Assist govt to improve education, Osinbajo tells alumni associations

THE Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has called on alumni associations to assist government improve the standard of education in the country.

Osinbajo made the call in Lagos at a fundraising event organised by the University of Lagos Alumni Association for a 500-bed ultra modern hostel for the postgraduate students of the institution.

The vice president said that government could not fund universities alone and that the move by the unilag alumni was a step in the right direction.

“Unilag has proved time and time again to be not just university of the first choice but also the first in so many different aspects.

“ And I know that the most important thing for us today is to ensure that those first do not become the last. We must ensure that we continue in the great traditions of the University of Lagos.

“And this is why I am so excited to see a lot of very committed alumni who want to see to it that our university continues from glory to glory,” he said.

.Osinbajo said that even at college levels, a lot had to come from the alumni and private sector, “ that is how we went to universities all over the world and abroad.

“I am so excited to see the fundraising project is one that has clearly shown the way to go with the speck in developing our university,” the vice president said.

“I just read about Dr Daniel Olukoya that he was the first to clone genes, that is the founder of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles, and also Pastor Adeboye was also the first to get a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Physics,” Osinbajo said.

Dr Wale Babalakin, Pro-chancellor, and chairman of the University while also speaking at the event said that it was sad that no Nigerian university was rated among the first 800 in the world.

He commended the federal government for granting substantial autonomy to the universities.

According to Babalakin, the National Universities Commission (NUC) cost of training an undergraduate showed that the government could not fund the universities alone.

“The NUC in 2010 estimated the cost of training an undergraduate as $3,365 equivalent of N2 million and N61 billion per annum to run a good university.

“It is clear that government no matter how willing, cannot provide all this fund, we have to find a way to fund the university,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Rahamon Bello, said that the university had produced about 200, 000 graduates in 55 years and 50,585 graduate in the last five years.

Bello said that half of the number had graduated with post-graduate honours and the quality had not been compromised.

Dr Sonny Kuku, the worldwide president of Unilag alumni association, said that the association planned to raise N300m to execute various projects in the university.

Kuku said that the admission capacity of the institution was 8000 but at present was accommodating between 35,000 to 40, 000 students.

According to him, it was the responsibility of the alumni to provide an ultra modern 500-bed space for postgraduate students and also carry out other projects such as cab shuttle service

The president said that other projects are old alumni building, minibus for the secretariat, and adopt-a-student program at N500, 000 per student.

NAN reports that various degrees of awards were given to the alumnus of the institution who had distinguished themselves in various sectors of the economy.

They are Dr Wale Babalakin, Dr John Abebe, Mr Mustafa Chike-Obi, Sen.VictorNdomaEgba and  Mr Femi Gbajabiamila.

Gbajabiamila  described the award as a challenge towards doing more to improve the education sector in the country.

He, however, promised to give more support to education because it was the foundation of any individual.

Members of the association donated various amount of money for the hostel project. The total realised was not disclosed.