The Gambian Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Prof. Pierre Gomez has sought the support of the National Universities Commission ( NUC) for postgraduate scholarships in Nigerian universities for its students.
Gomez made the appeal during a courtesy visit to the Acting Executive Secretary of NUC, Chris Maiyaki, on Monday in Abuja.
Gomez, who commended Nigeria for laying the foundation of university education in Gambia, said most of the principal officers, including the Vice Chancellor in the first university in the country were Nigerians.
The minister, who had earlier undergone postgraduate programs in Nigerian universities under the World Bank-sponsored African Centre of Excellence (ACE), commended the quality of Nigerian universities.
He said the university system in Nigeria are now playing strategic roles in the country.
According to him, Gambia is particularly interested in postgraduate scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs.
“The relationship we have between Banjul and Abuja, made us to seek support for scholarships at postgraduate level in different areas, especially in STEM, and to know whether the TVET are under your purview.
”This is because this is something we want to see in getting support in that area, and also in capacity building.
“As you know education liberate the individual. We want to have functional education, one thing is to have your Masters and PhDs but then the other thing is for you to able to solve societal problems,” Gomez said.
He also called for support in the area of capacity building, saying ” we still have developmental issues and we strongly believe higher education can change the situation.”
Responding, the Acting Executive Secretary of NUC, Chris Maiyaki, assured the minister of support, saying Nigeria would not relent in playing a big brother’s role in spite having its own challenges.
” Even though we don’t have enough access; every year we have about 2 million Nigerian students applying to universities and we barely meet up to 50 per cent.
” If you take electricity supply, Nigeria is not self-sufficient but we provide electricity to Niger Republic, that is our deliberate friendly stance from Independence,” he said.
Maiyaki expressed delight that the visit came on the heels of the recent launch of Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) in the Nigerian University System.
” Our new curriculum has just been launched and the visit is taking place at a time Nigeria re-engineered its curriculum. CCMAS is revolutionary and dynamic,” he said.
He added that Nigeria had also opened up its higher education space to attract major players across the globe through the transactional education guidelines put in place by the commission.
” We have decided to open up Nigerian higher education space so that we can invite players. We are open to very well meaning interventions, foreign universities are at liberty to come,” Maiyaki said.
On the request for postgraduate scholarships, Maiyaki urged the Gambian minister to send a formal proposal on the specific programs and universities of choice in order for NUC to process the request.
