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Tag: Chief Afe Babalola

  • ABUAD founder warns federal and state governments against the proliferation of universities

    ABUAD founder warns federal and state governments against the proliferation of universities

    The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) has cautioned the federal and state governments against the proliferation of universities, stressing that the existing ones were underfunded and lacked the requisite facilities to offer quality education.

    He stated this on Friday at ABUAD on Friday, during the 10th convocation ceremony of the private university held at the Ado- Ekiti campus of the institution.

    The ABUAD founder, Chief Babalola stated that the fact that the university was ranked first in Nigeria and 321 globally by Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, signposted that something good and meritorious can still happen in Nigeria.

    He warned the federal and state governments against the proliferation of universities when the existing ones were underfunded and lacked the requisite facilities to offer quality education.

    Babalola 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 a 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 the undue proliferation of private universities to destroy the quality and functional education.”

    Babalola said the university had expended a total of N1,149,500,000 billion to power scholarships for students and staff, describing these as needed to motivate them to give their best in their services to the nation.

    The Legal Luminary disclosed that the university had offered training to about 1,000 students in Nigeria and the Republic of Benin in agric-based vocations and 894 of them had been provided with start-off facilities to checkmate unemployment and the attendant crimes.

    He urged the youths to work assiduously and halt the drift in the education standards in the country, saying no nation progresses beyond the qualities of its productive population.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the former Governor of Ekiti State, Engr Segun Oni, the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Garba El-Kanemi, and a legal Icon, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), were garlanded with Honourary Doctoral degrees of the prestigious citadel of learning.

  • 2023 elections will produce recycled leaders with no ability to turn things around- Chief Afe Babalola

    2023 elections will produce recycled leaders with no ability to turn things around- Chief Afe Babalola

    ASenior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Afe Babalola, has said the 2023 elections would produce transactional and recycled leaders with no ability to turn things around.

    He, therefore, called for an interim government to replace the current administration at the expiration of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in 2023.

    Babalola told a news conference in Ado-Ekiti on Monday that the interim government should be in force for six months to chart a new course for Nigeria.

    He stressed that the 2023 elections should be suspended until Nigeria has “a new-look peoples’ Constitution which should provide for part-time legislators and non-executive President.”

    He added that members of the interim government should be drawn from among living former Presidents and vice-presidents; some selected ministers and governors and delegates of prominent professional associations like the Nigeria Medical Association, Nigeria Bar Association and the Nigeria Labour Congress among others.

    Babalola said, “The 1999 Constitution has made politics become not only very attractive, but lucrative business in Nigeria today.

    The university proprietor advised that the new Constitution, which should be coordinated by the interim government, should spell out rules and regulations on improved qualifications of those contesting elections.

    He added that the new Constitution should provide for part-time legislators and not full-time legislators, considering the attendant waste of resources.

    Babalola added, “The new Constitution should also provide that there shall be no salary, but sitting allowances only for lawmakers.

    “It should provide a true federal system of government, instead of the expensive presidential system of government. I suggest a parliamentary system of government, with a unicameral legislature.

    “The new Constitution should also provide a body at the local, state and federal levels to screen all aspirants on the sources of their wealth and means of livelihood, criminal record which includes pending suits.”

    The legal luminary added that any person that would become the President of Nigeria should not be older than 60 years of age and must have a university degree.

    He expressed fears over the future of Nigeria, saying incessant borrowings had put the country on the edge.

    Babalola noted that the dollar to naira exchange rates free fall, as well as the level of external debt showed that the country was already bankrupt.