The Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Federal, State and Private Universities in Nigeria is set to celebrate 60 years of their existence with activities including conferences to help deepen growth in the nation’s University system.
The Secretary General of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, CVCNU, Professor Yakubu Ochefu at a media briefing in Abuja said the four-day event with the theme “60 Years of Leadership in Nigerian Universities” will be held from 9th to 12th October 2023 at designated centres in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
He said the event is a three-in-one celebration as the Golden Jubilee of the Committee would be celebrated, an international conference on gender and leadership would be held and awards would be given to distinguished Nigerians who have supported the Nigerian Universities, stressing that 60 participants who would be giving lectures in specialized papers during the Workshop.
“We have identified 25 individuals, local and international organizations that we are going to give lifetime awards, some of which are: the Founder of T.Y. Danjuma Foundation, Theophilus Danjuma, who we identified as the largest benefactor of the Nigerian universities after the Federal government.
“Founder of Abdulsamad Foundation, Abdulsamad Rabiu who despite previous records recently gave research grants to 25 Universities to the tune of over N250 billion Naira, also Mrs. Alikija, the Founder of Sharon of Rose Foundation, who is currently building a 34 billion Naira Teaching Hospital for Osun State University.”
Others, he said include: the British Council, Bill and Gates Foundation, TetFund, NUC, NITDA, and Federal Ministry of Education, adding that the Awards Nite would be held at the NAF Conference Centre in Abuja on Wednesday.
A Programme of Events released from the office of the Secretary-General indicates that the open ceremony scheduled for Monday 9th October 2023 at Baze University, Abuja, will have President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima as Distinguished Guests of Honour.
The Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman will be the Special Guest of Honour, while the President of the Nigerian Academy of Science, Prof Ekanem Braide is billed to be the Keynote Speaker at the event.
According to Professor Ochefu, the CVNU since its inception in 1962 has been pursuing its core values of improving access, improving funding, research, innovation, harmonization of the school calendar, enhancing intellectual property, good journal practice, plagiarism detection software, new curriculum inputs and stability of the University system in Nigeria.
“We are currently on the verge of launching a tertiary institutions and research repository scheme that will be used by Nigerian Universities. We are also working on the Convocation ceremonies and awards of Honorary degrees by Universities as it is not properly managed by some of them.
‘We also provide international collaborations, peer review, case studies and exchange of ideas with other Universities across the world.to benchmark our successes and challenges, especially with Universities with longer histories of up to 700 years.
“You can see that in the past 60 years, CVNU has been working quietly at the background for the Nigeria University system,’ he said.
He said some of the outcomes of the initiatives and inputs of the CVCNU through history include the institution of JAMB to harmonize tertiary education admissions, the NYSC Scheme to manage post-Civil war engagements and the unity of Nigeria among others.
He said the CVCNU is a tripartite structure which includes representatives from the existing 270 Federal, State and Private Universities in the country, whose current student population stands at 2.6 million with nearly 60,000 academic staff.
