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THE RIGHT COURSE Text of the Welcome Address delivered by the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ilorin, Prof. Is-haq O. Oloyede, on the Occasion of the Opening Ceremony of the 24th Conference of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU 2009) hosted by the University of Ilorin on Tuesday June 2, 2009 at the University Auditorium 2nd June, 2009
THE RIGHT COURSE On behalf of the Council, Management, Senate, staff and students of the University of Ilorin, our esteemed and peaceful University that always in a state of harmony, I welcome you most sincerely to this occasion. We consider it a privilege that our University is honoured by this distinguished Association to host this Conference again, having hosted it earlier in 1992. It is our hope and prayer that as you arrived here in peace, we shall have fruitful deliberations and we shall all return in peace.
The purpose for which we are all here gathered is not far-fetched. It is for the 24th conference of our Association themed “21st Century Education in Nigeria: Strides, Challenges and Pathways” and it is mainly to turn round the fortune of education especially at the higher level in our beloved country. Towards achieving this purpose, a relatively busy schedule lies ahead of us after this ceremony as we exchange ideas, debate issues, map out strategies, discuss challenges, identify problems and suggest solutions to the urgent need of bringing our education to where it is supposed to be. I am very sure that we have all it takes to make Nigeria greater through our collective commitment to playing our part and doing our best in doing so.
The role of education in the development of any society is fundamental because the development of any society, any nation, is dependent on the human capital within the framework of which education is critical. Without education, without knowledge, all efforts at development are inconsequential and void. The thick line that demarcates development from underdevelopment is education. To move the nation forward and to meet up with the enormous 21st century challenges, education has to be accorded its rightful priority. This is the right course and this is why we, the gown and the town, are all gathered.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I said yesterday when the Governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki hosted us, that the essence of education is the development of our three h’s: the head, the heart and the hands. These three domains are what specialists would refer to as the cognitive, affective and psycho-motor components of learning. In other words, education is the process of developing one’s mental alertness, regulating and improving one’s attitudes and behaviours as well all acquiring skills with which things can be done. The need of combining these three has been emphasised by Goethe
who noted that “knowing is not enough, we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do.” At the University of Ilorin, part of our efforts in ensuring and assuring the all-round development of the h’s informed our establishment, within the last one year, of such centres as Technical and Entrepreneurship Centre (TEC), Centre for Research, Development and In-House Training (CREDIT) and Centre for International Education (CIE) among others.
Besides, a short reflection on the thrust of the national educational goals and objectives {viz (a) the inculcation of national consciousness and national unity; (b) the inculcation of the right type of values and attitudes for the survival of individuals and the Nigerian society; (c) the training of the mind in the understanding of the world around; and (d) the acquisition of the appropriate skills, abilities and competencies both mental and physical as equipment for the individual to live in and contribute to the development of the society} will reveal the connection of such goals to the triple h’s. While the extent to which our educational system harmoniously blends these domains to shape what we think, what we feel and what we do may still leave much to be desired for a number of factors, it is gratifying to note that we are on the right course.
I say we are on the right course because the Federal Government is now giving higher education its deserved attention and one cannot but commend the Yar’Adua administration on this major achievement. As a beneficiary University of the recent intervention by the Federal Government through the injection of N47 billion in the system to assure quality and upgrade teaching/research activities, I on behalf of all of us, including those among us who will later benefit from such and those we are benefitting on their behalf, thank and appreciate the Federal Government through the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, during whose tenure this landmark intervention is witnessed. Honourable Minister Sir, while you kindly accept my appreciation, I still use this medium, like Oliver Twist, to cry for more of such intervention in our educational system.
The triple h’s I earlier referred to would logically inform our desire to make this conference a confluence of triple stakeholders: the Government, the Academia and the Industry. It is perhaps easy to find a connection in how the government as the head of the people can make the academia, the heart of development, more functional as the industry also lends its hand of support as the end-user or potential user of the academic activities. As the Yoruba would say that “ikoko meta kii da obe nu” (‘the triple point heathen does not spill the soup pot’), I welcome you triple stakeholders to this important Conference. …
Lastly, while many issues have been lined up for discussion today and the rest of the Conference, which constitute part of the vision of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU), let me conclude by urging us to take heed from the Japanese proverb, “vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” I believe we shall leave the University of Ilorin after this Conference without daydream or nightmare. Thank you very much for your attention and once again,
