We've Reformed Our Educational System

Convocation Speech by His Excellency, Dr. Abdullahi Adamu, (Sarkin Yakin Keffi) Executive Governor of Nasarawa State and Visitor to Nasarawa State University on the Occasion of the First Convocation Ceremony of the University, Saturday, 18^th February, 2006.

This is a special day for all of us here as participants in or witnesses to the first convocation ceremony of Nasarawa State University. It is a special day for parents and guardians whose children and wards will receive the official testament of their academic achievement. It is a special day for the graduates, the pioneer students of the institution, whose dreams have today come true. It is a special day for the vice-chancellor, the academic and the non-academic staff of this young but dynamic university because today they send forth into the world the first products of their sweat and labour. It is a proud and special day for the government and people of Nasarawa State because we have arrived at the milestone that dwarfs many milestones. This university is the granite on which we have chiseled our tomorrow.

On this mother of all special days, therefore, on behalf of the government and people of Nasarawa State, I am delighted to extend to all of you special warm words of welcome to the university and this very important ceremony we are privileged to witness today. Permit me to very warmly welcome the distinguished and illustrious son and leader of this great nation, our special guest of honour, His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR), President, Commander - in - Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. We are truly honoured to have the privilege of his esteemed presence in our midst. This is the first time Chief Obasanjo is attending the convocation of a university, be it federal or state, since he became president nearly seven years ago. His decision to attend this ceremony is a most eloquent demonstration of the special place this state and its people occupy in his very large heart. We are privileged to find such a warm place in the presidential heart. It means we have been accepted as members of the first family. Thank you, Mr. President.

From the moment I intimated the president of our decision to have our own university five years ago, he has been a pillar of moral support for the project. During the launching of the school feeding programme at Laminga last September, he was pleasantly surprised when I told him that the first set of students of the university were graduating. He immediately promised to be personally present at this convocation. As always, he is as good as his word. Nasarawa State University is as much his baby as it is ours. Thank you, Mr. President.

The warm and cordial relationship between Chief Obasanjo and the people of Nasarawa State was forged on the anvil of our loyalty and support for his leadership and his programmes and reciprocated by his love for us. We pledge our continued loyalty to him and support for his policies and programmes. He has set himself the enormous task of remaking Nigeria and making it the country of our dreams. It is a task for which he needs the total support of all those who truly love this country. Through his policies and programmes, Chief Obasanjo has more than earned his honoured place in the scroll of our national history as the architect of our country as a modern nation. We pray for his continued success and good health.

I welcome my brother governors or their representatives, honourable ministers, distinguished members of the national and state assemblies, members of the diplomatic corps, parents, friends and well-wishers to Keffi, an ancient town with a proud history as home to the famous Government College, and two other colleges, the Government Teachers College and the School of Basic Studies, that are now defunct.

Nasarawa State University has a short but eventful history. It is only four years old. An institution this young has but a short story to tell of its life. However, the history of an institution is not necessarily measured in years but more correctly by its impact and its relevance. The impact and relevance of Nasarawa State University in so short a time are best appreciated in the context of the educational backwardness of the state.

It is hardly a secret that our state is educationally disadvantaged. We were confronted with the enormity of the consequences of this at the inception of our administration in 1999. The state was critically short of qualified manpower in virtually all areas of human endeavour. It could not fill its quota in federal establishments. The state could not offer even ten candidates with the minimum requirements for admission into Nigeria universities. Our primary and post primary institutions were in a truly sorry state. We inherited a near-disastrous situation. But we accepted it as a challenge. Our avowal to change the face of the state in all aspects of socio-economic development would be but a pipe dream if we did not take immediate steps to clean up the rot in our educational set up and refocus it in line with the needs and the aspiration of our people. Education is the bed rock of modern development. To attempt to build a modern state on anything other than the solid foundation of education would be a more wasted labour than building castles in the air.

Our first step was a total reform of the educational sector at both the primary and secondary levels. We launched our reform programme at Ara, Nasarawa local government area, on June 23, 1999, less than a month after we assumed office. Under the programme, we tackled the deplorable infrastructure with the comprehensive, state-wide renovation and the reconstruction of all dilapidated primary and secondary schools. We built new classrooms in existing schools as well as two blocks of classrooms in every electoral ward in the state. To remedy the defects in science education, we established two special science secondary schools in each of the three senatorial districts in the state.

A critical element in our reform agenda was our decision to allocate 28 per cent of our annual budget to education. This is three per cent higher than the UNESCO target of 25 per cent. I am proud to say that we are the only state in the federation to have attained this level of education funding.

About two years into our reform agenda, our efforts began to bear the needed fruits. More than half of our students, who took the West African School Certificate (WASC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) examinations, proved that the fault was not in them but in the system that stunted the full flowering of their intellect. Nasarawa State was rated the best state in NECO examination for the 2000/2001 academic session.

We were very much encouraged by this development. We took the next logical step in our educational reform and development programme with the setting up of Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia, School of Nursing, Lafia and School of Health Technology, Keffi. These are aimed at solving the manpower needs of the state. Our ultimate ambition was a state university.

In 2000, I convened a stake-holders summit, made of various interest groups, in Lafia and intimated it of our determination to have a state university. We received their nod. The state executive council consequently approved the appointment of a technical advisory committee to advise government on the feasibility of a state university. The committee, made up of outstanding university administrators and technocrats, had Professor Ochapa Onazi, former vice-chancellor of the University of Jos, as chairman. In its report, the committee affirmed the need for a state university. We wasted no time in submitting an executive bill to this effect to the state house of assembly. The house of assembly passed the bill which I then signed into law known as the Nasarawa State University Law No 2 of 2001.

We then set up an implementation committee under the chairmanship of the current Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adamu Baikie, CON. The committee worked out the blue print for the take - off of the university, including the development plan, number of faculties and academic programmes. The university officially took off in February, 2002 for the 2001/2002 academic session with the first set of 310 students. These are the young men and women who are graduating today. As Andrew Young used to say, ain't that wonderful?

Although the majority of the good people of Nasarawa State supported and applauded our decision to set up a state university, a few vocal sceptics allowed their scepticism to get the better of them and embarked on a campaign bordering on calumny to stop this worthy project. They argued that the state did not need a university because it did not have enough financial resources to set up and maintain a university. They said we were embarking on a wasteful venture dictated entirely by what they believed was self-aggrandizement.

We were neither discouraged by their criticism nor dismayed by their scepticism. We refused to let the bright sun of our vision be blurred by the dark clouds of their short-sightedness. We knew we were right and we knew they were wrong. We have overcome the scepticism of the short-sighted and we have overcome the fears of the uninformed. The state university stands today as an eternal monument to clarity of vision plus focus plus courage multiplied by commitment. We truly appreciate the support of those who believed in the soundness of our judgment and the clarity of our vision.

Our decision to establish a university for Nasarawa State had nothing to do with self-aggrandizement. It had everything to do with our appreciation of the place of the university in the socio-economic development of a people. To leave Nasarawa in the lurch of educational backwardness with the inexcusable excuse that we are a poor state is to commit an unpardonable criminal offence against generations yet unborn. We could not escape the judgment of history. Nor the condemnation of our conscience. The university is the ultimate. When you have it, you have the crown. I wanted my state to have it. Now it does.

A university is a bridge between the past and the present and between the present and the future. This linkage provides the tools for making the past relevant to the present as a learning experience and it provides the challenges for the future sustenance and progress of the human race. We want Nasarawa State University to develop in the tradition of all great institutions, not as an ivory, aloof to its immediate environment but as a catalyst for the social and economic development of our state.

Within the relatively short period of its existence Nasarawa State University has proved its mettle in areas of research and academic excellence. If I may whisper it to you, our university is leaving some of the older universities far behind. In its rating of Nigerian universities in 2005, the National Universities Commission ranked Nasarawa State University 7^th best among the 25 state universities in the country. The NUC equally placed the University as the 17^th best university among the 73 universities in Nigeria. It has also been rated as one of the 20 top ranking research institutions in the country. All these giant strides in only four years? You have seen nothing yet. The sky is the limit for some. It is not the limit for Nasarawa State University.

A unique aspect of the university is that the students pay a uniform fee. There is, therefore, no difference in the fees paid by students who are indigenes of Nasarawa and students from other states of the federation. This is part of our policy of welcoming all Nigerians to our state with open arms. Gestures such as this may be considered small in the context of the broad concept of national unity and integration but it is our considered belief that if all the states of the federation make similar gestures in this and other areas, we would gradually chip away at the walls of mutual fear and suspicion.

A university is a capital-intensive social service. Adequate funding is critical to its success. The lingering problem of poor funding in the immediate past virtually crippled federal and state universities in the country. We took steps to prevent our university from suffering the same fate. This is not because we are a rich state. We are not. We have succeeded through prudent management of our lean financial resources. The National Universities Commission has declared our university as the best funded state university in the country. It is something to crow about. It is what an undiluted commitment to a cause can do.

However, in all countries, universities do not depend entirely on government funding. Indeed, very few governments, if any, could provide all the financial needs of their universities. All universities require supportive funding by way of grants from corporate bodies and endowments by wealthy individuals and families. As part of the convocation ceremony, the University is launching a N3 Billion Naira Endowment Fund. I call on wealthy parents and the organized private sector to make investment in education a priority. Education is the future of a society. It is the greatest legacy we can bequeath to our children. Let us not deny them of the golden future by holding on tight to our purse.

I pledge here and now that on our part, we shall continue to provide for the university. I thank local governments in the state for their N200 million grant to the university. As major stake-holders in the educational development of our state, we expect them to continue to support the university.

Nasarawa State University is the jewel in the crown of our education reform and development. We must remain fully committed to it now and for all time.

To the young men and women who are receiving their degrees today, I say well done. You have been found worthy of the award of the degrees of this university because you worked hard to earn them. I urge all of you to be worthy ambassadors of your alma mater.

You would be glad to know that the state government is giving all of you automatic employment at the end of your of national youth service year. We want to be the first to eat the pudding baked by Nasarawa State University.

I congratulate our distinguished honorary graduands of our dear university. The university senate found you worthy of this honour on your merits, given your personal qualities, proven integrity and achievements as public servants. I urge you to continue to identify with the university and the state.

Various individuals, groups and organizations deserve the public expression of our gratitude for their contributions to the university. Let me start by thanking the pioneer pro - chancellor and chairman of Council, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, former minister of petroleum resources and the longest serving president of OPEC. Our deep gratitude goes to the pioneer Vice Chancellor, Prof. Adamu Baikie whose vast experience in university administration has enabled the university to climb so far so fast in so short a time.

We also thank the academic and the non academic staff as well as the students. This is your university. You must remain dedicated to it so that the university will attain greater heights.

Mr. President, the Chancellor, Pro - Chancellor, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I thank you and God bless.