By Emmanuella Oghenetega
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), has on Tuesday, flagged off the construction of the Abuja Leadership Centre of Excellence in Public Governance at the University of Abuja.
Speaking at the event which took place in Jahi, Abuja, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Architect Sonny Echono, stated the mission of the centre, is not only to help produce great leaders for the country, but also provide a venue where leaders from other parts of the world can come and share ideas, “give us advice, and also make declarations that will reverberate throughout the globe.” He said
“So it’s a special Center of Excellence, and we want to maintain it as such. That is why we are proposing this special facility that will be the host for all of these activities. Is the center open to only students? No, not at all. As I just told you, the students are the primary focus, yes, but actually, it’s going to be a center where so many activities will take place, anything related to leadership and governance, meetings, political parties coming to have conferences or workshops.
“Leaders from other countries who are visiting Nigeria, they will branch here and address us on topics, and are going to even have Nigerians who have done well in leadership across the globe and also locally, come here and be able to share their ideas.”
The Executive Secretary, revealed that situating the Centre in the Nation’s Capital was not a mistake, he said, “when we have a modern facility like this, we expect that it will be churning out leaders to service all facets of our economy and it will be the center where world-renowned speeches, declarations, conventions will be made. So I enjoin the Vice Chancellor and the Director to join the contractors to accept this challenge.
“We expect to see a facility that is world-class. TETFund commits to making funds available to deliver the best furniture and equipment for this facility. So it will not just be any other conference center or auditorium, but a world-class center where visiting Heads of State come in, them and their delegation will feel at home.
We hope that this center will be the stopping point of any other facility that will be of similar nature.
“We thank the leadership, I want to again, I have done that in private, I have done that in public, to congratulate my brother for the stability he’s bringing to the university, for his wealth of experience and the leadership he has brought on board. We will continue to work together to achieve the aspirations of the founding fathers of that university as a university that also by its name will project national unity, national integration
He disclosed also that, TETFund would, between now and October, commission about 467 projects across tertiary institutions nationwide.
Stating, that leadership remains one of the most critical elements of national development, adding that nations rise or fall based on the quality of leadership they produce.
The foundation stone laying for the project was conducted alongside the vice-chancellor of the university, Professor Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi and many others.
