Women Academics From Nigeria

"The University of Benin is taking a yearning and amiable look. The reasons for this is that we have been synergising with our Alumni that have been very generous to us."

"It is still the educational system that produced the manpower that is driving this5 country."

"Things have changed and everything is getting dynamic our society and institutions are dynamic. We are now in the digital age and things have taken a different dimension. For me, it’s not a race. It’s about being relevant in one’s time and putting in one’s best."

"To succeed in life, Be who you are at all times and let people know who you are."

"Good funding can redress dilapidated equipment, and other infrastructure, improved remuneration to motivate teachers and attract global scholars. Speech at Tertiary Education summit"

"Our students and researchers stand to gain from exposure to diverse networks and knowledge systems. This kind of cooperation supports not only innovation but also the institutional growth of our universities."

"The funding is not just on UNILAG, of course, the Lagos State government is supporting. We have reached out to partners, industries, companies and a whole lot of other people to support us."

"Yes, I have been in the system, we do not have funding, but have done a lot of things by improving what we do with collaborations with other universities outside the country. They appreciate us more than Nigerians."

"In Lagos, because of the difficulties, we have taken it as a responsibility to try, but we can only do with what we have. Building hostels is not cheap. Right now, we are renovating the old hostels to make them more livable, though it is a very expensive venture."

"What I have found with University of Lagos is that we have been lucky. We have heard progressive vice chancellors. So, every vice chancellor has put something down that allows one to grow. We developed a 25-year strategic plan in 2014 and we are working through that strategic plan where every vice chancellor builds on what we have."

"Don’t get into seeing money as the only benefit to being involved in project, think of the experience and the skills that you are getting; it is worth more than money because they are investing in your knowledge base."

"If you don’t think you’re valuable enough to take yourself to a conference with your salary, why should someone else invest in you? We sometimes think that the valuable things are the tangible assets when in fact, it is the intangible things—your knowledge and skills which are the outcome of your personal self-investments—that are important."

"It is in service to others that you get elevated or you achieve your dreams"

"started off my life as a really shy person. I always sort of pulled back from a lot of things not because I didn’t want to do them but because I was shy, even till university. There are so many examples I can give"

"I then realized that what was important was the quality of the time spent. You need to know what people need at the time they need it. These are some of the lessons I learned from that period."

"There’s Value in the Valley”. One thing (out of the many lessons in the book) that stuck in my head was “nobody is after you”. People are going about their day; they’re not even noticing you"

"It required that we had a strong central coordinating centre and that we engaged the community early, used media effectively, and sent out short easily-understood messages."

"The art is part of our vision; it is an expression of who we are."

"Corruption thrives where there is lack of excellence. But we are not different from other countries."

"The fourth industrial revolution is here upon the world but that Nigeria has been lagging."

"The leaders of communities are chosen from their citizens and our leaders are, therefore, a reflection of who we are as a people."

"Nigeria Universities needs to develop the courses around sports like sports medicine, that is the next step for us. I am hoping that we will be able to interest some corporate organisations to have a sports academy because I think we have everything that it takes."

"If Nigeria’s university system will be returned to its rightful place as the lighthouse that inspires development aspirations, university managers and all concerned must begin to think anew and walk the talk. The ultimate goal is to enrich and enhance the quality of students to make them more intellectually nimble, competent, not only for national development, but to shape the future."

"Fundamentally, preparedness builds on a system that’s working."

"We are very innovative, we are very creative, and we are very entrepreneurs."

"If we focus on things that unite us as Adamawa citizens and Nigerians, we will build a better Adamawa State for ourselves and our children yet unborn."

"We might have hurt each other in the process of politicking. Now, that is over, we should put it behind us as brothers and sisters, mend our fences because the things that unite us are more than the things that divide us."

"I believe that God orders people’s destinies and whatever comes your way is a risk and whatever you take up to do in life, as long as you believe in God, and believe in yourself, God will sort it out with you"

"Life is about taking risks and whatever you do in life amounts to taking risks. I knew that when I left the classroom and university environment to take up being the running mate of a sitting governor, it was either I win or I lose."

"But in many occasions after admission, we found out that so many local government areas did not meet up their slots."

"It will be good to let our people know that every local government has a certain number of slots of admission into the state university. This is because they are the major stakeholders."

"Children from our local government areas do not apply to the state university even though they are indigenes of the state."

"I want to assure you that the doors of our government will now be wide open to women. The women represent a sizable voting block and no government can get to power without the support of women and that is why we are here."

"We will work assiduously to ensure victory for the party in all future elections."

"I said l wouldn't know. Many of these leaders also came from military background and sometimes, people could carry over old prejudices over the years. So l wouldn't know. I have never been in the military and l have never been a former head of state, so l wouldn't know why. May be as a Journalist, as a senior editor of a newspaper, they (leaders) would be disposed to grant you an interview to that effect."

"Honestly l wouldn't know. I have never been a former head of state or president, so l wouldn't know."

"You see, every government has its strong and weak points. The important thing is about Nigeria and not about any particular individual. I don't see president Muhammadu Buhari as somebody who is there as president of Nigeria for what he can get. And he does not have any ego about it. You understand? Like all human beings, he has his strengths and weaknesses. But we can only look at him and ask ourselves which one is more beneficial and important to the country. Is it his strength or weakness? And we look at it objectively and critically before we make our judgement. To me, l think he has his weakness but his strength far outweighs his weakness. Yes!"

"For me, it is very exciting. If people are criticizing you and they don't have the facts, it only means that you are doing what is right. It is the person that is holding the ball in a football field that other players tackle. Isn't it? So we are all entitled to our own opinion and l don't fault other people for holding their own contrary views. If my attackers or critics can not sway me, it means l am sure of my own position and that is where the excitement comes. If they could draw me out from what l believe in, then they will not be talking. It is a game. And at the end of the day, we will see who convinces the other or more people for president Buhari."

"l think l will answer your question with a small story. I remember those days in University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) when some people were being interviewed for the job of chief security officer of the university. And the question that was put to most of them was: assuming thieves were coming from a particular direction to attack the university by so so and so time in the night, what will they do to repel the criminals from gaining access into the university campus. Every other person answered how they will launch a counter-offensive against the thieves, but there was this particular candidate who eventually got the job and who answered the question differently. He asked the panel of interviewers whether they want him to expose his strategy to them so that they will go and leak the information to the criminals? So what l can assure you is that there are some of us APC stalwarts in the South East who are not noise makers but who have a sense of what to do about how to make the APC acceptable to the people of the South East. You know, most big names in politics don't control the grassroots and they do not win elections because the lack the capability to convince their people. Most of them have stepped on one big toe at one time or another and therefore they have lost the trust of the People. But for those of us who don't talk much, we know where we are going to, how to connect to our people and we can not leak such strategies on the pages of newspapers."

"Sincerely speaking, l have never foreseen him lose that election. Of course, anyone following me on social media before that election knew my position about Buhari coming back as an elected president for a second term. You see, it is never over until it is over. Now we have many political parties in the country but the truth is that we have two major political parties that one could say actually stood for the 2019 general elections. There was no way president Buhari could have easily lost that election. It was just a victory foretold."

"Once you become president, you have a responsibility because you are now the spokesperson and you speak with one voice, and the powers that be will respect you and listen to you regularly."

"Like we all know, there is no way one man can please everybody. For the people who are waiting for mana to fall from heaven, they are there criticizing Mr President. But the farmers that l have given you example of, they're not criticizing him. One of my security men from kaduna saw my ginger plants at home recently and asked me "mummy, do you also plant ginger? He said in my place they call it ATM (Automated Teller Machine)" because ginger product today is like a money spinner. He said that a bag of ginger in their place sells for N35,000. There are some people l know who have left Abuja here and gone home to plant ginger or rice or whatever. Those people are quietly making their money. They are people who are ready to die for president Buhari. They are in the majority and they are not even on social media. Those people who are on social media are the idle ones. If you are indeed busy, you won't be seen everyday on social media all the time. For these people that are busy making shoes or working in their farms, they are busy and have no time to go on social media to be criticizing Buhari."

"Our problem in this country is that we tend to forget the past. We don't remember the future. We are only living for the day. And any country that does not remember the past, can never move to the future. There have been a lot criticisms of President Muhammadu Buhari's government. But we forget where we are coming from and where we came from. And because we forget where we came from, that's why anybody can jump up and criticize this government. I want to go back a little bit. There was a time when every Nigerian was interested in our local football clubs. We were interested in clubs like the Rangers football club of Enugu, in IICC Shooting Stars, in Mighty Jets of Jos, in Racal Rovers of Kano, etc. Then we were interested in made in Nigeria items. But today, many Nigerian youths particularly don't know these Nigerian football clubs that dominated our local football leagues then. Now everybody is talking about Juventus football club, Manchester United otherwise known as Man-U, Chelsea football club, etc. And people are ready to bet their lives over these clubs sides in the English football league. Suddenly, we acquired foreign taste in everything: in education, in our clothes and in everything we are doing. But with the sharp drop in oil price, we could no longer maintain our foreign taste. That was the position of things in Nigeria when President Muhammadu Buhari took over the mantle of presidential leadership of the country in 2015. What the Buhari presidency has made us today is to rediscover ourselves in this country. What do l mean by that? For the people who are still interested in farming, they're smiling to the banks. They're not complaining like every other person. States like Kebbi state with their Lake rice are making so much revenue from rice local production. The same with Ebonyi state with their famous Abakaliki rice. There is Anambra rice, Kano rice, Lokoja rice and Ofada rice, etc, are all in the market today. By consuming these local rice, we are patronizing our local rice farmers. This is unlike before when we were patronizing foreign rice produced by farmers in Taiwan, in Bangok Thailand, in China and other Asian countries. We were bringing in through import, tonnes of expired rice into this country. So by doing this, we have rediscovered ourselves as a people. Therefore we must give president Buhari credit for this initiative."

"Look at FSTC, Yaba, it is the premier technical school, and will soon clock 70 years, by now we should be producing something even if it is simple cell phone. Simple technology we cannot produce. Go to FSTC, Orozo and FSTC, Ohanso, the state of their facilities is terrible"

"What is the condition of FG technical schools? Do they have new technical laboratories? What are those schools producing? Achieving technological advancement is not just playing to the gallery; it is about showing commitment and matching words with reality."

"Improving the quality of teachers’ education, however, requires professionally competent teachers that can handle emerging issues in our educational institutions and the society."

"The mandate of the 10 pillars of the education road map included revamping the basic education sector, education data and curriculum planning, as well as improving the quality of teachers’ education, which is key."

"Every other thing can actually wait but not the upbringing of a child."

"But if life is lost, that is the end of that person. To stay alive therefore is more important than to put lives at risk in the name of going to school."

"If people are criticizing you and they don't have the facts, it only means that you are doing what is right."