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Tag: Chief Afe Babalola

  • Babalola expresses concern over mass exodus of health workers

    Babalola expresses concern over mass exodus of health workers

    The Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), has expressed deep concern over the high rate health workers leave the country.

    He noted that the current socio-economic challenges facing Nigeria are driving health workers away. The legal icon and educationist said ABUAD Multisystem Hospital is not immune to the Japa syndrome.

    Babalola spoke in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, at the 10th induction ceremony of the Nursing graduands of the university.

    The ABUAD founder expressed concern that despite training over 1,000 nurses, the institution has only 15 of them staying back in the country.

    “In my hospital, where we pay higher wages, they still go away. This is because of the situation in the country. I don’t blame them,” he said. Babalola urged the graduands to be great ambassadors of ABUAD wherever they go, emphasising the importance of character, hard work, and faith.

    Read Also: Babalola, Edun, Nwoko, Tunji-Bello, Akobundu, others for Afrikanwatch lecture, award

    He said: “Wherever you go, please remember to be great ambassadors of ABUAD. The future is bright for you, if you imbibe character, hard work, and faith because faith never fails.

    “You must be an outstanding nurse. If you recite the nursing anthem, as well as the ABUAD anthem, you will see the emphasis on character and discipline. In my hospital here, we emphasise character and discipline.

    In her keynote lecture, a senior lecturer at the Department of Nursing Science at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Prof. Adekemi Olowookere stressed the need for the inductees to always be guided by the ethics of the nursing profession.

  • Encomiums as ABUAD promoter Afe Babalola gets Awo Leadership Prize

    Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) founder Chief Afe Babalola yesterday received the 2018 Obafemi Awolowo Prize in Leadership.

    Aare Babalola became the third recipient of the coveted prize since its inception. He joined the club of Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka and former South African President Thambo Mbeki. The duo won the award in the past.

    Chairman of the Selection Committee Chief Emeka Anyaoku explained that the Prize has not been awarded since Mbeki won it in 2014 because no individual among the nominees met the criteria for the honour.

    According to him, the leadership award, is for the individual who have demonstrated the attributes of political strategy, education, integrity, caring for the welfare of the masses, consistent in policies and courage for which the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo was known.

    According to the former Commonwealth Secretary-General, only Aare Babalola was found worthy among the nominees considered for the 2018 award.

    His words: “Babalola distinguished himself in the provision of quality education just like Chief Awolowo and advocacy for the masses through legal intervention and other means to deserve the award.”

    The Chairman of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation Board of Trustees, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, said history has been very kind to the late Chief Awolowo.

    The former Head of State noted that when the late sage was as great in death as he was when alive, adding that “years after his death, his name continues to command respect and waxing stronger.”

    Gowon said that Awolowo’s character and performance in public office stood him out as an uncommon leader.

    He said: “His death at 78 was a great loss to Nigeria and humanity. It was in order to immortalise him that Awolowo Foundation was established.”

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi described Chief Babalola as an icon not only in Ekiti but in Nigeria as a whole.

    Dr. Fayemi lauded ABUAD promoter for making a remarkable impression on education, describing the institution as a tourist attraction and urged the audience to visit to see what the legal luminary has done in his university.

    He described the ABUAD Teaching Hospital as the best.

    The Secretary of the Awo Foundation, Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu said that her late father and Chief Babalola shared similar traits.

    According to her, both men braved the odds to acquire education.

    In his response, Aare Babalola thanked the Awolowo Foundation for the honour, even as paid glowing tribute to the Awolowo dynasty.

  • ASUU strike: Afe Babalola decries poor funding of varsities

    By Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado Ekiti

    Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti(ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola(SAN), has decried the poor funding of public universities, stating it accounts for the despicable condition of tertiary education in the nation.

    Babalola lamented the Federal Government has consistently underfunded education sector with meagre allocation of seven percent of the national budget.

    He spoke in ABUAD on Friday during a ceremony marking the 9th anniversary of the institution.

    According to him: “It is worrisome the FG could earmark seven percent budgetary allocation to fund education, when the United Nations Educational and Socio Cultural Organisation(UNESCO) recommended 26 per cent.

    “I have been Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, University of Lagos(UNILAG) and I knew that the universities lack facilities and equipment to be of high standard.

    “In our universities, students are not resident in schools, some stayed outside the lecture theatres to receive lectures.

    “Some even use forest as toilets, lecturers are not paid as and when due, all these are intolerable.

     

    “FG must look for funds to make our universities be of high standard.”

    He backed the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on the ongoing strike action, saying it was a justifiable move.

    The legal luminary said: “ASUU’s case is strong this time and I support them in spite of the fact that I have been criticizing them in recent past, but I stand with them this time.

    “ASUU alleged that over 70 percent of the projects in our universities are uncompleted for lack of funds and corruption, this is wrong.

    “In ABUAD, we complete our projects in time. We built our Planetorium within six months. Some federal universities started theirs 10 years ago and they have not completed it.”

    Babalola explained that ABUAD has attained enviable height and become one of the best universities in Nigeria within nine years of its operation because the management works extra hard to make its vision a reality

    “In the law school examinations conducted in 2018, 12 ABUAD students got first class with one emerging overall best.

    “They presented 36 prizes and our students carted away 24 of them. This showed that ABUAD is a haven where sharpening of intellectual mind is our priority.”

    He saluted the tenacity of the staff in their commitments  in contributing to ABUAD becoming a leading university in Nigeria, warning the management shall deploy stringent measures those not supporting the vision of the institution, which was to bring a paradigm shift to university education.

    He said: “We shall continue to celebrate those staff who are working to keep the standard we set and we have achieved for ourselves. But whoever wants to bring it down among the students and teachers shall be sanctioned, those who don’t want to share our vision must go away.

    “From next week Monday, we will begin teachers’ annual assessment to be able to know those who are working for our glory here and they shall get their rewards”.

    He urged Federal Government to increase budgetary allocation allotting to education sector to prepare Nigerians for global competitiveness and monitor the uses of the appropriated fund.

     

     

     

  • Yoruba elders insist on restructuring

    Yoruba elders insist on restructuring

    The Yoruba elders have insisted that Nigeria must return to a proper federation as obtained in the 1960 and 1963 constitutions to ensure peace and meaningful development.

    They made this view known at the Yoruba summit held in Ibadan on Thursday, which attracted Yoruba leaders, governors, parliamentarians, social cultural groups, professional bodies, market leaders and youth groups.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the summit after exhaustive deliberations issued a communiqué signed by Chief Afe Babalola(SAN) and Dr Kunle Olajide, the Aare of Efon Kingdom.

    According to them, the country as a multi-ethnic country could only know real peace and development when it is run along federal lines.

    The summit resolved that the greatest imperatives of restructuring Nigeria was to move from a
rent-seeking and money sharing anti-development economy to productivity.

    It stated that this could be achieved by ensuring that the federating units are free to own and develop their resources, while they pay agreed sums to the federation purse to implement central services.

    The summit agreed that the federating units be it states, zones or regions, which must themselves
be governed by written constitution to curb impunity at all levels.

    It demanded that Nigeria should be a federation comprised of six regions and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, while the regions shall in turn be composed as states.

    “The Federal Government should make laws and only have powers in relations to items
specified on the legislative list contained in the constitution of the Federation.

    “Each region shall have its own constitution containing enumerated exclusive and
concurrent legislative lists regarding matters upon which the regions and the states may
act or legislate.

    “Contiguous territories, ethnic nationalities or settlement shall be at liberty through a
plebiscite, to elect to be part of any contiguous region other than the region in which the
current geo-political zone or state boundaries places them,’’ the communiqué read.

    According to the summit, states as presently comprised in the geo-political zones into which they fall shall become regions and continue to exercise the executive, legislative and judicial functions currently exercised.

    “States with a region shall determine the items on the legislative lists in the regional constitution for the purpose of good government and the administration.

    “Also, provision of common inter-state social, economic and infrastructural requirements. Residual powers shall be vested in the states.’’

    The communiqué noted that the power to create states shall be within the exclusive powers of the region, which shall be obliged to create a state provided a plebiscite is conducted.

    This, it said shall be following a request by an agreed percentage of the residents of the ethnic nationality within a state, while the state holds the power to create local governments and assign functions.

    The summit resolved that states shall be entitled to manage all resources found within their boundaries and the revenue accruing therefrom.

    “The issue of the entitlement of littoral states to shore resources and the extension of such rights from the continental shelf and rights accuring to the Federal Government shall be determined by the national assembly.

    “The sharing ratio of all revenues raised by means of taxation shall be 50 per cent to the states, 35 percent to the regional government and 15 percent to the government of the federation.

    “For a period of 10 years from the commencement of the operation of the new constitution, there shall be a special fund for the development of all minerals in the country,’’ it stated.

    The summit added that government of the federation shall raise the sum by way of additional taxation on resources at a rate to be agreed by the National Assembly.

    It stated that the National Assembly shall set up a body to manage the funds with equal representation of nominees from each of the regional governments.
    The summit also said that the National Assembly shall set out and specify the guidelines for the administration of the funds exclusively for this purpose, while the president of the Federation shall appoint a chairperson for the entity so formed

    The summit had recalled the great strides made by the Yoruba nation in the years of self-government until the abrogation of the federal constitution in 1966.

    It stated that such was evident in mass literacy, novel infrastructural strides and giant leaps in all spheres of human development.

    The summit warned that Nigeria was working dangerously to the edge of the slope except urgent steps are taken to restructure Nigeria, saying there was need to restructure from a unitary to federal constitution.

  • Buhari greets Babalola at 85

    Buhari greets Babalola at 85

    President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated legal luminary, educationist and philanthropist, Chief Afe Babalola, as he turns 85 on October 30, 2016.

    In a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President joined members of Aare Babalola’s family, close associates, professional colleagues and the academia in celebrating the milestone in the life of the man, whom he said epitomizes unique and enviable qualities that every nation will want projected in its leadership and citizenry.

    He reaffirmed that the legal luminary’s lifestyle exemplifies discipline, diligence, honesty and wisdom, which are virtues he employed from childhood to succeed against the vicissitudes of poverty and deprivation, and climbed steadily to reach the pinnacle of his career as Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

    As he marks his 85th birthday, President Buhari believed Aare Babalola can look back with pride at his achievements, which include the God-fearing act of always catering for the poor and under privileged, and mentoring of lawyers from his Emmanuel Chambers that have turned Senior Advocates of Nigeria and Attorneys-General and Ministers of Justice.

    He also extolled the patriotism and commitment of Aare Babalola to nation building through regular counseling of leaders, representation of the Federal Government and founding of one of the best universities in Africa.

    Buhari prayed that the almighty God will grant the philanthropist longer life, good health and wisdom to sustain the good works.