West African College of Nursing honours Afe Babalola.
The West African College of Nursing (WACN), a specialized Agency of the West African Health Organization (WAHO), with Headquarters in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Fasso, has singled out the Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, honorary Fellowship Award of the College in appreciation of his enormous contributions to quality education including Nursing Education in Nigeria and globally.
This Award, which is coming some two months after the international legal icon was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Laws by the famous University of London, has become another merited feather to the already crowded cap of accolades, awards and recognition as well as chieftaincy titles of the multiple chief who major pastime is impacting lives.
The cheering news was contained in an April 16, 2015 signed by WACN’s Executive Secretary, Mrs. Henrietta A. Okedo, FWACN, who inter alia said: “We recognize your bold initiatives in founding the fastest growing private university in Africa. We recognize you for the development of human resources in Nigeria and indeed Africa through the provision of quality education”.
Okedo added: “It is against this backdrop that the President and the Council of WACN have singled you out for the prestigious Honorary Award of the College. We recognize your bold initiatives in founding the fastest growing private university in Africa. We recognize you for the development of human resources in Nigeria and indeed Africa through the provision of quality education”.
The WACN boss cited Babalola “With particular reference to the swiftness in which you are reforming education and your doggedness to turn out professionals in all areas especially in Nursing profession”.
According to her, the establishment of the Department of Nursing in the five-year old Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), where all the programmes presented for accreditation, including core ones like Medicine, Law, Engineering, Computer Science among others have secured 100% accreditation, coupled with the improved standard of education and practical skills being imparted on Nurses ABUAD, “there is no doubt that the long awaited reform in Nursing (education) is already in sight”.
“This, she stressed, “is in tandem with the overall goal for which the West African College of Nursing was established to promote excellence in Nursing Education at the Basic and post-Basic levels, to maintain the standard of practice of Nursing within the sub-regional community and to contribute to the improvement of health care within the family and the community as well as to formulate and support Nursing/Midwifery education”.
Established in 1981, WACN is to ensure that the citizens of member states receive health care services that include quality Nursing and Midwifery services at even the most remote villages.
The award ceremony will take place during the College’s Biennial General Meeting in Accra, Ghana between July 21-25, 2015.