ICONIC singer, 2face Idibia, on Tuesday, bagged an honorary Master of Arts in Music degree at Igbinedion University, courtesy of the Esama of Benin Kingdom and founder of the university, Gabriel Igbinedion.
The ‘African Queen’ crooner thanked the university for the honour. Here’s a transcript of his acceptance speech from the ceremony: ‘Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I’ll like to stand on existing protocols because right now I’m overwhelmed, over-excited, over-elated and over-grateful, In short I’m over ‘all of the above’ (laughs). ‘(sings) …right now I dey feel like Esama oooo. On a serious note, I’m very very humbled and extremely grateful for this honour from this great Institution. From the bottom of my heart, I say a huge, mighty thank you to the Almighty God for making this day happen. When they told me this, I thought I was being punk’d! Even when I came here, I still thought I was being punk’d. Up till now, I’m still in shock. So I want to say thank you to the honourable Chancellor Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, I want to thank the deputy-chancellor, Chief Lucky Igbinedion.
“I want to say thank you to the Pro-Chancellor and Professor Emeritus, Oluwole Akande. I want to say a big thank you to all the governing council of Igbinedion University, the senate, academic and non-academic staff. ‘I really appreciate this honour, mere words cannot explain what I’m feeling right now, mere words cannot describe how I’m feeling right now.
“This conferment of this honorary degree has renewed my zeal to work harder and maintain standards by which this great institution has recognised me, and it’s made me resolve to work harder to be a good ambassador of Igbinedion University. ‘It’s also funny how this very day, Igbinedion University has inaugurated the Centre for Corporate and Peace Studies and as you all know, for the past 2 years, I’ve been involved in campaigning for ‘Vote Not Fight: Election no be war’. Please permit me to express my eagerness to work with Igbinedion University towards achieving the set goals of peace and conflict resolution. ‘I also want to use this opportunity to say I’ll start a legacy program at Igbinedion university and it’s solely going to be based on music, upcoming artists.
“I don’t really know how to give speeches, so once again I say a big thank you to Igbinedion University, Okada. One Love, One Love, One Love! ‘I’ll use this opportunity to ask the youths of Edo state to shun violence during elections. I’m using this opportunity to launch the ‘Vote Not Fight’ campaign in Edo State towards the next gubernatorial elections. I want you guys to maintain your heads and don’t allow anybody use you for violence during this elections.”
