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By Amos Odeh, Yenagoa
The Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, has expressed readiness to partner with the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) to train ex-agitators in different skills and vocations.
The institution said it presented the offer in recognition of the new focus of PAP to train, mentor and employ ex-agitators.
Pro-Chancellor and chairman governing council of FUTA, Amb. (Dr.) Godknows Igali, disclosed this when he led the vice-chancellor, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, and other top officials of the institution on a courtesy visit to PAP’s interim administrator, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd) in his office in Abuja.
A statement signed on Friday by Dikio’s special adviser, media, Neotaobase Egbe, said Igali offered the school’s entrepreneurship centers, with globally recognized certifications, to PAP
He said such centres would complement and actualize the vision of Dikio to make beneficiaries of the programme self-sufficient, employers of labour and contributors to the nation’s economy.
Igali, who used the opportunity to congratulate Dikio on his one year in office, noted that his tenure had brought major positive changes in region and contributed immensely to the peace and security of the Niger Delta.
He said Dikio’s pragmatic leadership was a proof of his passion for the region and a testament to his commitment to peace, stability and development of the oil rich Niger Delta.
He said: “Your vision to train employ and mentor beneficiaries will bring further development and economic prosperity to the region and the nation at large.
“In line with that, in FUTA we have the capacity to train ex-agitators to become agents of change that will reverse the narrative of a people dependent on stipends, become employers of labor and contribute largely to the economic growth of the region through our centre of entrepreneurship”.
Explaining its academic policy, he said: “We have a pre-degree programme, so they don’t have to go through the JAMB cycle. Our programme also recognizes JAMB, so we will be able to accommodate a lot of trainees into it”.
On his part, the vice chancellor, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, said that the institution has the capacity and facilities to support the PAP in terms of research, manpower development programmes, innovation and technology in data management, aqua-culture, fish farming, agro business and agropreneurship, among others.
Responding, Dikio, who acknowledged the importance of technology in national development, commended the management team of FUTA for the gesture and promised to set up a team to evaluate the offer and draw up a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
He said that informal education was just as important as conventional education, noting that relevant vocational and business skills could be learnt and used to transform lives and the mindsets of ex-agitators.
Dikio said: “I would have thought that we will have more universities of technology than the conventional universities, because we are a developing country, and now people rush to these conventional universities and come back with no skills.
“We need a long-term approach to education, both formal and informal, just as you know better than I do, education is about character and learning, if we do not emphasize the character part, then the learning might most times be used wrongly, because we have the same tools.
“That is why in the PAP, we have opted to seek avenues that will ensure our delegates are trained, employed and mentored, until they are able to stand on their own as successful entrepreneurs and contributors to the economic growth of the region”.
