Afe Babalola’s Unrelenting Quest in Search of Greater Future for Nigerian Youths

A man of great vision and passion for human development like Aare Afe Babalola will always be resilient and unfulfilled until greater numbers of people around him achieve greatness.

The great passion for human development in Aare Afe Babalola has made him to organise an entrepreneurial lecture/ training for the students of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, (ABUAD) in order for them to be able to achieve and gain the opportunity which he himself did not and could not have while he was young.

In the talent discovery hall of the fastest growing private university in Nigeria, ABUAD, Afe Babalola could not prevail against his emotion as he openly disclosed: “I feel like becoming a younger person, or a boy again as I did not have these kinds of opportunity before”

This is the high level of the passion displayed by Baba Afe himself, to indicate that he wished Nigerian younger generation, and particularly his students well and that they could appreciate what he was giving to them to tap adequately.

The lecture which was organised to promote skills and an entrepreneurial concept of the university as well as translating its research into industrial products was also part of the ABUAD founder’s initiative to establish an‎ Industrial Park in the institution.

The park, according to its founder, would also help to propel research in the institution. Babalola, who spoke last week Thursday, May 25, 2017, during the entrepreneurship sensitization programme held at the University, said the Park will contain 121 industrial units.

“The industrial park will contain 60 small scale, 40 medium scale and 21 large scale units and the purpose is to translate our research findings to industrial products that will be of tremendous benefits to the economy.

“We are liaising with the government and private investors to partner with us to bring the dream to reality because our dream was to churn out graduates that won’t be servants or employees of anybody. They will be job creators regardless of their background or the economic situation of this country”.

In their presentations, two entrepreneurial experts, Mr Yinka Olugbodi and Mrs Roseline Aadun, urged the students to be innovative in thinking, describing creativity as the greatest asset that can stand them out under this suffocating economy.

They urged the management to develop a better template that would make the Talents Discovery centre built by the institution to be of tremendous benefits to the students by making it focus on practicability, rather than a mere theoretical centre.

The Provost, College of Social and Management Science, Prof Adeolu Durotoye, described the youths as the pivot of socio-economic and political developments of any country, whom he said should be involved in productive ventures.

Durotoye disclosed that the university has mandated every student to acquire certificates programme in skill acquisition in 19 designated areas of specialisation, including farming, leather works and shoe making, painting manufacturing, screen printing, hairdressing, dye and body cream production, among others.

Durotoye added: “The solution to high level of youth unemployment in Nigeria is to produce young entrepreneurs who will create businesses and jobs. Entrepreneurship is the capacity to develop, organize and manage business ventures and this skill is now needed because
students graduate every year and start looking for jobs that are non-existent”.

The training was brought to an end with various questions from students of the University which suggested that they were agitated and that they actually key into the entrepreneurial initiative of the founder, with all bothering questions answered adequately by the guest lecturers invited for the training.

Participants saw the programme as part of the fulfilment of Afe Babalola’s determination to evolve new orientation among students to be self reliant rather than roaming the street looking for nonexistent jobs.

The programme will also make ABUAD attain more academic excellence among other universities.