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Today, I was at the National Universities Commission where I joined 36 other Proprietors and promoters who were officially and formally presented with the certificate of registration of new private universities in Nigeria.
On behalf of the Henry Seriake Dickson Foundation, promoters of the HENSARD University, I thank and appreciate Professor A.A Rasheed mni, and members of the NUC team for the meticulous job, and their dedication to the cause of promoting and deepening education in Nigeria.
The Hensard University, which is the first private University in Bayelsa State, will promote high academic, ethical and professional standards comparable to any university anywhere else. It will commence academic activities later this year and also run a robust pre-degree foundation school aimed at raising the standards of young people desirous of University education with links to several universities in Nigeria and abroad.
My lifelong commitment to supporting education and human capacity development is well known.
As governor, I built and established the University of Africa Toru- Oura, and the Bayelsa Medical University, Yenagoa (all buildings and facilities except the hospital building, which we renovated. I established the Bayelsa State Polytechnic, Aleibiri, for the development of technical skills, the Isaac Boro college of education Sagbama, the international institute of Tourism development, Yenagoa, the Driving institute, Yenagoa, School of Agriculture Ofoni, sports Academy, Asuama, I granted monthly subventions to even Federal institutions in Bayelsa:10 million naira to Federal University Otueke and 5 million naira to Federal Polytechnic Ekeowe. I also built and introduced Boarding secondary schools with the Ijaw National Academy as the flagship, with free boarding, uniforms, books etc for the first time, I built headmasters and teachers’ quarters and many primary schools in various communities across the state.
While doing the above, we embarked on reforms to sanitize existing tertiary institutions and our infrastructural interventions and investments in Niger Delta University have made it look like a serious university, same goes for the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Tombia and the College of Health Technology, Otuogidi.
I introduced novel policies and laws supporting these innovations in the educational sector. Some of these are:
1. Educational Development Trust Fund, (EDTF)
2. Bayelsa Higher Education Students Loan Board.
3. The Teachers training and certification Board.
4. Board for Science and technical education (to promote and formulate policies on science and technical education in the state).
5. Bayelsa State right to education law.
Even at a recession, I granted employment to all first-class graduates of Bayelsa state and Ijaw origin to encourage them to pursue their academic careers in our various tertiary institutions and in the public service. I held regular meetings and annual dinners to encourage teachers and increase their morale as the most important workforce in the state.
I also built and handed over boarding schools with improved facilities to all the armed forces and security agencies in Nigeria, which is why the Army command secondary school in Ebedebiri started, a product of that partnership with the military and security agencies. I hope all the security services are following up and living up to expectations.
In our hunger for empowerment and advancement of human capital, our government granted unprecedented scholarships to various Bayelsans who had admission in various disciplines within Nigeria and some of the best institutions around the world.
For these initiatives and the impact our government made on educational indices, my efforts and that of my team received commendations from the country’s highest policy organ, the National Council on Education severally and other regulatory bodies and institutions.
I dedicated a lot of time, effort and resources to the promotion and deepening of frontiers of education, and human capacity building as I fore said.
I did all of these in a period of unprecedented national recession.
I did it because as I always say, no investment makes meaning as investment in education. Every other investment deteriorates with time but investment in human capacity building brings on the contrary, multiplier intergenerational effects.
As a result of my commitment even after all of these, in my current position as Senator, I have always directed scarce resources towards supporting educational advancement by way of scholarships, grants and other forms of support to students and institutions, and more of that will be unveiled even this year moving forward as I promised.
HENSARD University will give me an opportunity to continue to support and promote, education and the development of skills.
The HENSARD University is going to be a combination of academic training and practical professional exposure and work closely with the corporate world to ensure that skills are developed and our graduates instead of seeking for jobs, will themselves be the employers of labour.
HENSARD University will pave the way even in that.
I congratulate all members of the HENSARD team, members of the board of trustees and members of the project implementation committee.
once again my appreciation goes to the Federal Government, the Ministry of Education and the NUC for granting this license.
Parents, guardians and prospective students should await operational statements that will be issued by the management of the university soonest.
HSD.