The Chartered Institute of Counselling in Nigeria (CICN) recently celebrated a landmark achievement in the African mental health landscape, graduating and inducting 75 new professionals during its 7th Graduation, Induction, and Awards Ceremony. The event, themed “From Healing Minds to Transforming Nations,” marked a significant milestone for the institute, which recently attained chartered status.
Dr Tolulope Oko-Igaire, the Executive Director of CICN, opened the ceremony by reflecting on the profound transformation the graduates have undergone.She stated: “Today is more than a graduation ceremony, it is a convergence of journeys, personal, institutional, and generational.”. Addressing the challenges of leadership and growth, she added: “True leadership is not the absence of error, it is the capacity for reflection, accountability, and repair. CICN remains committed to becoming not just larger, but better.”.
The Board Chairman of CICN and General Overseer of Guiding Light Assembly, Pastor Wale Adefarasin, emphasised the critical role of counselling in the continentโs development. In his address, he noted: “Africa’s greatest challenge is not a lack of talent or resources, but the many wounds carried silently in the minds and hearts of her people, trauma left untreated, pain normalized, and dysfunction passed from one generation to another and called culture or strength.”. He further asserted that “no nation can rise above the state of its collective mind.”.
During the formal induction, the Registrar of the Institute, Olaitan Olagoke, reminded the new inductees of their professional obligations. He remarked: “Graduation is more than the celebration of academic success; it is a formal recognition of readiness for professional responsibility. As an Institute, our mandate goes beyond training โ it is to produce counselling professionals who are competent, ethical, and socially responsible.”.
The ceremony also featured a moving testimonial from the Alumni Representative, Nonye Pearl Mike-Nnaji, who shared the personal impact of the institute’s training. She said: “Counseling did not just give me skills. It gave me self-awareness. It gave me language for my emotions. It gave me permission to grow.”. She described the profession as a calling, stating: “For me, counseling became the perfect alignment of purpose, a way of reconciling broken hearts, broken stories, and a broken world back to wholeness.”.
The 7th Edition also served as a platform to recognise outstanding contributions to society and the profession. The Institute conferred the Honorary Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Counselling in Nigeria (FCICN โ Hon.) on Dr (Mrs) Laila Jean St. Matthew-Daniel, a pioneering mentor and gender advocate, for her lifelong commitment to human development and unwavering support for CICN.
Also awards were presented across three distinct categories: Student & Graduate Excellence Awards, Alumni & Professional Awards, and Staff Excellence Awards.
As Africaโs first and only Chartered Institute dedicated to counselling, CICN continues to lead the movement in redefining mental wellness and raising world-class leaders in the field.
