Why Nigerian government must rethink education policy, by Ensign

The secret is that many people unite to do the work. It is a whole wonderful team doing it here. So, when you have that level of support, and you find a man who founded this university, whose singular approach is making sure that you are helping the community, you keep getting better, making sure these young people get the best; you have his vision which is always very high, then you have his personal support- financial support, etc, and of a great team here doing the work.

Maybe that comes with how often you get to do the work you do, the attitude you bring to bear on your job; maybe that is it for me with a combination of the highest level of education, making sure that education is put to good purposes.

So, with this vision to be a development university, we need to do that and no other university in the world is doing it. Everybody keeps asking me the question how education can be sustained with the cost in the AUN; here nobody pays fifty to sixty thousand US Dollars. So, we have to figure out what value is higher education to society. I think we are helping to answer that question at AUN.

Several things made it special. One is that the year they came in to AUN (Fall of 2012) was the year we began to require community development course; if you’re in Fine Arts, you’re required to teach financial literacy; if you’re in science, you’re teaching young people science. If you’re in computer science, you are writing Aps.

So we began to build at that using various Aps; so that children can write. Then we started environmental programmes for the community using various Aps. The children began to learn how to write Aps;

Then probably what defined this class was the 2014 to May 2015 when the population nearly doubled. There was no food here and there was nobody to help. Amazingly, the students were out there handing out food; taking care of people; so, this class of 2016 met a very challenging moment in Yola, on campus and they found the strength to keep going; they found the strength to help others. That makes them somehow extraordinary.

Again, the class of 2016 is the first time we had so many international students from Rwanda, Cameroun, South Africa, Ghana. So, we’re becoming the university we hope that is Africa’s university; not just Nigeria’s, not just West Africa, but the entire continent of Africa.  And these international students performed so well. And I really believe who you go to school with matters. I really believe if you go to school with people who are going to assist you to be a leader and from other places of the world, you begin to build the capacity, that’s what is needed. Here, our students have that opportunity; they’re excited they’re here, because our university positively influences young people’s lives; hopefully, a few years from now, they’ll begin to see the fruit of their work.

It would be impossible without His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar; he pays 60 percent of our budgets. So, that’s the only way we do it. He has made the commitment to support us. He is the biggest donor in the world in higher education. My government honoured him for what he has done in AUN. People don’t know his level of commitment to education. He pays hundreds of scholarships. His abounding generosity allows us to have smaller classes, the high level of facility and the technology you find here. I find that a high level of commitment. I take that as a huge responsibility he has undertaken. And we are here doing the right thing. His education has changed him; so, none of the achievements we have recorded as an institution would have been possible without him.

Yes. We hope to bring in more people from other African countries. I will increase my efforts to bring in more Rwandese, Ghanaians, Ugandans, etc. First of all you must place the best value on high education. Don’t talk about that being expensive because if you were in the USA, you’ll be paying about five times this much for the same education. So you know, the President of Rwanda said of AUN, ‘you’re cheaper and better than South Africa’ and that’s why he sent that first group. We really hope to continue to, not only bringing in more scholarship students from around the globe, but from your own country.

Why is your government sending people to Turkey, Malaysia, South Korea? Excuse me! It is better to have these young people at home. You need to pass this message to government and private individuals also that there’s no reason why government, right now, should send any student out of the country when you have a world class university in Yola, it is less-expensive. What are they thinking? We want kids out of every region of this country to school together. One of the students said it beautifully- ‘religion doesn’t matter here; ethnic groups doesn’t matter here. We have formed bonds with everyone.’ So, I find it frustrating when a government of a state sends 400 students to India, why?

Well, more and more people know about us. For instance; Obama’s ambassador to the UN has come here; she read about our humanitarian work to the Chibok students. It’s quite extraordinary that you have a cabinet member from New York show up here. So, that visibility is very important. We have to keep going; we don‘t need to say, oh it’s going to enhance our profile; but we have to keep going, recruiting the students and exposing them to humanitarian services. I hope that makes us attractive to prospective students and parents who want their children to have our type of education. That’s very important. This is about asking question and solving problems. My hope is to see more people from your country sending their children to AUN; the problem is not about funding, it is not about who has the money, it is about who has the talent and we will support them.

Many of the governors were to come but remember there’s a big security summit in Abuja; all the governors had to be in Abuja. President Buhari would have been our speaker but he called to say they’re planning a summit and would not come. Even the governor of Adamawa could not come, he sent his deputy because of the summit. The governor of Kano had to send somebody. A few weeks ago, they were all to come, but for the summit that’s crucial.

The first thing is that we are opening our Law School in August. We are going to focus on Gender Law and Humanitarian Law. I think that is very important in any environment. So, I think that will bring in many hundreds more students to AUN. We hope to add engineering, and at some point medicine. So, that will be a big addition to us. I hope regulations will change, using technology more in teaching and learning. My hope for your country is that the regulators change the policies and allow universities what is called blended learning. My vision is to have a business programme in Lagos, for faculty to fly in at weekends and the rest of the time students are learning on their tablets and computers. We have the technology. We know how to do this kind of education. The country needs it. Why not give people the opportunity? It is not the second best option. Research shows that it is even better than traditional education.

I hope they keep their hope; their ambition and their desire to make a change. I hope they stay in touch with one another, because if they begin to lose the support and the love of one another, they would be losing a lot. They need to support one another according to their speeches that they’re united, they’re one. I hope they’ll stay close to one another. They’ve been through challenges here; and they made it and I wish they’ll stay stronger.

Yes, we still have about 100,000 (hundred thousand) IDPs in the town that we take care of. There are two big projects now – one is reconciliation. We are distributing tons of seeds to victims. So, we are working with USAID commissioner for Agric in the state; it will be different from handing out foods, though we are still doing that because the people are desperate. Security has improved tremendously. We haven’t had any incident in Yola since seven months now. Yola is safe.

The US government asked me if we can distribute the seeds. The people need the seed. In a couple of days we shall start the distribution. It is about one thousand tons of seeds all the way up North. So, the security has improved dramatically. Maiduguri, Madagali, near the Sambisa forest, life has improved tremendously. The IDPs who went home, went with nothing. It is very tough for them.