Former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on governments and public-spirited individuals to accord the rural dwellers and the poor better opportunities to access quality education by establishing such institutions closer to them.
Adamu, who was also the first executive governor of Nasarawa State said the rural dwellers who constitute 60 percent of the country’s population lack access to tertiary education because of the lack of proximity to urban centers which such institutions are always sited.
He said because of their financial vulnerability, families also often find it difficult to moblise resources needed to send and sustain their children and wards in such institutions.
He spoke during a facility tour of Phoenix University Agwada in Kokona local government area of Nasarawa State by emirs and chiefs from western senatorial zone of the state on Tuesday.
Adamu, a former senator who represented the zone at the Senate said it is time for goverments and highly placed individuals to invest more in the educational upliftment of such segments of the population by establishing institutions in remote communities.
He said the need to give rural dwellers access to western education was key motivation for his establishing Phoenix University in his birthplace of Agwada.
He said establishing such institutions in remote areas would afford the students even from urban cities opportunity to concentrate more on their studies as there are less social activities to distract them.
He further pointed out the establishment of such institutions would spur infrastructural development in rural areas.
“It is not my university but the people’s university, my intention, and vision are born out of giving back to society,” he stated.
He reiterated that profit was not his motive, as evidenced by his choice to establish the institution in a rural area rather than an urban center.
Speaking at the end of the facility tour, the Emir of Keffi, Dr Shehu Yamusa III who led other traditional rural from the zone to the event, commended Senator Adamu for the foresight in establishing the institution which he said is one of the top grades in the country only second to Afe Babalola University in Ado Ekkiti.
He said the institution would soon become the hub for robotic technology and artificial intelligence studies in the country goingby the huge investment in the unit by the owner and management.