Zulum, Kawu, others pledge support for CPSS
The Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, has pledged to donate a Researchers’ Lodge to the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies (CPSS), University of Ilorin.
The Governor made this pledge while speaking at the 2024 Alumni Day and Awards Ceremony of the centre held last Wednesday (April 24, 2024) at the University Main Auditorium, where the Centre decorated its Peace Ambassadors.
Prof. Zulum, who made the pledge through his Deputy Governor, Alhaji Umar Usman Kadafur, assured the University that the state would be extending its peace building efforts by donating the proposed building to the Centre.
While fieldling questions at the sidelines of the event, Prof. Zulum noted that the earning of his state is not different from that of other states in Nigeria but that the Borno State Government stands out because it gets its priorities right and that ordinary people are the priority of the Government.
` He also noted that the government of the state keeps rebuilding and it is neither deterred nor distracted even as insurgents continue to destroy some of the new buildings.
In a similar gesture towards the CPSS, the Director, Projects, Rural Electrification Agency of Nigeria, Engr Suleiman Bolakale Kawu, who was represented by Engr Kale Yusuf, pledged to donate a researchers fund and also institute the best student prize at the Centre.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research, Technology and Innovation), Prof. Adegboyega Adisa Fawole, underscored the importance of peace in the world, especially at the moment, which, according to him, “is full of trial, hatred, violence and war”.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Sulyman Olatunji Adeyemi, commended the Vice Chancellor for his support for the programme, noting that peace practice is not exclusive to peace scholars but it is rather everybody’s business.
He posited that Nigerians are noted for peace building and cited one of the awardees, Prof. Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, CFR, whom he described as his childhood friend, as someone whose career has been dominated by peace-making around the world.
The Director of the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, Prof. Ibrahim Abdulganiyu Jawondo, in his address, asserted that the Peace Ambassadors were carefully selected among people who have contributed to peace building in Nigeria, noting that just like education, which is no longer exclusive to governments, peace building is the business of all and developing countries no longer run to the developed countries to find peace, rather, everyone now has to find home-grown solutions to crises.
Speaking in response to the award of Peace Ambassador, Professor of Law Practice, Mallam Yusuf Olaolu Ali, SAN, noted that he has a long history of support and partnership with different units of the University of Ilorin.
Mallam Ali, who was represented by Mallam K. K. Eleja, SAN, pledged to deepen the existing support and expand its areas of support in the University.
In her response to the appointment as a Peace Ambassador, an Osogbo-based business mogul, Hajia Fatimah Toyin Shuaibu, promised to uphold the value of peace, compassion and empathy in all her endeavours while continuing to work tirelessly for every voice of peace to be heard and all conflicts resolved through dialogue.