T. Y. Danjuma Family Donates Female Hostel to University of Benin
By Towncriernews
The family of a former Minister of Defence, Retired Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, has donated an ultramodern female hostel to the University of Benin (UNIBEN).
The hostel donation is the second within the last 15 months.
Making the donation on behalf of the family, Mr. Andy Ehanire, said the Danjuma family felt it owed the university more than the university was owing them.
Ehanire, who is the Managing Director of Zoological Garden and Nature Park, Ogba, Benin-City, commended the university for singling out the former minister and his wife for honourary doctoral degrees.
He said the donation of the three hostels is like a token. I was around at the inauguration of the first hostel. I know that UNIBEN’s Students’ Union President made a passionate plea that the Danjuma’s family should not forget the boys.
“I have also bought into the agenda. So, I pray that two hostels should go on at the same time for the boys.
“The donor always means well. I sometime believe they shares attributes with the vice-chancellor of UNIBEN, Prof. Lilian Salami.
“They both carry a lot of goodwill, and exude a lot of charm. Anytime they are around, it is progress,” he said.
In her remarks at the inauguration of the hostel on Wednesday, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Lilian Salami, said the edifice, named after the matriarch of the family, Senator Daisy Ehanire-Danjuma, demonstrated a belief in girl-child education and the development.
“We are here to celebrate someone who is just marvellous. I say so with no reservation.
“How can someone sit in her quiet corner, and continues to give? If not someone whom God has created to really impact on humanity,” she said.
Salami said the university never believed the project could be delivered in a short time, 14 months after the first donation was made.
“When we started with the first hostel, we just visited Sisi Daisy, and General Theophilus Danjuma asked us what we really wanted from the family.
“We said if they could give us hostel, we would appreciate, and we were promised one hostel, which was inaugurated by the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
“When Sisi Daisy came to UNIBEN for the inauguration of the hostel that she donated, and she said, why not give a second hostel, and we thought it was a joke, until the foundation laying came, and we had it.
“Here again, celebrating Sisi Daisy’s 72nd birthday, and she promised to give a third hostel. I am sure if this continues, by the time she reaches 90, God willing, we will probably have Senator Daisy Danjuma hostels everywhere in UNIBEN.
“She is a wonderful woman, as she continues to give, and there is no dull moment with her,” the vice-chancellor remarked.
She, however, said she believed the family would grant the request of male students in the institution for boys’ hostel.
“If I could still be an undergraduate of UNIBEN, maybe I would come to this hostel, because the three hostels would be powered by solar, with 24 hours electricity and regular water supply from a borehole.
“These are five-star hostels that we have in this university. So, when I said I wanted to become an undergraduate of UNIBEN, you now know why. Sisi Daisy wants them to be signature hostels in this university,” Salami said.
