By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA- like the University of Abuja, holds its 25th and 26th combined convocation on Saturday, a total of 23 graduating students will bag first class, the university has said.

The vice-chancellor of the university, Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, speaking at the pre convocation press briefing, in Abuja, Monday, also said 1052 students will graduate with second class upper division, 3061 will graduate with second class lower division while 324 will graduate with third class.

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According to him, a total of 8769 would be graduating out of which 267 are PhD degrees, 2372 Master Degrees, and 214 with Post Graduate Diplomas,PGD.

The graduates would be awarded first and higher degrees at the institution’s convocation.

“Set ’26 has 31 first-class, 973-second class upper, 2920 second class lower and 257 third class,”he said.

The UniAbuja VC said his administration was determined to make a difference in the institution by carrying out various programmes aimed at developing the students, the university as well as the nation.

Speaking on the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities , ASUU, Prof. Na’Allah,appealed to the government to look into the needs of the nation’s universities, noting that it would be a grave error for the government to do otherwise.

According to him,the Chinese and Japanese governments became top economies of the world due to what he referred to as their “sustained investments in tertiary education.”

Advising the federal government to borrow a leaf from the two top economies of the world to enhance it’s learning infrastructure, Na’Allah said:“Government is making a big mistake for not supporting the university education in Nigeria.”

According to him,”No nation that wants to stand strong will neglect its university system.”

Hear him:”Look at China and Japan. Everyday, Japan is becoming a big economy, simply because of effective management of its resources
We must contribute our own quota to the development of our own universities.”

Speaking on the revitalisation fund,one of the controversial issues that led to the ongoing strike by university lecturers under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Na’Allah said UniAbuja has received its first batch of N390 million, explaining that the money was utilised in providing facilities for lecturers.

“The revitalization funds we have been benefiting, we have received the first tranche of N390million which we used to provide facilities for lecturers and other infrastructural needs within the campus.

” We have also gotten the second tranche of N540million.We have got billions from TETFUND, grants from JICA for furnishing our laboratories among others,”he added.

He explained that the aim of the university was to ensure it competes globally with other institutions not only in Nigeria but also across the world, vowing that it would produce “quality graduates that can become employers of labour upon graduation rather than going cap in hand searching for white-collar jobs.”

He said:“We have introduced some foreign languages for global citizenship in order to meet with the new world order, we are constructing a new Senate building.

“We are building smart classrooms, constructing new roads, we have also introduced entrepreneurship to train students as successful graduates.”

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