Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has described being a governor as a thankless job, especially that whatsoever a governor does, or does not do, people will always find reasons to criticize.
Governor Sule made this known when he addressed the management and staff of the Phoenix University Agwada, in Kokona Local Government Area, on Monday.
According to the Governor, irrespective of whether the people criticize him or not, he has resolved to remain focused and to give the desired leadership in order to move the state forward.
“There is nothing that you can do that is good. Everything you do, people will criticize. If you do it well, they will criticize you for doing it. If you don’t, they will criticize you for not doing it. If you don’t take the money, they will say you are taking the money. Whatever you do, you are still in trouble,” he stated.
While congratulating Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the proprietor of Phoenix University Agwada, the first indigenous private university in Nasarawa State, Governor Sule expressed optimism that with the robotics laboratory put in place under the department of computer science of the university, Nasarawa State is ready for Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology.
Impressed with what he saw on ground, the Governor was confident that even universities that were established over three decades ago, are not even contemplating robotic engineering.
He commended the courage and patriotism demonstrated by the proprietor of the institution, Senator Adamu, for establishing the university with the sole aim of giving back to the society.
He added that it was not surprising considering that the former governor and immediate past national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) pioneered the creation of the state-owned university in Keffi twenty years ago, as well as the Shabu Farms, the first indigenous commercial agriculture company.
The Governor expressed the readiness of his administration to collaborate with the university especially in the area of student exchange, where students from state owned higher institutions could be sent to Phoenix University Agwada in order to utilize the facilities available particularly the digital and E-library.
He however called on the immediate community hosting the Pheonix University Agwada to own up the institution, just as he called on the people of the state to consider the university as their own.
“I want to sincerely commend all of you who worked so hard to get this institution to where it is. I have been to so many private universities even to so many state owned universities and during the first years of start-up, I didn’t see anything close to what I have seen here.
“I want to congratulate the Osu Agwada and the people of this area first and I want you to take ownership of the university along with all of our other people working in the state. And I agree with the Vice Chancellor that the entire state take the ownership of this university in order to make it a thing of pride,” he stated.
In his speech, proprietor of the Pheonix University Agwada, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said he established the university with the purpose of giving back to his immediate community, Nasarawa State and Nigeria as a whole.
“For me, most of the officials both academic and non academic have to be Nasarawa State people. This is not to say we cannot entertain people from outside the state but prepare people, develop people to take over the leadership of this institution.
“Those of our boys and girls with good potentials, who have good first degrees and upper degrees, they would be employed here as academic staff. Those who are short of our requirements will be employed as non academic staff and prepare themselves better. So that our academic staff can be promoted by us, we can sponsor them for postgraduate studies,” he stated.
Senator Adamu thanked Governor Sule for undertaking a visit to the university.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Abdullahi Bala, said the Phoenix University Agwada has secured approval from the National University Commission (NUC) to commence academic activities in 24 programmes under three faculties namely Faculty Natural Science and Agriculture, Faculty of Computing Technology, as well as Faculty of Social Science and Management.
“Today, we have commenced the process of admission and we are hopeful that by the grace of God, by the end of this month we will commence academic activities. The university was granted approval for 32 programmes but we are starting with 24 programmes under three faculties,” he said.
Professor Bala said the proprietor of the university has done his own part by establishing the institution and that what remains is for the people of Nasarawa State to take ownership of the university.
“Dr Adamu has done his own. Looking at what he has put in place, we know this is not a profit oriented venture. This is an effort to give back to the community. I want to use this opportunity to call on the people of Nasarawa State to take ownership of this university,” he said.
He particularly sought for cooperation from the people of the state, stressing that the management of the university would do its best to ensure that Pheonix University Agwada is among the best in Nigeria within the shortest possible time.
The VC used the opportunity of the event to appreciate Governor Sule for approving the award of contract for the road from Kokona Junction to Agwada, saying that is the best thing to have happened to the university at its infancy.
He added that the ongoing construction of the road has addressed one of the pressing challenges confronting the institution which is the lack of access road that would connect the institution with the outside world, as well as make it possible for students to access the university.
