Watch How UNILAG Honours Pelican Valley CEO Ambassador Babatunde Adeyemo with Distinguished Alumni Award 2025

By: Editor

The University of Lagos, one of Nigeria’s frontline universities, has honoured Abeokuta-based real estate mogul, Ambassador Babatunde Adeyemo with a Distinguished Alumni award in recognition of his contributions to nation-building through leadership, excellence, and service to society.

OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News reports that the honour was meted out to frontline realtor during the 2025 Dinner and Award Night of the University, with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola,in attendance as the Chief Host.

It was an emotional moment of nostalgia for Ambassador Adeyemo, who arrived the Akoka campus in company of his wife, children, and some Pelican staff who were taken though a mini tour of some choice places of interests within the Akoka campus.

They also visited the Lagoon Front, where the family, especially 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.

A thunderous applause and ovation rent the venue of the event when Adeyemo was invite to take the stage to receive the Distinguished Alumnus Award for Exemplary Leadership and Service to Society, which was presented by the Director of Academic Planning, Professor Matthew O. Olori.

In his speech, the Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Professor Abdul-Hameed Sulaimon, categorically explained the justification for honouring Adeyemo with the Distinguished Alumni award, noting that he truly deserve 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, who has won multiple awards in Nigeria and abroad, said he was particularly happy for the UNILAG award, coming from his alma mater, pledging not to 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.

At the event, 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.

In the corporate category, organisations such as Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), 03 Capital Nigeria Limited, Vitafoam Nigeria PLC, and RTS Global Insurance Brokers Ltd were also recognised as key employers of labour, especially for products from the faculty.