Afe Babalola, the founder of Afe Babalola University (ABUAD), advocated against the division of Nigeria into several small nations on Monday, saying that its enormous number of tribes and languages are not responsible for underdevelopment.
While speaking at the first Africa-Asia Inter-Continental Universities Conference (HYBRID) in collaboration with Centre for China-Africa Discourse Studies (CECADS), the legal icon threw his weight behind a unified Nigeria, adding that the country can become one of the leading civilised and industrialised countries in the world if the government takes advantage of its population and manpower.
His words, “Today is the beginning of a new dawn in the relationship between China and ABUAD. Some 50 years ago, the leading industrial countries were USA, England, Germany, Russia, Japan and a few countries in Europe. We learnt that China is merely a big country with so many languages a land size of 9,388,210 Km2 and a population of 1.4 billion, yet largely undeveloped. Nigeria is only 910,770 Km2 and has a population of 228,162,838 as of Saturday, April 24, 2024.
“Most people believed that the size of China, and the large number of tribes and languages were responsible for the underdevelopment. Most Nigerians also believe that the large number of tribes and languages is also responsible for our underdevelopment.
“However, China which is like an elephant to an ordinary sheep or dog has today taken advantage of the population and made the country a huge success and one of the first 3 civilized countries in the world.
“Those who are advocating that Nigeria should be Balkanised should learn from how China took advantage of its size, population and manpower to become one of the leading civilised and industrialised countries in the world.”
The conference was themed: “Building Bridges for advancing the SDG: Enhancing Inter-University Scientific Collaboration between Africa and China”.
In her goodwill message, the Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Nigeria, Yan Yuqing, attributed the drivers of economic growth in China to science and technology, which have further provided the impetus for global sustainable development.
She said the purpose of the conference was to provide an opportunity to share information and best practices on innovative technologies, and knowledge to strengthen South-South scientific cooperation between faculty, students and researchers in China and African Universities.
She also passed votes of confidence on Afe Babalola, for being a key facilitator of China-Nigeria cooperation in education and science and technology for sustainable development.
“Africa is the most promising continent in the world in terms of economic development, and Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa. Nigeria, as well as the whole African continent, has great potential for development in terms of science, technology and innovation, talent development and technology-driven innovation.
“I believe that Afe Babalola University is the key facilitator of China-Nigeria cooperation in education and science and technology for sustainable development.
“China is willing to support the empowerment of Nigerian youth employment, and through Chinese language + vocational skills education, provide more Nigerian youth with the opportunity to work in Chinese enterprises and even serve as the companies’ administrators.”
The Governor of Ekiti State, Biodun Oyebanji also commended ABUAD for living up to aspirations of being a world-class university of local and global relevance.
He said, “I laid the University for this commendable efforts, ABUAD is living up to aspirations of being a world-class university of local and global relevance.”
On his part, the executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Chris Maiyaki, lauded ABUAD for taking the bold step to expand the frontiers of university education.
“ABUAD in particular deserves special commendation for taking this bold step to expand the frontier of university education. And I hope that our collective efforts will lead to the creation of that much-needed future in which our higher education institutions are defined by excellence, equity, and global competitiveness.”
