…as Babalola urges FG to find lasting solution to lingering strike
By: Gloria Ogbu, Hope James, Adebayo Adenrele
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, has charged Nigerian Youths not to give up hope on the country urging them to be agents of development wherever they find themselves.
The Ooni said this at the 10th Convocation Ceremony of the Afe Babalola University (ABUAD) on Friday, 21st October 2022.
In his words: “Don’t lose hope in our country, be courageous and use your brains and energy to help our governments to develop wherever you find yourselves.
“I want you to go out there and apply the positive knowledge you have garnered here to better your lives and this our nation. There are no other place we can run to.
“You are very lucky to have attended ABUAD, a university that combined learning with character. You have also learnt one skill or vocation here that you can apply to be employers of labour, rather than job seekers. So, I congratulate all of you and your parents”.
On his part, the Founder and Chancellor of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, called on the Federal Government to find lasting solution to the recurring and lingering Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike in the country.
He also appealed to the Federal Government to increase its annual budget for education, saying, “if you want to destroy a nation, you don’t necessarily need bombs or bayonets, you only need to destroy its educational system.
Babalola also stated that the fact that ABUAD was ranked first in Nigeria and 321 globally by Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, shows that something good and beyond average can still happen in Nigeria.
He said: “The future of this country is certainly in private universities. By the time ABUAD was founded in 2009, there were only 33 private universities in Nigeria.
“But between 2009 and now, we have 77 private universities. The strict conditions like conducive learning environment, provision of teaching facilities, structures, laboratories, libraries and qualified personnel with which ABUAD was subjected to were no longer there anymore.
“What we have mainly today seem to be constituency projects to satisfy the yearnings of some governors and legislators.
“It is inconceivable that a newly established private university is allowed to run Medicine, Engineering and Law in the first year. We should not allow undue proliferation of private universities to destroy the quality and functional education.” He stated.
