The Imo state Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has said that the Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, SAN deserves a Nobel Prize for his pioneering works at reformatory and quality education in Nigeria.
Okorocha, who was visiting the four-year old University for the first time said it was amazing and almost incredible that a private University could put in place such massive infrastructure, quality Faculty, sophisticated teaching equipment and laboratories within such a short period of time.
According to the governor, who was accompanied on the visit by the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, only the Federal government of Nigeria could have the financial muscle to fund such a gigantic project like ABUAD going by the quality of infrastructure, modern library and engineering equipments available as well as the international standard of its lecturers.
He commended the sheer size and the architectural masterpiece of the university’s new Engineering Building, built on three and half acres of land and reputed to be the largest in Africa.
He added that with the sophisticated and modern equipment in the Engineering complex coupled with the on-going massive infrastructural development, the University could compete favorably with its peers in Europe and the Americas.
Okorocha congratulated the people of Ekiti State for having a worthy son, who thought it wise to establish a university of this magnitude in his home state, thereby advertising the state to the whole world.
In his own remarks, Fayemi said Babalola remained a great asset to the government and people of the state, a veritable reason why the frontline legal icon and educationist is celebrated by all and sundry.
He described the ABUAD Founder as a good example of an Ekiti man who loves hard work, philanthropy and affecting the society positively, adding that Babalola's love for education was unequaled going by the series of infrastructures he donated to many institutions of higher learning in different parts of the country.
According to Fayemi, the trail blazing trend of ABUAD compelled him to describe the fastest growing university in Africa as "The Harvard of Africa".
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