The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola has attributed the increasing quality of education in Nigeria to the establishment of more private universities in the country. He stated this on Saturday at the institution’s 11th Convocation Ceremonies where 141 students bagged first class out of the 1,668 fresh graduates.
In his words, “The only solution to poor quality of education in this Country is more of nonprofit private Universities which have residential Education where all the students live on campus unlike eat obtains in Public Universities whee over 80% of the Students line off-campus.
“Students in public universities can’t be mentored in learning and character.
“The importance of this year’s convocation was re-emphasized during the Convocation lecture delivered by the erudite Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Commonwealth secretary general.
“After identifying and dissecting the multifaceted problems facing Nigeria today, he made some suggestions that if followed, will ease Nigeria out of its present predicament.
“He spoke about a new people’s constitution which I luckily have been advocating since 2001.
“I do hope many more public-spirited Nigerians will join those of us at the crusade for a New People’s Constitution that will de-emphasize politics as the only lucrative business in town.
“There is an urgent need for a change of our mindset towards Education. The way things are in the developed world is priority on quality and functional Education which luckily has been masterminded by private universities all over the world.
“And that was the reason after my 7-year stint as the Pro chancellor of the University of Lagos, I decided to empty my bank accounts, sell all my properties in Lagos, Abuja and even in London to set up this Universities which will be a model and teach Nigerians how a University should be run.
ABUAD Vice Chancellor, Prof. Smaranda Olarinde, previously confirmed that the university would on the occasion, confer honorary doctorates on the former Secretary General of Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; the Emir of Lafia Bare-Bari, Justice Sidi Bage; and a business magnate, Mrs Victoria Samson. Olarinde, who spoke on Monday at a press briefing heralding the convocation ceremony, gave a breakdown of a class of degrees obtained by the graduands, saying, 141 had first class, 752 bagged second class upper, 397 got second class lower and 40 had third class.
The convocation lecture titled, ‘Management of diversity: A major challenge in pluralistic countries,’ was delivered by Anyaoku on Friday.
The VC cited key activities which happened in ABUAD in the last year including the January 10 signing of a tripartite agreement among Little by Little Foundation, John Hopkins Hospital, USA and ABUAD for the world-class clinical training of ABUAD medical students in the US-based John Hopkins Hospital.
She also listed the July 28 signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Kings College, the University of London and ABUAD towards the establishment of the Afe Babalola African Centre for Transnational Education.
Olarinde, who said that Babalola had earlier donated a whooping sum of £ 10 million to lift indigent African students, said, “The Afe Babalola African Centre for Transnational Education will enable young Africans to access education and other opportunities which they would otherwise not be able to have”.
