Dr. Daniel Ewuga Asele is obviously the kind of man who can hardly mask an emotion for a passion he believes in.
As he explains the mission and vision that birthed the Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim Vocational and Technology Institute located on Jos Road Lafia penultimate Wednesday, the glit in his eyes and accompanying intermittent smiles betrayed the confident of a man who loves his job and proud of his achievements.
And he did regaled his guests with the many achievements of the institute set up to bridge the yawning employment gap through skills acquisition and entrepreneurial training within just three years of its establishment.
His appointment to head the institute which is said to be very dear to Governor Abdullahi Sule’s heart as its executive director did not come to many as a surprise. “It was indeed a square peg in an equally square“ one of the guests to the institute and the LEADERSHIP Group Limited’s Project Champion to lift two million people out of poverty, Mr Abdulmumin Balogu, pointed out after an interactive session with Dr. Asele.
Mr. Balogun led two members of staff on visit to the facility following an appeal by Governor Sule to the LEADERSHIP Group management team led by the organisation’s Executive Vice Chairman, Mr. Okpere, who he (the governor) hosted earlier, to stop by the institute to assess the various training programmes going on there.
The executive vice chairman then delegated Mr. Balogun and Mr Ezekiel Amkpita, the director conference and seminar for the job.
The team was marveled at the structures and state-of-the-art equipment at the institute which its executive director pride as the best in the country.
As a trained engineer who has strong believe in education for self-reliance, governor Sule’s vision for this technical institute is all encompassing. First, this institute is expected to impact necessary technical skills on the youths, as well as graduates of universities and polytechnics from other fields of study, who will be trained to become self-reliant.
Secondly, the institute is expected to produce technicians that will be employed by factories that will spring up across the state. Thirdly, the institute will be a centre for innovations, manufacturing spare parts to be used by industries from within and outside the state.
Governor Sule’s experience while trying to eake a living and at the same time pursuing his academic programme abroad, must have fired his vision for acquisition of skills alongside formal education.
He had told the Bukuru Old Students Association (BOSAT) who paid him a courtesy call sometimes in 2023 that he set up the institute in appreciation for what technical education has done to him.
He recounted how he rose from being a janitor to a renowned engineer and now governor.
He said when he came onboard as governor, he saw the establishment of the institute as an opportunity to bring his knowledge and experience to bear towards impacting on the lives of the people of the state.
He said he proceed on scholarship for the Indiana State University in the United States, explaining that his wielding background made it possible for him to successfully graduate, rise in his career and to become what he is today.
“I looked for a part time weilding job paying 2.75 USD an hour. I will now go an spend all the hours I could possibly do carrying out weilding and I made a lot of money and I became richer than my friends.
“I was able to graduate in 3 years with 4 years scholarship. Then the last one year I did my masters because I had a wielding job.
“On my return to Nigeria, I worked in Jos steel rolling company only for about three years and returned to Houston, Texas where because of the opportunity in the area of weilding I was for the first time introduced into the oil and gas sector.
“I was not an oil person originally. I was trained a weilder and then I did mechanical technology. At the end of the day, I was using that knowledge to work on an oil and gas platform, because on the platform, weilders and fabricators are kings. I started taking the siesmic acquisition equipment on my back and going around to acquire seismic. Eventually they moved me into a weilding shop to do a CNC machine programming and operation. That’s where I learned about all the conversational programme in the CNC,” he said.
He said his knowledge and experience informed the decision to set up the Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim Vocational and Technical Institute in order to give back to the society.
“That is why I said when I come to Nigeria, in Nasarawa State, when I set up a technical school, there must be a CNC machine. I was a hot cake just like any CNC programmer.
“It doesn’t matter what anyone says, I feel fulfilled. I feel I have been able to bring the knowledge, the experiences I had in order to impact on our people locally,” he added.
Like he promised, the institute does not only have a CNC machine but many others that impact skills to hitherto job seekers, primary school pupils, their secondary counterparts, and even graduates through its about 40 components.
In establishing the institute, he had to search for someone who shared his vision to drive the process. In nearby Jos, Plateau State at the Nigeria Industrial Training Fund, he picked Dr. Asele who agreed to take some leave of absence for the job.
Dr. Asele told our correspondent that the institute has trained over 900 graduards who are already doing well in their area of trade.
He said the institute has three categories of trainees. There are those who have never been in school; those who are through with their secondary education as well as those who have obtained their degrees, HND, Masters and even PhD. He said there is another category especially for vulnerable women.
He said of special interest, is the opportunity accorded to university graduates by the governor to acquire training in the areas of choice.
He said some first class graduates of the state-owned university in Keffi and the Federal University of Lafia benefited from the training programes at the institute.
After the traning each of the student was given capital to start the trade and become employers of labour.
He said the recent gesture was the training of about 50 first class graduates of the FULAFIA who were given N500, 000 each to set up their bisonesses.
Speaking about the need for graduates to also acquire skills during the visit by the LEADERSHIP team, the governor said, having education without skills is defective, stressing that anyone without the requisite skill will always find it difficult to function independently.
Dr. Asele agreed that in the era of rising unemployment with many competing for few or non existent jobs, skills acquisition is the way to go.
