Olutise Isaac Adenipekun former Head of National Office, West African Examination Council (WAEC) Nigeria, has called for the sustenance of the good welfare regime for which the organization is known for.
Adenipekun made the appeal at a grand Reception/Thanksgiving held in his honour at Grandeur Event, Billingsway, Oregun Lagos on Thursday.
The event was organized by friends and colleagues to say thak you to Adenipekun after 31 years of meritorious service in the examination body.
Olanipekun became a member of WAEC on October 3, 1998 as assistant registrar and rose to the position of Head, National Office before retiring after 31 years of meritorious service.
Aside the Reception /Thanksgiving it was also a day for Book presentation in honour of the celebrant. To cap it all, the occasion was also designed as birthday celebration of Mr and Mrs Isaac Adenipekun making the celebration a triple one.
Some of the achievements of the celebrant while at the helm of affairs of WAEC include, introduction of customized jacket for safekeeping of certificates by school candidates; deployment of internally developed software for computer based test (CBT) in the conduct of Council’s Aptitude Tests.
During his tenure WAEC issued first Attestation of Result Certificates to candidates, deployment of the Coordinated Offline Modue for Examiners Subsystem, He successfully developed a web-based e-testing application, an ICT coverage system was launched by the Head of National Office, Deployment of the simple electronic assessment and marking system ((SEAMS) in the marking of candidate’s scripts for the WASSCE for private candidates 2019-second series, among other far reaching achievements while he called the shots at the reputable examination body.
Chairman of the occasion, a former WAEC Registrar, Dr Iyi Uwadiae in his address commended Adenipekun for his forthrightness, sincerity, dedication and selflessness in his service to the exam body, adding that normally anybody that served WAEC for five years should go for thanksgiving. He said the gathering for the Adenipekuns was a special one as it also marked the birthday of the Mr. and Mrs. Adenipekun. He called on all to rejoice with the family.
Mr. Adenipekun in his response said he thanked God who made all things possible. “I thank God for all his blessings, for God’s benevolence, God who even before the beginning was created knows the end; it is only Him alone that I give all glory and adoration. I want to thank those faces, some of them I know, some of them I do not know who conceived this grand occasion, I thank you. I thank you for the sacrifices you have made, for the money you have put into place to organize this in my honour, and for your time, I thank you for the love.”
He spoke further “The journey so far in the organization call WAEC, no doubt, is a journey of 30 years plus, cannot be said to be a smooth journey from beginning to the end, it has pleased God, our benefactor, to have been with us and has seen us thus far. For anybody to have worked in an organization that take the welfare of the staff as priority, for anybody to have worked in an organization that I can say that there was no month that my salary and my staff were not paid, for anybody that have worked in an organization in Nigeria of today that on the day you are retiring all your entitlements will be paid to you the very day you are retiring that is WAEC for you.,” Adenipekun said.
He thanked his predecessors in the exam body “I want to thank the forefathers and mothers that conceived all the various programmes, all the instruments of administration, all those manuals that guide every department and divisions such that everybody has no choice than to deliver on time. This is an organization I am about taking my leave; there is no way one would not have some emotions, it is not just possible. But the beauty of it is that for any WAEC staff the day you join the organization is also the day you are told to prepare for your disengagement, it is my turn today that I am disengaging this hour, and for this I give God the glory.”
He charged his successors to do better in terms of welfare. “And I want to charge those who are still in the system, you must continue to strive to ensure that those beautiful things that the organization is meant for is kept intact, is protected, and is continue to run the way it is running and also to make it much much much better.”
He thanked his wife and children for their patience saying he is now back home.
