President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday restated his administration’s commitment to upgrade the quality of university education in the country to world standard.
Jonathan stated this when a delegation of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) visited him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said that one of his priorities was to return the country’s universities to winning ways by ensuring that they were rated among the top 500 in the world.
He said: “we want to return our universities to winning ways; our universities must be strengthened; our universities must be returned to the top.
“Our universities must not just be big in population but tops in terms of quality. We want our universities to be among the top rated institutions in the world.
“It is not easy to be at the top, but there is no reason why Nigerian universities cannot be among the top 500 in the world.
“But we must work hard as a leading black nation in the world; we must get there.
“That’s the only way we can reshape and rebuild our nation so that our children will be proud of the nation for opportunity given to them to acquire education.”
The president explained that his administration was not only building physical infrastructure but was also focusing on human capacity development.
According to him, that is why we have this special scholarship where every year we give 100 scholarships to Nigerians who have made first class to study in any of the top 25 universities in the world.
“If we must talk of nuclear and space research, then we must build human capacity. This scholarship is for 100 students per year, and it is meant for first class students even if they are from same parents.
“The key thing is to reassure you that we will not disappoint you. We will ensure we improve on Nigeria,” he stressed.
Jonathan recalled the last strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which lasted about six months and said that he was particularly pained by it.
He disclosed that the strike was based on an audit of the country’s universities which was initiated by his administration to address the decay in tertiary institutions.
“ASUU should go on strike if nothing is going well in the country; there is no problem with that, but when you go on strike based on documents we produced to address the decay in institutions, then it is worrisome.
“ASUU shouldn’t have gone on strike for six months on that. If I wanted to cover up for government I wouldn’t have exposed that document to the public,” he stated.
The president assured Nigerians that his successor would not face the challenge of electricity supply in the country, saying that his government was addressing the issue with vigour.
“We must build Nigeria for the future of our children. We must build a Nigeria where by the time one of you will be on this seat in future you should not be thinking of power supply,” he said.
He also reiterated his commitment to credible elections, saying that the country would no longer be a laughing stock as far as the conduct of elections was concerned.
He said that he had kept faith with his promise to transform the country’s electoral process.
“The 2011 elections were adjudged to be the best both by international and local observers.
“I will never preside over elections where we will become a laughing stock like it was in 2007, when the international community found it difficult to congratulate us because of irregularities,” he said.
Jonathan thanked the students for their award to him and words of encouragement, which he said would spur his administration to do more.
He commended the association’s role in the stabilisation of the crisis in the educational sector, especially in the polytechnics, describing it as patriotic.
He also lauded the students’ leaders for mobilising support for Mr Tony Nwoye, a former president of the association, during the last governorship election in Anambra where he was a candidate.
He said that Nwoye’s performance in the election was good, adding that though he also lost at the election tribunal, “he has already made a mark.”
Earlier, NANS President, Mr Yinka Gbadebo, commended the performance of Jonathan’s administration in all sectors of the economy.
He also commended the president for giving Nigerian youths, including past leaders of NANS, the opportunity to participate in his administration.
According to him, Jonathan is the first president in the history of the country to give leadership opportunities to the largest number of former leaders of the association.
Gbadebo challenged the opposition who are challenging the performance of the Jonathan administration to a national debate.
He said: “If all what we have said here today is not the truth, I want to challenge anybody in Nigeria to a public debate to come and debunk these things.
“We are now wiser and we would not be indoctrinated.”
Highlight of the occasion was the decoration of the president as the Grand Commander of Nigerian Students (GCNS) and the conferment of the association’s Nigerian Heroes Award on him.
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