The Kwara State University, Malete, has turned out 25 first class graduating students for the 2018/19 academic session out of 1196 students that pass out of the school.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Abdulrasheed Na’Allah said that the scholars who received their degree certificates during the 7thConvocation ceremony are the pride of the school and could compete favourably with their counterparts in any part of the country and elsewhere.
Na’Allah reiterated the commitment of the entire management and staff of the institution in managing the affairs of the school despite paucity of funds
Earlier, the guest lecturer at the convocation Dr Wale Babalakin who spoke extempo lamented the neglect of education system by the government.
Babalakin made said that it is epected that government substitute a good percentage of funds required to train up a graduate by atleast 80% adding that if the cost of training a graduate is N1,200,000, the government is expected to assist the parent in paying one million naira while the parent pay the rest two hundred thousand.
In his remarks, the visitor to the school, Alhaji Abdulrasak Abdulrahman, who commended the Convocation Lecturer, Mr. Wale Babalakin SAN, for his various immense contributions to the development of the Nigerian university system and whose contribution has been recognised by the Kwara State University by the conferment of an honorary doctoral degree in Law on him.
The governor said that his government would do all that is humanly possible to restore all that had been lacking in the Kwara State University by fulfilling its own responsibility to the school.
Represented at the occasion by the Deputy Governor, Mr Kayode Alabi, the governor said that he noticed the various lapses in the system and was already doing what he deems fit to put things right.
He said that in his address to the representatives of the civil servants on Thursday, May 30, one of our first engagements after the inauguration, recalling how Kwara State was the reference point for excellence in Northern Nigeria.
He said: “We paraded the best on all fronts: education, healthcare, law, agro-processing, entrepreneurship and other areas. Nothing confirmed this better than the roll call of what you may call the northern intelligentsia in those golden years. We still have many products of those years around, including in this hall.
“Today, Kwara has regressed in many areas. For example, we recently read about how several students from Kwara State struggled with the computer-based Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), apparently resulting in mass failure among our children. This must be tackled immediately if Kwara must compete in the 21st Century knowledge economy dominated by Information Communication Technology (ICT). How do we get our children to understand what Prof. Tim Jordan called the ‘liberating’ and ‘exploitative’ powers of information in the digital age when they don’t even have the most basic knowledge of the computer? Our administration is disturbed by the systemic problem in our education system which manifested in the 2019 UTME. It is immaterial if there are other parts of Nigeria with a similar crisis. We, in Kwara, have a duty to roll back this anomaly in the most practical way. We have a duty to ensure that the overwhelming majority of our children are given the opportunity to excel by having access to basic IT-enabled education.
He reiterated that the Kwara State University (KWASU), is helping to redraw the map of Nigeria by gradually, and in the most ambitious ways, bringing our state to national and global reckoning.
He said : “It is heart-warming to note that the institution is indeed punching above its weight in the way it has quickly established itself as a centre of academic innovation and excellence within just 10 years of its founding. KWASU is indeed proving to be the University for Community Development with recent news coming from the institution, including a recent N21m grant to one of its professors to develop a drone to monitor oil theft and pipeline vandalism.”
At a pre convocation Press briefing held at the institution’s conference room Professor Na’Allah thanked members of the media for standing with him all through the journey from inception when there were just 500 students till date when the student population has reached about 15,000 and above.
“This convocation is a remarkable one for us as we are celebrating 10 years of our establishment amidst our various achievements.
“I must thank immensely, all of you journalists for standing with us when we were just starting with 500 students, then this building was all we had. We thank you for adequate and efficient reportage of our activities.
”As of today, we are the only institution with the most stable academic calendar with no change in the date of activities since its inception,” Na’Allah said.
The vice chancellor added that even with the lack of subvention to the university for almost five years, it has recorded giant strides.
He said KWASU was able to survive the lack of support from the state government through subvention due to the mindset the management’s preparedness to diversify and take the bull by th horn.
”We started with the mindset that the government cannot do all for us, so, that was what helped us to forge ahead and be able to pay salaries as at when due.
”We strategized through different programmes introduced to increase our Internally Generated Revenue and we also took Bank loans to sustain ourselves, though we paid back as soon as we got the means.
”And it is of utmost happiness that we have achieved so far,” Na’Allah said.
He added that the institution’s goal was to contribute immensely in the nation in achieving greatness and development with its unique programs offered.
Prof Na’Allah also hited that classes have started in Advanced Military Studies which is not restricted to only military personnel adding that KWASU is the only university offering the course in Nigeria.
He also hinted that the college of Advanced Military Studies’ Board is headed by a Director, in person of Retired Air Vice Marshall, Ndatsu Umar.
”We also have School of Tourism which we are targeting developing a Tourism Scheme for the North Central Zone.
”Also, starting from the next academic session, students will now offer Japanese Language as GNS to widen their horizon.
”Before, it used to be French and Arabic because no KWASU student can graduate here without meeting foreign language requirement.
”Also, as the only Nigerian university offering Aeronautic and Astronautic Engineering, one of our professors won a grant to lead others in designing drone to fight vandalism in Nigeria.
”So, we are bringing new dimensions into the University system which has made us stand out since we started 10 years ago,” Na’Allah said.
