57 rescued Chibok girls were among hundreds of students from across the globe that matriculated into various academic programmes at the American University of Nigeria (AUN) for 2023, 2025 and 2026 academic session.
The students took the annual matriculation and pledge ceremony, at the Lamido Mustapha Commencement Hall AUN, Yola.
The 57 rescued Chibok girls, now young women, are first-year university students of the University where they hope to help build a better and more peaceful Nigeria at Africa’s premier ‘Development University’.
The girls took their places among the newly matriculated students, including dozens transferring from foreign universities, particularly from the United States and other Nigerian universities.
These 57 Chibok students have been enrolled in the AUN New Foundation School (NFS) programme as they prepared for university work, life.
The girls have been on the scholarship of the Federal government of Nigeria, under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, and were sent to AUN, which has the facilities and resources to mentor them through their personal healing, educational development, and gradual community reintegration.
Many of them have indicated an interest in studying Law, Natural and Environmental Sciences, Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Business Administration, Communication & Multimedia Design, and Economics.
President of the University, Margee Ensign, charged them to find solutions to the problems facing our world today
without fear or doubt.
She stressed that “whether it is climate change, challenges to our very health, threats of violence, injustice, desertification, inequality, poverty, pollution, tyranny, all our problems are man-made and so are the solutions.”
She also told the freshly enrolled students who come from 27 states and other countries outside Nigeria to proffer solutions to the problems from the knowledge they will acquire in the University.
“At AUN, we begin with honesty and hard work, we look the world in the eye, we look Nigeria in the eye with an unflinching gaze, we confront problems with accurate facts, not fake facts, we work hard to distinguish between them, we see the world and the problems for what they are, and we find ways to make things better, it can be done, it must, and it will be done and we will do it together,” she said.
President Ensign, who was presiding over the University matriculation ceremony since her reappointment as President/Vice-Chancellor in July this year, assured the new students and their parents that the American University of Nigeria is fully equipped to play the traditional roles of a university – teaching, learning, and research.
She noted that “AUN is Africa’s first Development University, that is our core identity, our central mission; our primary role is to develop solutions to local, regional, national and global problems”
President Ensign also noted that the students could not have begun their academic journey at a more challenging time than the present when their country and the world need them most.
“Coming to you from America, I know that Nigerians are one of the very most successful immigrant groups in my country. Nigerian-Americans are famously creative, hard-working, and very successful. You, as students—you are Nigeria’s most important resource, not oil, You are the resource that Nigeria needs in order to succeed.”
Lauding AUN steadfastness to its core Development mission, the President stated that “I am happy to say that this work has been well launched at AUN, Our students have for many years been involved in the community development of many kinds. Our faculty have been at the forefront of cutting edge development research. Our graduates have gone on to help change the world.”
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