Oshiomhole bags honorary Doctorate Degree [photos]

 

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has been conferred with an honorary doctorate degree in Public Administration by the Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa, Edo State.

At a special convocation held on Saturday, Vice Chancellor of the University,  Prof Benard Eronmonsele Aigbokhan extolled the humanitarian qualities of Governor Oshiomhole, which he said stood him out for the honorary degree.

He said the Governor gave his full support and did everything possible to ensure the smooth take-off of the University which has now graduated its first set of students.

Also, Chairman, Board of Trustees, of the University, Dr Ebenezer Olusola Okebukola, noted the “unquantifiable contributions of His Excellency , Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, who used his position as Governor, and within his constitutional power to contribute to the development of Samuel Adegboyega University”, saying the award is the University’s recognition of the Governor’s meritorious service to his fatherland, Nigeria in general and Edo State in particular and his love for educational advancement in all ramifications.”

In his remarks, Governor Oshiomhole expressed gratitude to the authorities of the university for the honour done to him. He said, “I want to lay on record my gratitude to the authority of Samuel Adegboyega University for the honor bestow ion me this afternoon. I appreciate this honor for several reasons. I believe that it is coming genuinely from your heart based on your evaluation of my stewardship in this community, this state and in our country.  I want to thank you, may God honor you the way you have honored me today.

“But let me congratulate you even more importantly for what you have accomplished with this university. 

“I think you pose a challenge to other churches to look at rural areas where the forgotten majority reside and carry development right to their doorsteps. Such actions, more than volumes of sermons are more potent in encouraging our people to remain in their communities because they don’t have to move in order to have what modern life offers.   I believe without asking you, that you have created already, so many direct jobs, not only for the people of Ogwa or Edo State, but many people across the length and breadth of Nigeria. I salute your courage.”

According to him, “I believe that government alone cannot deliver or provide all the universities that Nigerians desire. Everywhere around the world, the private sector play a major role in building universities and faith based organizations are well reputed in managing universities.

“I like to join you sir in your appeal to the federal government to extend federal support through TETFUND to Samuel Adegboyega University. I like appeal to federal government to support universities that are owned by faith-based organizations. There is a difference between a university owned by the church, a church that is driven not by profit motive but with common good of humanity. There is a whole lot of difference. Looking at what I have seen here today, compared to what I saw the first time, it shows that every revenue that has accrued to this institution has been re-injected into developing the institution. Whereas, if it is a private outfit, some of those revenue we be classified as profit and would belong solely to the proprietor of the university.

“I think what the federal government needs to do is to make a distinction between university owned by nonprofit organization and those that are owned by individuals.”

He continued, “I am convinced that our investment in education is the best way to secure the future. We cannot succeed or compete or even survive in a world that is knowledge driven, knowledge based, in other word, a digital world, to survive in this environment will be based on what you know and not who you know. There are still few Nigerians who believe the way to success need not be a function of what you know and they can point at few people who seem to have made it without much skill and without formal education. Those are exemptions and they belong to the past. The future belongs to those who have knowledge to navigate the rigors of the very challenging and increasingly competitive world.

“This is why Edo State Government has continued to pay the right emphasis on education. In Edo state, we not only provide free primary education, free junior secondary education, we have since extended free education to senior secondary school.   So what is worth celebrating, mind you, is not the fact that the schools are free but the quality of schools and the quality of teachers that makes the difference. In a typical rural Edo today, I am proud to say that you would easily find that the most attractive building in a typical hamlet is Edo community is a public primary or secondary school.

“For me, that is the foundation because, if we have an educational system that does not provide opportunity for children of the poor to go to school, school that are sufficiently appealing to young minds. to be taught by teachers that are well paid, Samuel Adegboyega University will not have the students to admit because the primary school is the foundation without which you cannot have the tertiary students.”

The Governor further said, “Let me also say that we need to start a national conversation on how to reposition education in our state and by extension, in our country. There is too much hypocrisy in our system and everybody pretends that we are not crisis. The Nigeria educational system is in serious crisis and we can’t afford to postpone the conversation any longer. Last month, we were told that Nigeria spends over a million dollar every year to pay school fees for Nigerian students who are studying abroad.

“Those numbers if they were shared and distributed between federal, state and even private owned universities, in Nigeria, the quality of our universities would have improved substantially. Today, we are faced with a situation in which lecturers, professors, ministers, governors and anybody that can afford it send their own children to universities abroad which means they themselves don’t have confidence in their own universities. Those who cannot afford to take them to US or Uk send them to Ghana or Benin republic and they pay at least, 10,000 dollars.

“We are exporting all these money to rich countries. Everybody is seeking what I call, a privatized solution to a problem that requires a national approach. The problem is that the political elite keeps pretending that we can offer what we are not in a position to offer. Nigeria government cannot guarantee free university education. It is beyond the government. It is time for us to have a conversation on a realistic fee payable by those who can afford it and for those who cannot afford it, the state have a duty to support gifted children whose parents cannot afford to support their university education.”

He noted, “I have difficulty in understanding why we refused to address a situation in which a Nigerian child attends a private prestigious secondary school where he is paying 500, 000 naira a year and some are even paying 1 million naira a year. But the parents are not rich enough to take him to Ghana or to US or Europe and he ends up in a Nigerian government university. That same guy who was paying 500,000, 300,000 naira a year for secondary education now has to go and pay 120,000 naira for a university education. It means something is not adding up and I just want to put this on the table.”

Highpoint of the ceremony was the investiture of Governor Adams Oshiomhole with the donning of the academic regalia along with the presentation of certificate of the Doctorate Degree in Public Administration (honoris causa) by Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa, Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State.