AUN commits N60 million to scholarship

Wale Akintunde, Yola - 26.08.2009

About N60 million has been committed by the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa State this semester to scholarship, as 10 percent of the students population are also on scholarship donated by the founder, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

The interim president of the university, Dr. Conrad Festa who disclosed this during the fifth fall orientation for new students, said Atiku Abubakar believed that students from poor homes should also have the opportunity to receive the kind of education available at the AUN, Yola.

Dr. Festa, who was represented by the academic vice-vresident, Dr. Bayo Lawal, said AUN is a unique university in sub-Saharan Africa modeled after the American system which has diverse faculties from all parts of the world aimed at interacting with the faculty members whose research and teachings are going to reshape many thoughts, adding that their goal is to build AUN as one of the best American style university in the world.

On the new development in the institution, the president said a total of 21 new faculty members were recruited into all outstanding faculties to strengthen the courses offered in the university.

In an interview with newsmen, the academic, Dr. Bayo Lawal, appealed to Adamawa State government to consider the AUN, Yola, as a pride to the state by contributing its quota to the affairs of the university, adding that apart from the location of the university in Yola, it is also useful to the government in the area of training of standard manpower needed in various disciplines.

Commenting on the on-going strike action between ASUU and the Federal government, he said though the American University of Nigeria wouldn’t want to go into the political implications of universities governing, he called on both sides to come to amicable settlement in the interest of both the faculty, students and even the country at large as the country cannot afford to waste its human resources.