Emir of Lafia, Justice Sidi Bajge Muhammad I, yesterday said it is impossible for the federal government alone to address the sorry state of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
He said building a sustainable university education system requires collective efforts of critical stakeholders such as alumni associations to support university advancement by giving back to their schools.
The emir who spoke in Abuja during the launch and public presentation of a “Compilation of Lectures Delivered at the Conference of the Alumni Association of Nigerian Universities (CAANU) 2017-2022 said, what was important is for all stakeholders to see how they can find solution and help the government through funding.
He said, “I want to say that our situation cannot only end in lamentation as mentioned in the sorry situation and saying all that may not be the best to hear at any given moment. What is important for us to do is to see how we can find solution, help the government to find solution to some of this problems.
“And I think one of the avenues that we can use effectively is associations like CAANU, there’s no doubt that CAANU can play a prominent role in running and ensuring the continuation and effective movement of the Nigerian universities”.
“No where in the world are universities left only to the responsibility of government. In fact, we have it on record that there are universities in the world today that are run by the alumni.
“The problem is not likely that of the government, the problem is likely with some of us who are beneficiaries of this institution, what have we done today? not so much. We cannot be proud of ourselves, let us see if we can use this book to do more and I’m sure that some of those lectures and the research work contained in the book may help to guide us to see if we can do better than what we are doing”, he added.
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