Professor Shitij Kapur, President of the greatest United Kingdom Institution, the King’s College, declared that the Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) has achieved milestone and unprecedented achievements in the ten years since its inception.
Kapur, who led a ten-man delegation of the college’s management team to ABUAD over the weekend for the launch of the Afe Babalola Centre for Transnational Education at King’s College London, explained that the institution’s success in a decade took centuries to achieve after its founding in 1829.
He expressed surprise that King’s College took more than a century to reach the student enrollment of over 8000 that ABUAD had achieved in less than a decade.
The president also referred to the ABUAD Multi-System Hospital as another incredible milestone set by the young citadel of learning within a decade of its establishment, which he said had been offering quality and cheap healthcare services to people all over the world.
He stated that the team from King’s College came to learn from the desire and mission of ABUAD founder, Aare Afe Babalola, which culminated in the organization’s extraordinary successes in such a short period of time.
According to him, the ABUAD founder has displayed extraordinary fervor and devotion to the advancement of education and society in his country and on the African continent, stressing that Babalola deserved to be remembered forever for his vision for the betterment of humanity.
Professor Shitij said, “I am here because we are launching the Aare Afe Babalola Centre for transnational education and the centre will be based in London. It is a privilege to see ABUAD University and my colleagues and I are inspired by what we saw.
“We come here not to teach but to learn. What we came to learn is the ambition and mission of this university and the founder. I am surprised that it takes this university to go from zero to over 8000 students in less than a decade. It took us centuries to build a world class hospital that we have and ABUAD have built one in less than a decade.
“So, I think the future is in your hands. They say humanity began from the continent of Africa and I think the century belongs here. We are here to embrace and we are here to contribute in whatever little way we can to your success.”
Professor Funmi Olonisakin, Vice President of International Engagement and Service at King’s College, stated in her remarks that the center would provide quality education to the brightest children in Africa who are disadvantaged.
“The centre will give the brightest of the people in Africa quality education. We are building a transnational partnership that will allow ABUAD to liaise with other universities in the world. It will enable ABUAD student access to the universities in the comfort of their campus, ” she said.
Speaking, Founder of the ABUAD, Babalola described the launching of the transnational Education Centre as an assurance that under privileged people would have access to education.
The renowned lawyer said, “This development is an assurance to me that under-privileged will access education and the future is bright. There are so many people who could not afford to go to school, like in my own case.
“This relationship we are having with the King’s College will give them the opportunity to learn without necessarily going to King’s college or ABUAD and yet they can become graduates, like I did.
“I am replicating what I suffered and how I conquered poverty and it is to me hope for now, hope tomorrow, and hope for the future.”
“I am worried with the level of education in the country, that was why after I left UNILAG as a pro-chancellor, I established this university to be an example on how university should be run and it is because of the high standard which we have achieved that King’s college directly got in touch with us, we didn’t lobby for it to establish a centre for under-privileged people, not only in Nigeria but the whole of Africa.
“To me, there is hope for everybody, there is hope for the rich, the poor and for everybody who wants to work hard and that is what we have achieved today with the launch of the center.”
