The federal government has inaugurated the Federal University of Technology and Environmental Sciences (FUTES) governing council in Iyin Ekiti, Ekiti State, alongside its principal officers, disclosing that the newly established institution will kick off full operations in September 2025.
Shortly after the inauguration, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, the Leader of the Senate, officially donated two Toyota Coaster Buses, one Toyota Hilux Utility Vehicle, one Toyota Hiace Ambulance, and two motorcycles, among other things, to the university to fast-track its takeoff as scheduled.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, inaugurated the university’s governing council and principal officers yesterday in Abuja, saying the university was created to develop manpower in areas where the country had a human capital deficit.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad; Pro-Chancellor and Chairperson of the University Governing Council, Senator Binta Garba; Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Olugbenga Aribisala; and Chief Executive Officer, Premium Trust Bank, Mr. Emmanuel Emefienim, among others, were at the inauguration.
Alausa commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for paying special attention to the country’s education sector, disclosing that the Ministry of Education received the third-highest budget for the first time in Nigeria’s history.
He added that the newly established university would kick off full operations in September 2025, disclosing that the Federal Ministry of Education had officially briefed the National Universities Commission and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to add it to the list of the country’s universities.
The minister justified the establishment of the university, which, according to him, perfectly aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s action plan to speed up the development of human capital in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and create limitless opportunities for the country’s upcoming generations.
He explained that the newly established university would focus on training and producing graduates in core areas of specialisation where no fewer than 2.2 million job opportunities “are presently available, though nobody is available to take up those opportunities.”
Unlike most universities in operation, the minister noted that FUTES would produce high-demand manpower for national development in software engineering, proactive security, cloud computing, IT automation, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
He said: “As part of our Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI), we have an expansive focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medical Sciences. Why does this university focus on these areas? What necessitated the establishment of this university? How can we equip our teeming youths with these much-needed skills?
“The need to bridge the human capital deficit in these core areas spurred the birth of FUTES. The university will equip our teeming youths with high-tech skills that the country’s digital economy requires to blossom. It will also equip our youths with high-income skills they need to help themselves, their community, our nation and the world.
“We need these skills to shape geopolitics in the 21st century. If you go to Europe and North America, the population is ageing fast. They do not have enough people to serve the manpower they need. If we position ourselves well, we can give them the manpower they need in the decades ahead.
“We can continue to shape geopolitics if we prepare to fill this gap. That is what President Tinubu is quietly doing in our education sector. He is investing in education to equip our youths with durable skills that are in high demand globally,” he said.
Also at the inauguration, Bamidele commended the minister for his efforts to ensure that President Tinubu signed the bill establishing the Federal University of Technology and Environmental Sciences, Iyin Ekiti, into law.
Before the bill was signed into law, Bamidele explained how the host community worked to set up a take-off committee and secure a location for the new university to demonstrate their readiness for the institution.
He further explained that the host community made all these efforts even when they did not know the president’s decision, who would chair the university’s governing council, or where the principal officers of the university would come from.
According to the senate leader, at least seven retired professors from the university’s host community were utterly committed to its seamless takeoff. One of the former professors, the Late Prof. Ekundayo Adeyinka Adeyemi, was the first professor of architecture in West Africa. He suggested that “Environmental Sciences should reflect in the institution’s name.
Bamidele, therefore, called for a one-minute silence in honour of the Late Prof. Akinyemi, the first professor of architecture in West Africa, who recently passed away while still in active service to his community, state, and fatherland.
Also speaking, Aribisala explained that the university’s distinctiveness is unique, saying it was the first of its kind in the history of Nigeria, which would offer specialised programmes.
He said the programmes will include Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Forestry and Environmental Management, Industrial Design, Cyber Security, Data Science and Economics, Artificial Intelligence, and Software Engineering.
Aribisala noted that the university’s vision was “to create a 21st-century world-class institution that is a reputable citadel of learning and a global player in knowledge production, a university that is ICT-driven and residential for both staff and students.”
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