only awardee. Eight retirees from the faculty, including the former dean, Professor Emmanuel Oyatoye, Professor Joseph Mojekwu, former Head of Department, Actuarial Science, Prof. Francis Chukwudi Anyim of the Employment Relations and Human Resource Management and Insurance, Professor Olusoji George, were also honoured for their outstanding stewardship in the university.
Besides, corporate organisations such as Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), 03 Capital Nigeria Limited, Vitafoam Nigeria PLC, and RTS Global Insurance Brokers Ltd were not left out as they were recognised as key employers of labour, especially for products from the faculty.
