balances or mechanism to resolve a problem like this. There will likely be boundary problem when the regional issue come into being,
Now, there is still a problem with this your concept. Look at some powerful people in the South-West, particularly from Abeokuta. The scenario also exists in other regions that can effectively use the police and soldiers to perpetuate themselves in office. How do we resolve this kind of problem?
In the regions, there will be commissioners with portolios, regional commissioner for this and that. You wouldn’t say ministers here. In those days, what happened in this kind of situation was that all regions were answerable to the Federal Government, but in this case, the Federal Government is completely toothless, it can’t do anything other than just visiting and commissioning projects in the regions. You see, somebody will just be there as President and enjoy himself fabulously for one year with the donations from other regions because he is not going to do anything.
The glory of Nigeria is in her strength. Don’t you think the formula will water down the strength of Nigeria?
The strength is still there because we are still the same united Nigeria, but the problem is that some regions can choose to call themselves other names and not the the older regional names I am talking about, and this could pose a problem. I’m raising some of these possible problems so that Nigerians can take note of them with a view to finding solution to them. It is a good concept, if it can be implemented.
Some federal universities have increased their tuition fees. What will happen in Oduduwa University?
We will simply look at the laws of demand and supply and take our decision. For instance, a course like Mass Communication, we will just add little the fee. If you Google the cheapest universities in Nigeria, I think the first name that will come up is Oduduwa University. The issue is that money is not a determinant of the success of students in their courses of study. Where they pay N400,000 like ours, and the quality of professor who teach them is the same, others charge over N1M. Meanwhile, our products will be far better because of the experience we have on this job. I have been doing the same thing for close to 40 years now, you cannot compare me with non-professionals who just came to invest in the sector.
There are graduates all over the place and no jobs. What are you doing to tackle unemployment?
We have started a Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies which our students pass through to acquire skills before they graduate so that when they leave here, they can survive without necessarily searching for jobs. We have organized it in such a way that we are put them together in fours or fives to see if we can loan them money to start off their businesses. A student must have contributed N25,000 to attend the centre and each year for four years, and, on graduation, we will give him back the money, that will be N100,000.Then we will see how to add to it based on the skills he has acquired.
