Federation of African Engineering Organisation Honours Edo Varsity Iyamho VC
The Vice-Chancellor, Edo University Iyamho, Professor Emmanuel Aluyor has been honoured for his outstanding excellence in engineering education, by the Federation of African Engineering Organisations (FAEO).
The honour was bestowed on him at the 2020 General Assembly and Investiture award ceremony of the organisation held virtually from Ghana recently, owing to the covid-19 pandemic.
The award was aimed at promoting greatness in the engineering profession, chart a positive direction towards the growth of the African Engineering organisations, create a platform for members to celebrate distinguished fellows, engineers across the globe who are friends of Africa for their immense contributions and efforts towards advancing engineering education in Africa, as well as the recognition of past presidents and leaders of the association.
Speaker after speaker at the online interactive session, applauded the roles and efforts of the participants, who included the President of the World Federation of
Engineering Organisations, industry specialists, academic and vice-chancellors of universities, among others, for taking the organisation to an enviable height. The award, presented to Professor. Emmanuel Aluyor, was in recognition for his tireless efforts and commitment to excellence in Engineering education in Nigeria, as well as his distinguished service to FAEO and the larger engineering profession in Africa.
In his remarks, President of the organisation, Martin Manuhwa, commended Aluyor and the Vice- Chancellor, Harare Institute of Technology, Zimbabwe for particularly making Africa proud in actualising their academic curriculum without interruptions, even in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to him, “The engineering education category was particularly touching as these two universities were very prominent in the covid-19 interventions, in terms of modern teaching, pedagogy as well as manufacturing of intervention equipment; we must recognise these famous VCs, who took the challenge and went into research to assist Africa and indeed their countries to solve the problems that we faced in the pandemic.”
While congratulating friends of Africa for their services over the years, Manuhwa also applauded the Commonwealth Engineering Council, led by Professor Paul Jowitt from the United Kingdom for attracting myriads of projects through the African catalysts projects in Africa, which has prompted changes in the livelihood of engineering.
A female engineer, Trudy Morgan from Sierra Leone, in her goodwill, assured the organisation of the commitment of female engineers in joining forces with them to make Africa great. Ahmed Hamdy from Egypt, expresed confidence that the leadership of the federation has earned enough confidence that has attracted the contributions to engineering development in Africa while Carlos Mineiro Aires, Chair of the Portuguese Engineering Association, described his affinity with Africa as the greatest gift to him and called for the strengthening of the friendship and togetherness.
There were other award recipients, who got recognitions in other categories, including a Nigerian, M.B Shehu who was a former president of the organisation and Chairman of the 2020 awards committee.
Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja (UniAbuja), Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, has described the events that led to a recent protest within the campus as regrettable, pledging that it will never reoccur.
He said an investigation has began to unravel the remote causes of the student uprising, just as he assured that nothing would derail the reform measures being instituted in the university.
Na’Allah who mad this known when celebrating the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Administration, Professor Sani Muhammed Adam, who recently got elevated as Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LLPC), said it was unfortunate that the students resolved to protest.
Recall that while some of the aggrieved students took to the streets to protest an increase in tuition fees, military and police personnel were reported to have come hard on the students, using tear-gas and canisters to disperse them.
Immediately they succeeded in dispersing the protesters, heavy presence of armed policemen and internal security operatives have been a regular feature at the institution, especially the main gate into the university.
According to the Vice Chancellor, his resolve to take the university to greater heights, where it can compete favourably with its peers abroad has not waned.
“It is unfortunate that the students resolved to stage a protest. The truth is that this university is on its way forward and not backward. It is a university where before now; some people do not register throughout the year, some people graduate even without registration.
“It is a university where a lot of students did not understand that we have a deadline. We as a university, are responsible for training people so that when they become leaders tomorrow, they are matured enough to do the right thing.
“We are going to do research and investigate to know exactly where the problem lies. Whatever has happened will never happen again. My only concern is how to move the university to greater heights. I want to set a standard whereby this university will be able to compete with its counterpart globally.”
While extolling the virtues of Professor Adam, the VC urged him to use his elevation to promote peace and common development of Nigeria.
He said, UniAbuja would remain proud to be an institution that produced a Senior Advocate of Nigeria within the academic community.
“For them to appoint one of us to be equal to that task, is indeed a thing of pride to this university.
We are proud of Adam and I want you to know that wherever you go, bear in mind that you are representing the University of Abuja.
“We have come together to celebrate him because it is an achievement that is exemplary. What he has achieved to become a SAN is an indication of hard work and I want everybody to key into that example.”
In his response, Adam commended the university for organising the party to celebrate him, while decrying the high level of corruption in the nations justice system.
He said there is a need for collaborative efforts to revamp the judiciary.
“I must admit that there is so much corruption in the judiciary and all lawyers must work to revamp the judiciary because if the judiciary is doing what it is supposed to do, there will be a timely dispensation of justice without delay,’’ Adams said.