- Written by From Muyiwa Adeyemi (Head South West Bureau Ado Ekiti)
‘FOR Nigeria to sustain its fledging democracy, education must be taken seriously’.This was the submission of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday at the maiden convocation of Afe Babalola University (ABUAD), Ado-Ekiti, where he was conferred with Doctor of Science (Honoris causa).
Complementing the position of the founder of the university, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), that education remains the potent weapon to fight poverty and disease in Africa, the former president described “Education as the most potent weapon to sustain democracy in Nigeria”.
Obasanjo, who charged Nigerians not to be hopeless in the face of the myriad of socio-economic and political crises confronting the nation, said the legal luminary, without being a politician, has demonstrated how an individual can make a positive change in his society.
Obasanjo said: “I know that those thinking that Nigeria has no future will today have a change of heart. This is because one person, Chief Afe Babalola, has been able to make a difference in the field of education.
The other time, I heard Babalola saying that education is the best instrument to fight poverty. But I want to add that it remains the best instrument to sustain good governance and democracy”.
At the occasion, the Deputy Director of UNESCO, Dr. Lalla Aicha Ben Barka; Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and an industrialist, Tunde Yusuf, were conferred with Doctor of Philosophy, Honourary Doctor of Letters (D Litt) and Doctor of Science respectively.
Charging the students to be good ambassadors of the university, the former president added that “You have had a good beginning having graduated from a good university, but this is not enough. You have to build on it and if you don’t, the good beginning becomes nothing”.
No comments:
Post a Comment