Recently, we reported that the Kwara State University (KWASU)
was launching Entrepreneurship Education. The VC, Professor AbdulRasheed
Na’Allah, reveals its implication to Nigeria’s education
system and the entrepreneurship programmes the varsity is working on, in
this exclusive interview.
You
recently announced the Entrepreneurship Education from the university.
Now, talking about entrepreneurship, what level have you been able to
take the university in your first term and your plans for another term
of five years?
I thank God for the opportunity to have led the university for five
years. Whatever success we had was a collective success of every
section, every individual, and every department. We all worked hard
together to take the university to its current enviable height. We’ve
been able to graduate two sets. It’s a major satisfaction to us as our
permanent graduation date has not changed from first Saturday of June.
Most of our graduates are outside there, creating businesses, doing
postgraduate studies, serving the country, e.t.c.
Also, we’ve been able to attract a very strong academic body from
within and outside the country. We’ve settled down to research work, in
terms of teaching, academics, scholarly activities. We have been able to
build an academic body that has reflected in the reputation of the
university. The excellence of our academic body in the past five years
has reflected in the university. We should also know that a mediocre
academic will in turn mean a mediocre university.
We’ve been able to put in place strategies for recruiting students
that has actually helped us to attract very good students. We have what
we call Open House. We are the only university that does that. In
summer, we open our university to secondary school students who are
potential students, their parents, teachers. They come here, they meet
department, colleges, listen to activities, to know what course to
pursue, or not, the implication, how to work hard etc. This enables them
to make up their mind whether to come to KWASU or not.
The typical thing in Nigeria is that ‘there are too many students in
the country; there is no need to worry.’ We don’t take things lightly.
But when people made up their mind to come to you, the tendency is that
they will succeed. In addition, it enables us to attract excellent
students that are relevant to our own goals. For instance, we have some
courses that other universities do not offer. Like Aeronautics,
Entrepreneurial Education. We intend to expand this open House to enable
parents all over the country participate.
We’ve been able to create relationship with industries, because
that’s really the job of universities. That is, to encourage active
participation of industry. For example, we have even created our own new
industries in partnership with other industries. We have the Rana
power, which is to make solar panel and it will take off soon. We have
the Malete Film village, which is absolutely fantastic, in terms of
funding which it can give the university, and campus tours and travels,
which is a tourist business that can plan your tours to all parts of the
world, including accommodation. And these are incorporated companies to
make us less dependent on government and assist us in funding our world
class standard education delivery, research, collaborations, fund
reserve, e.t.c.
We also have our entrepreneurship orientation. This is an
entrepreneurial university. I make bold to say that KWASU today is the
leading public university in entrepreneurship. We even teach directors
all over the world. They come during summer to review curriculum,
strategy for delivery, to rub minds and assess where Nigeria is at the
moment in entrepreneurship education in higher institution, involving
directors of polytechnics, colleges of education. We’ve become a centre
of entrepreneurial education in tertiary education in Nigeria.
We’ve also gone beyond that as we’ve introduced entrepreneurial
education in such a way that our students are entrepreneurs, whether you
do engineering or Islamic studies. I have said it, that this university
will be ready to disown a student if he roams the street after
graduation from here; because really we’ve empowered them. We’ve created
an entrepreneurial fund, which we are now ready to implement to
complement and support any person who is our product looking for
funding.
So we can now give them money since before they leave here, they
already have a project as they would have tested it, run it because some
of them have businesses created while they were students. It’s not
about looking for what to do; they’ve already found what to do.
So, if money is the problem, we take from the entrepreneurial fund
and partner with them as start up fund. We are creating incubation
because these are the future ones, so that some of them may even remain
here and practice until they can stand alone before they go.
They would have access to lecturers, facilities, a little bit of an
office, secretariat support. You can get all this before you become
ready on your own. This is the next stage we are working on.
Also on entrepreneurship, we started a degree programme in
entrepreneurship education – which is to produce teachers for secondary
schools. We are the only university in Nigeria doing that. That’s why I
said we’re the leading university in entrepreneurial studies. We still
need to do more, but we are proud of what we’ve achieved.
What are your plans for future?
Now, going into future, we want to set a solid foundation so that it
becomes the norm, coming from a state with poor revenue allocation. So,
we can’t depend 100 per cent on the government, especially because of
our goal in 21st century education, which is world class. So we must
have a strong foundation in terms of funding.
We have started KWASU foundation. It’s going to be an independent
foundation run by a philanthropist and set of philanthropist as board of
trustees and board of directors with day to day fund raising and
investment of the fund anywhere in the university.
Also, there will be re-investing of the fund in infrastructure and
research according to their decision. For example, grant to lecturers to
focus on resolving certain problems of Nigeria or construction of
building, and we make our strategic plan available to them. I will be a
member, but the members do all they do by themselves. It is independent
of the university and government.
This is because our future must be secured and this is the way we go.
We also want to go around the world for possibility of fund raising.
For instance, the United States has an opportunity to raise fund for
charity. A university is recognised as non-profit organisation and a
charity in US Law which people can donate to and get tax reducible
credit. So, we’ve registered KWASU as a recognised institution in
America that can collect tax reducible donations. We’re working with
King Bauldwin Foundation, meaning that any friend of Nigeria, Africa,
individuals can send donation to the university.
We have set up an office to start writing letters on our activities
to people to attract donations and we’ve started receiving statement of
account. And we intend doing same in other countries like Canada and UK
and the rest so that in addition to the foundation, we can get other
means of funding.
We also have Centre for Sponsor projects in the university that
encourages academic staff of the university to look for grant from all
over the world. The centre gets information all round the globe and
disseminate to staff according to their areas of specialisation and
their interest for research. They then write grant application and the
centre monitor all process to assist the staff and ensure
accountability.
As part of future plan, we plan to regenerate and refresh regularly.
Most Nigerian universities recycle and this does not leave room for
regeneration or renewal. A person that does not go to class regularly
becomes Head of department next year, later he becomes the dean and
eventually the vice chancellor. How would that university ever change?
So, we are planning with the government to advertise our vacant post to
the world and allow for competition, from within and outside getting the
best for the university and remaining world Class University with this
measure of regenerating, renewal and refreshing.
Almost all university in the country just recycle rotten, archaic,
myopic academic who thinks once they are professors they don’t need to
teach, do research but only want to be in politics or become directors,
Vice Chancellor. With this, Nigeria is not developing.
Would you say that governments at various levels have
adequately utilised abundant reservoir of knowledge and expertise
domicile in Nigerian universities?
No, they have not. What you see is the way they reduce scholars to
politicians. Imagine the appointment of a professor as advisers to a
chief of staff. It is demeaning of the position, but it is actually the
professors that are looking for the positions. They are already archaic
as they do nothing after becoming professor. They’d rather be a
councillor with a fleet of cars and buildings, rather than being a true
academic.
The crisis we have today is because the academic are not true to the
profession and government does not see the potentials of the academics.
And it’s very sad as both sides have not been fair to Nigeria.
The solution to this is that universities should be true universities
and to create wealth. Teaching people is just a small part of job of
the university. But that’s the focus and that’s why we have many roaming
the streets.
They are taught and issued with certificate but no use for it;
because the universities had not concerned themselves to creating wealth
by collaborating with industries with helping government. Universities
should be able to study local or state governments, have different
ideologies that are relevant to Nigeria or reflect with political
challenges in the country. And bring out projections.
If you do A, B in terms of tourism, you should be able to
take your state to next level of development. There should be options
that are out for everyone to know on mass media, so that politicians
would know of existence of this document. So that when they are
campaigning they have already known some of these ideas from different
universities and they would be campaigning on them and promise on what
to do. But which university or academic staffers are doing that?
Politicians are doing their own, universities are on their own and
Nigeria is suffering. There has to be a synergy, that’s the reality
because universities are not in isolation. Many universities of the
world have moved since when they are created but we have frozen on same
spot. That’s why we’re not competitive and not ranked among world class.
It’s sad. University of Ibadan started as world Class University, but
that’s gone now. Our politicians should look up to university, while
university must go out to help the nation. They must have regular
collaboration with industries. They should not ask academics to come to
them, academics can only make their knowledge known to industries to
help them increase their profits.
For example, an exclusive interview with Olorunyomi Omoniyi Makun of Yomi Casuals
in this edition reveals how the youthful entrepreneur started humbly, and today
the outfit is identified with celebrities and politicians. The next one is Digital Interactive Media, the owners
of V Channels and Oodua TV with its anchorman, Sola Fajobi, in an interactive session with
him, it is colourfully-revealed that one can start-up with almost nothing and
soon enough would gain excellence. 
Starting
a barbing saloon is easy, so says Chime, who owns one around Ologuneru
area of Ibadan, Oyo State. His is one of the major barbing saloons in
the area. It is decent and well ventilated. But the business can be
capital intensive, depending what kind of saloon you’re looking to set
up, he says.
