The National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, says the dilapidated education sector he met as governor of Nasarawa State in 1999 informed his desire to reform the sector, including the establishment of a state university.

He made this known at a lecture he presented at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK) in Keffi Local Government Area of the state during the institution’s maiden Founder’s Day on Tuesday.

Adamu, who recently emerged as the new national chairman of APC, was the first democratically elected governor of Nasarawa State from 1999 to 2007.

The Founder’s Day is part of the programme of events for the institution’s sixth combined convocation and 20th year anniversary of the institution.

“The education sector was in such a bad condition that it could not produce qualified human capital in virtually all areas of human endeavour.

“It was an educational sector that was derelict, dilapidated and utterly incapable of fulfilling our avowed commitment to make the state a major player in the comity of Nigerian states,” he said.

He added that the situation led him and members of his administration to be determined to accept the challenge and do everything humanly possible to overcome the situation.

“It was in this circumstance that we set out to completely reform the education sector in the state at all levels with our vision focused on rehabilitating of existing infrastructure, establishment and construction of new primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, among others,” the APC chairman said.

He said two years after his administration began the reform agenda on the education sector, the efforts began to yield positive results from results of students in the state who sat for external examinations.

“More than half of our students who took the West African School Certificate (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) examinations proved the fault was not in them but in the system that stunted the full flowering of their intellect,” Adamu stated.

He added that his administration, having provided a solid foundation at the primary and secondary school levels, realised that there was a need to allow the budding intellect of the state’s young men and women to blossom, hence the decision to set up the Nasarawa State University, Keffi and other tertiary institutions.

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Adamu said: “These other institutions are Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Lafia and the School of Health Technology, Keffi.

“These other institutions were set up with the aim of solving the critical and immediate middle level manpower needs of the state.

“However, our ultimate ambition was to set up a world-renown university and this was just what we did by the establishment of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi.”

He admitted that the setting up of the university was not without its challenges but he was not discouraged and went on to complete the establishment of the institution.

Adamu thanked successive state government’s after his own and the various managements of the institution for the past 20 years for their doggedness and determination in ensuring that the university and by extension, the education sector is far better than how he met it when he became governor.

In his address, Gov. Abdullahi Sule of the state, congratulated the founder of the university for the establishment of the university in spite of the state’s lean resources.

“I believe strongly that Abdullahi Adamu is extremely lucky.

“Lucky in the sense that he will have a vision and live long enough to see that vision materialise to what it is today.

“A lot of people who started are not lucky to be alive to see how their vision fared,” he said.

He promised to make the university a global institution to be reckoned with in terms of excellence and churning out of marketable and proven graduates.

In his welcome address, Prof. Sulaiman Bala-Mohammed, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, said that the management of the university decided to use the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the university to show appreciation and profound gratitude to Adamu.

“The founding father has done something for parents and future generations of students who can never repay him,” he said.

NAN

The Star