Ebiti, silent spender, eulogised as Gov Zulum delivers Summit University’s maiden convocation lecture in Offa

*A brief about Summit University, Offa

*The keynote address: Ansar-Ud-Deen epitomises knowledge – Falola

*As Gov Zulum speaks on responsibilities of youth in digital economy

*We’ve graduated students with first class, skills, other qualities – Ebiti

*As pioneer VC Oloyede, Pantami, VC Aibinu, Prof Bayo Lawal, Yusuf Ali, other eulogise Summit University, host community, Offa

*Say sky now clearly the limit for institution

*Idea of Summit University in Offa is that of collaboration between owners and host community – Dr Nurat Akinlabi-Babalola

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

Happening within the same period that centenary anniversary of establishment of its proprietors, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, is ongoing, a foremost institution of for academic and moral excellence, Summit University Offa, Kwara State Nigeria, finally flagged off its much talked about Maiden and Combined Convocation Ceremonies on Wednesday December 6, 2023 with a press conference that saw leaders and heads of the institution speak to journalists about what to come, among which mainly was the Convocation Lecture the following day of Thursday December 7.

The convocation lecture was one of the highlights earlier detailed of the various activities lined up for this year’s combined convocation ceremonies, as stated by Prof.Abiodun Musa Aibinu, the Vice Chancellor, in an earlier press conference address in which numerous achievements and future goals of the university were unveiled. The lecture will be followed by a Research Exhibition, which will unfold the Research and Innovation Unit of the University and run concurrently with other events daily until grand finale event that will hold on Saturday, December  9.

Ground-breaking ceremonies for the Engr. Kola Balogun College of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Engineering, the College of Innovation and Computing Technology, and the College of Post Graduate Studies were announced to follow immediately after the lecture. Essentially, it was said, the lecture day would culminate with the Special Convocation Dinner and Award Night ceremony to be held at the Imperial Event Centre, opposite the Summit University, Offa campus.

Brief about Summit University

Summit University, Offa, with acronym ‘SUN, Offa’, Kwara State, Nigeria was established by the Ansar-Ud-Deen Society off Nigeria (ADSN), a prominent Islamic-faith based organisation, with the noble objective of providing high-quality tertiary education to all Nigerians, regardless of religious beliefs, ethnicity, gender, or creed.

With Professor Hussein Oloyede as its pioneer Vice Chancellor, SUN Offa’s establishment aimed to foster a holistic approach to education, emphasizing not only knowledge and skills but also moral and ethical values.

This vision, according to a brief history of the university made available to this Our Reporter, reflects the institution’s commitment to producing graduates who can stand on their own, become job creators, and are prepared for gainful employment under the “industry-ready graduates” mantra. These graduates, in addition, are expected to remain God-fearing individuals despite prevailing vices in society, the brief stated.

Summit University, Offa, which achieved significant milestones in its journey towards becoming a recognized institution of higher learning, received its provisional license from the National Universities Commission (NUC) on March 15, 2015 making it the 59^th private university in Nigeria, and subsequently the university obtained its permanent operational license on April 1, 2019 thus further solidifying its status as a reputable institution.

The National Universities Commission had conducted accreditation exercises 2019, 2021 and 2022 and the SUN, Offa obtained thereby obtained accreditations for all its academic programmes. “This achievement affirms the institution’s unwavering commitment to academic excellence”, the brief stated.

The lecture

As rightly explained during the media meeting heralding the four-day events, the Convocation Lecture held with Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, as guest lecturer, ably represented by a professor of defence technology and Commissioner for Information and Internal Security in his cabinet, Professor Usman Tar.

The Borno Commissioner had told the august gathering in the Alhaja Adiat Abegbe Makanjuola Lecture Theatre, venue of the event on Thursday, that his boss’ only reason for not being physically present was because of the superior order of President and Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who asked him to join his delegation to CO28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

He, however, went on to deliver the guest lecturer’s paper, which he promised to restrict himself to, word-to-word, with a note that “every ‘I’ that I will mention here means the governor”. And he took the big hall, filled to capacity, through the paper he said was divided into 11 sections taken in all within appreciable time of delivery.

Professor Usman Tar said the Convocation Guest Lecturer was worried that despite the huge GDP of Nigeria, the country had continued to face numerous challenges that he blamed on inability to properly harness resources as one of the problems.

According to him, section one of the 13-page paper titled, “Revitalising the Nigerian Economy: The Roles and Responsibilities of the Youth in the Digital Economy”, defines the roles of the youth in digital economy saying because the youth constitutes the larger percentage of the demographic distribution, paying attention to their roles, responsibilities in revitalizing the economy of world largest black nation through digital economy development becomes imperative.

Zulum, who also introduced Nigeria as “a country with immense potential and opportunities, endowed with abundant natural and human resource”, quickly proceeded to also add, however, that “despite these impressive statistics, Nigeria faces many challenges that hinder its development and prosperity. According to Ayamasaowei (2020), some of these challenges include poverty, unemployment, insecurity, corruption, poor infrastructure, low productivity and weak institutions.”

Referring to it as the economic activity that results from the use of digital technologies such as the internet, mobile devices, cloud computing, artificial intelligence blockchain among others, Professor Zulum said the digital economy “has emerged as a key driver and enabler of the global economic and social development and transformation in the 21st century”, citing Don Tapscott, Canadian author and consultant, in his effort stressing the importance of digital economy in the 21st century, as saying, it is “not a separate economy, but the foundation for all twenty-first-century economies”.

The lecturer enthused that youth “can contribute to the revitalization of the Nigerian economy by leveraging the digital economy as consumers, producers and innovators, and by creating and offering digital goods and services that can meet the needs and demands of the market, solve social and economic problems and generate value and wealth.”

But, he said that the youth also face challenges and constraints in the digital economy necessitating actions required to address those challenges and then made his recommendations including urging that government should upscale and make digital infrastructure dynamic.

Convocation lecture testimony to commitment – VC

Earlier in his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor , Professor Abiodun Musa Aibunu, has described the lecture day as “the beginning of our maiden and combined convocation ceremonies”, adding that the “ceremony is a testament to commitment”.

Professor Aibinu expressed appreciation to the host community, the Offa people, for their support towards successes the university had achieved, while soliciting for further cooperation and more support for greater achievements in the future.

Ebiti – the Pro-Chancellor – speaks

Noticeably the hall’s mood changed with the standing and walk steps of Alhaji AbdulRafiu Adisa Ebiti, as he proceeded to mount the podium to give his address as Chairman of the occasion. He was also sitting at the event in his official capacity as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of Summit University Offa. The change and loud ovation were later found out to be in appreciation of his personal sacrifices in all ramifications culminating in the giant stride the university project has today achieved. Much as he remains silently doing his best, the respect he commands was said to be sign that his good work has been noticed and rewarded by his creator.

But in the meantime, Ebiti, a chartered accountant and successful business mogul with spirit to help at any time, mounted the podium with a word that got the hall refecting. He said, “When yesterday (Wednesday) I went round the university campus here, I was emotional. There is no way anybody will come to this place today and will not say it looks like a university,” he said amidst resounding applause.

He then said, “We have graduated students with first class, we have graduated students with skills acquisition and entrepreneurship. We don’t cut it, we trim it so that it can germinate again and then it flourishes,” Alhaji Ebiti spoke with satisfaction with successes of Summit University Offa showing all over his face as also seen in his countenance.

The pro-chancellor was undone until he had also stated another product evidence of the qualitative contributions that Summit University has made to the Nigerian and global societies when he said “One of our students is already a senior post-graduate student in Germany and in computer technology,” the quiet but filled-with-joy Ebiti told his audience as he added that, “Our certification process is highly different.”

On effort to make Summit University Offa a stakeholder in the production of technology, he said: “We have designed solar powered vehicle in the university. We have this vehicle, we are perfecting it. I can assure you by the time you come back in 2024, you come down from your car and our solar powered vehicle will take you to anywhere you want to go, inshaallah,” he enthused.

The keynote address: Ansar-Ud-Deen epitomises knowledge – Falola

The keynote speaker, Professor Toyin Falola,  set the lecture hall aglow as, at a point in the reading of his citation, he walked up to the university’s orator and Dean of Mass Communication Department, Yusuf Sholola, grabbed the microphone from him in excitingly dramatic manner and said: “E yi naa to” (meaning, this is enough). He has a very huge profile that might not finish within the whole time available for the event.

A professor of history, University of Texas at Austin, United States of America and recipient of virtually countless awards including 18 honourary university’s doctorate decrees locally and internationally, Professor Falola had flown into Nigeria and was in Offa for the main reason of the Summit University event.

Professor Toyin Falola started his speech on a light yet serious mood by first talking about the National Missioner of the Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, Sheikh AbdulRahman Ahmad, who he described a big man with two great qualities of cleric and “Owo” (honour) on him. He then went on telling the good, great and unsung things about Alhaji AbdulRafiu Adisa Ebiti, for his kind of commitment by which he spends his own hard earned money to fund the Summit University Offa without looking back.

Professor Falola, along his humours on the podium, got more serious telling his own story about his background: “My father’s side is Christian and my mother’s side is Muslim.” He talked about a vow he made with his mother, who asked him to do good things for Islam. He said by the ‘majemu’ (vow) though a Christian, he has been sending people to Makkah, he has been celebrating Ramadan with Muslims and has been helping Muslims and Islamic course.

The American university’s scholar exonerated Islam, the faith Ansar-Ud-Deen has promoted for a century to the point of now having an institution in the form of Summit University Offa, and freed the Muslim’s religion from all the evils of violence and terrorism being ascribed to it by the western nations. He said after fighting Russia in what they called Cold War, they (the West) asked themselves, “After Soviet Union, who is our next enemy? And they said the Muslims”.

Advising the Muslims, the professor, who spoke about his ongong intellectual work he called ‘My Encounter With Islam’, confessed that Islam is distinct away from whatever anyone would say or evils being linked with it.

He said, “The way we ascribe Islam, we must put it in a content to let people know what is going on in the world.” He added that those who threw bombs at others, the terrorists, should rather be put in the content of enemies of Islam.

He said it was later that they (the West) added China as part of the enemies, but he faulted them for having to destroy people just because they want to prove to the world that they are superior to them. Professor Toyin Falola said to call Muslims terrorists, therefore, is wrong because, according to him, Muslims were not responsible for the First World War and the Second World War and so that nobody will be right to ascribe violence to Islam or Muslims.

He argued that the foundation of Islam is based on knowledge and praised the Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria for proving that with its commitment to education as now peaked in Summit University Offa it established and which maiden convocation events are ongoing.

He pleaded with Muslims saying, “You must see the challenge in the global attack on Islam and we don’t want to attack back. We use intellectual warfare as our tool for reply”, he said, citing how in Auston the system did not want dead Muslims to be buried “because they said the body would corrupt the water”, adding that he told Muslims, “Let’s go to the bank and we took loan and built the first Islamic cemetery in Austin.”

He talked about the need for Muslims to prove to the world that Islam is mostly about encouragement of education and also urged that they should do more about women education. He also urged the faithful who are wealthy to do more of scholarship, complaining that, “Muslim Ummah are not opening their wallets enough”.

To the institution, he urged Summit University authorities to create a Hall of Fame to encourage people to do more good. He said students should be treated as friends and that the university should pay attention on certification programme.

He concluded his keynote address with an urge that Summit University should make itself a representative of Offa so that the Offa people would treat it as their own university and then support it more and fully.

Summit and host community

On the sidelines of the Convocation Lecture, earlier, General Manager, Summit University Advancement Bureau, Dr. Adebola Nurat Akinkabi-Babalola, had told this reporter that idea of the university in Offa is that of an effective collaboration between the owners and the host community.

According to her, “We have the support of the host community because they know and see us as being here to work with them and not to dominate them,” Dr. Nurat Akinlabi-Babalola said.

Attendance

The event was also attended by dignitaries including the pioneer Vice Chancellor of Summit University Offa, Professor Hussein Oloyede; Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin and Chairman KU8 that is Consortium of Eight Universities in Kwara State, Professor Wahab Egbewole; Lt Commander SU Ibrahim of the Nigerian Navy, Offa; President Offa Professors Forum, Professor Bayo Lawal, who, like few others, had volunteered to teach at the university without collecting salary and had seized the event to appeal for more volunteers; former Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Senator Gbenga Kaka; Professor Yusuf Ali (SAN), who said Ansar-Ud-Deen is big and so should have more universities across Nigeria; former Minister of Communications and Ditigital Economy, Professor Isa Ibrahim Pantami, who joined virtually, among several others.