FROM: PAUL ORUDE, BAUCHI
Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar of Bauchi State has charged Nigerian students, especially those studying abroad, to concentrate on their studies, acquire knowledge and be willing to return home and contribute their quota to nation-building.
Governor Abubakar enjoined the students to emulate other youths who had demonstrated this trend in emerging economies of the world.
He also charged them to be good ambassadors of the country by
exhibiting values that would project the good image of the country in
line with the ‘change begins with me’ campaign as well as the entire
change disposition of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
administrations.
The governor’s advice was contained in a release issued and
made available to newsmen by his Press Secretary, Abubakar Al-Sadique. He gave this charge after being conferred with Honorary Doctorate degree in Political Science, Honorary Causa and Best West African Administrator and Governor Award by ESTAM University, Cotonou, Benin Republic.
He said education was the key that opens other doors of opportunities,
stressing that since assumption of office in 2015, his administration
had consistently been dedicating 20% of the State’s budget to
revitalisation of education.
He observed that education was accorded priority attention because
of his administration’s conviction that with attention education need,
health, politics and all other critical sectors will also improve.
“At the inception of my administration in 2015, Bauchi State had
recorded only 3.5% pass in NECO and WEAC, but with the attention
given, by 2016 it rose to 17% and 27% in 2017,” he said
Governor Abubakar revealed that with youths constituting about 42 per cent of
about eight million population of Bauchi State, his administration had
no option that to focus attention on Technical and Vocational
Education that produces employers of labour as against job seekers.
“Paid jobs are unavailable anymore, so we need to fashion ways of
changing the narrative by making our youth self-employed. This is the
reason why my administration is giving attention to the Bauchi
State-owned Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi”, the governor
said.
On the clamour for restructuring by some people in the country, Governor Abubakar said after 57 years of independence, there was need to look back and see where the nation had erred with a view to make amendments, but regretted that those making calls for restructuring have not defined what they meant by restructuring.
He continued, “I want to assure Nigerians that those agitations for restructuring,
whatever they meant, will easily disappear if the revenue allocation
formula is reviewed in the constitution to increase the percentage
given to states,” he said.
Governor Abubakar was conferred with Honorary Doctorate degree in
Political Science, Honorary Causa and Best West African Administrator
and Governor Award by ESTAM University, Cotonou, Benin Republic.