From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
A legal luminary, Aare Afe Babalola, was yesterday, honoured in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital by strategic stakeholders, including university administrators, educators, scholars and policy makers.
Those who honoured the founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) included former minister of Science and Technology, Bart Nnaji; Executive Secretary, National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), Abuja, Paulinus Okwelle; Jacob Olupona of Harvard University, United States of America; Abimbola Windapo, Deputy Dean, Post Graduate Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Olaide Gbadamosi, College of Law, Osun State University; and Oyelowo Oyewo, Commissioner for Justice, Oyo State.
They honoured him at a colloquium organised in his honour by a group of youths from diverse fields, who have been touched positively Aare Babalola, under the aegis of Legendary Aare Afe Babalola Disciples (LAABD) under leadership of Akinyemi Rasaq. But the honouree neither attended the programme and did not send words.
The colloquium, entitled: ‘Globalisation and Concurrent Challenges of Higher Education’, was held both onsite and virtually at the NUJ Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan.
The speakers at the colloquium made special case to the National University Commission (NUC) to make review of curriculum mandatory every three to five years in order to accommodate new realities in the world, describing usage of curriculum developed 15 to 20 or 30 years ago to teach 21st Century students as a disservice to the nation.
Nnaji, who had also served as minister of Power, in a keynote address he presented virtually on the occasion, noted that the public primary and secondary schools in Nigeria have very uneducated teachers, poor quality staff, especially in the rural areas, leading to foundational problems for those gaining admission into higher institutions.