I have no choice than to belong to the train of assessors, who describe as fake recent media report claiming how a purported National Universities Commission (NUC) rating placed a particular private university in Ota as number one private university in Nigeria. They argued that for a university to be the best or successful, it must be an academic institution run with sincerity of purpose on quality grounds and the products it produces must not only be on the lead, in the face of competitiveness of job market, but also that they must be able to continue advance studies on merit.
Not only that all of these dwell in the very embodiment that Crescent University Abeokuta represents but also, there is what, even in the academic community, is called “academic plus” that is not only treated as added advantage but as a core in the academic calendar, which makes the growing concern that is the peak of contributions to global peace, unity and development by former Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Judge Abdul-Jabbar Bolasodun Ajibola, to be justified as truly a “citadel for academic and moral excellence”.
As popularly called, Judge Bola Ajibola had conceived an idea, which would make it possible for the very parasite militating against the chances of Nigeria to grow and meet its colleagues at the global scene as a developed country. And he concluded that this could be a done deal only by helping build a set of youths through a carefully monitored education chain system from primary to the university level, who will take over the mantle of leaderships of the country and will – at the saddle – not steal but use the money of the nation for the development of the nation and upping the standard of its people and he staked his neck into it believing that “if the Baptist Boys’ High School (BBHS) where I am coming from could do and achieve it, Insha Allah, through this educational chain of schools by me, it is doable” and today, it has not only become doable but also it is yielding anticipated fruitful results.
And he commenced the implementation of the whole idea in 1996 first with a radio programme where the word of Allah (Qur’an) was recited in his real sound on Ogun Radio with title, Al-Tanzeel (The Revelation), and, upon commissioning in 2003 of the Islamic Mission for Africa (IMA) – at a function well attended by leaders all over the world particularly Africa – the establishment of IMA primary and model college.
Two years after the commissioning of IMA, the Olori Omo Oba Owu had grown in the mission to the point at which the peak of the education intervention he had conceived became realistic in the take off of the Crescent University Abeokuta (CUAB), Ogun State, Nigeria. And the profile of CUAB rose so fast and greatly noticeable to the extent that by the time its 10 years anniversary would be celebrated in 2015 December, the stars of the Citadel of Academic and Moral Excellence had risen to their places in the sky of the world that every eye had seen, not just in form of the contribution of the university to academic learning at the tertiary level but, more fundamentally, industries and academic which by chance had absorbed its graduates, either as staff or students in further studies, have respectively longed for more. It is a development that makes the operators of the university, particularly the proprietor, now proudly say “Our first class is world class”. In addition, Judge Bola Ajibola would say, “We are not only saying it but also we doing it.”
This explains the background of the successes that Crescent University has today garnered to itself and it is the very reason, despite the very attempts at submerging its shining stars by Allah knows how many of them, the institution’s popularity has continued to soar, which some watchers of universities’ performances linked to power of media and publicity, considering the sudden media attention that the university has drawn, backed seriously with the weight of the proprietor, Judge Bola Ajibola considering that .
But I have argued that Crescent University Abeokuta (CUAB)’s stars and popularity have respectively shined and soared, irresistibly, yes because of the stature of the proprietor who has traversed the whole world and has done well as contributor of greatness and progress to the world community either as Life Vice President of the World Bank or as Judge of the World Court at The Hague or as Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom or as Chairman Arbitration Panels on Boundaries between nations of the world, but, more undeniably, Crescent University Abeokuta (CUAB) has achieved its greatness and rising profile with which it now sells itself today because of the quality of its knowledge delivery as well as the impacts, marketability and added opportunities that are attached to the products that it produces, who are now hot cakes in their various destinations of choice in life.
It is one thing to enjoy the attention of the media and publicity but the greatest thing is for what is being publicized to be worth it. Crescent University Abeokuta (CUAB), Judge Abdul-Jabbar Bolasodun Adesumbo Ajibola, SAN, CFR, KBE, BL, LL.B, FCI, NAILS, LL.D has placed at a point whereby with or without him it will stand tall among its peers in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large, and Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Ibraheem Gbajabiamila is improving on that feat by the day assisted by Barrister Zakariyau Ajibola, Registrar, and other management staff of the school.
*Prince Bashir Olorunkemi Adefaka, a Lagos-based journalist, Member, Media Team of Sultan of Sokoto, and Consultant on Media and Publicity to the Attah and Paramount Ruler of Aiyede Kingdom, Ekiti State, wrote in from Lagos on what he described behind camera as his personal conviction about Crescent University Abeokuta (CUAB).
