Nigeria: Tinubu Grants Awujale's College of Governance Affiliate Status to NIPSS

"President Tinubu has granted Awujale's School of Governance the status of a campus of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru," Mr Abiodun said.

To facilitate the training of high-ranking government officials, efforts are in top gear to affiliate the Oba Sikiru Adetona College of Governance with the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos.

Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, made the disclosure at the 90th birthday and 64th coronation anniversary thanksgiving of the Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, held at the Cathedral Church of Our Saviour, Ita-Olowajoda-Ijasi, Ijebu-Ode on Sunday.

He said Permanent Secretaries from the state would be the first to enrol to enable them to benefit from the college, which is the brainchild of the Awujale.

Mr Abiodun added that he sought and got the approval of President Bola Tinubu to grant the college the full status of a campus of the NIPSS.

"I told Kabiyesi this morning that our Permanent Secretaries will be the first set of students at the Oba Sikiru Adetona College of Governance; they will be the first set to benefit from the Awujale's initiative.

"I have further made a case to President Tinubu to allow Baba's School of Governance to become a campus of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, a request that he has graciously approved," he stated.

Mr Abiodun described Oba Adetona as a living legend and a phenomenon whose reign has been a monumental success and a pride to the entire Ijebuland and the state at large.

According to the governor, the monarch represented the beauty and candour of the ancestral heritage of the Ijebu people, emphasising that his passion for governance and accessible commitment to education led him to institute the Oba Sikiru Adetona Professorial Chair in Governance at the Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye.

"This initiative has led and given birth to the establishment of the world-class Oba Sikiru Adetona School of Governance, the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"He also championed the Ijebu Development Board on poverty eradication that has become a model in the entire country," Abiodun noted.

In his sermon, titled, 'Serve the Lord with Gladness,' Dean Emeritus, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Ephraim Ademowo, said God's purpose for man was to serve Him unconditionally, noting that no man serves God faithfully without rewards.

Taking his text from Psalms 100 verse 2, Mr Ademowo regretted that though God put people in places of authority to serve, most Nigerians did not see themselves as servants once they assumed leadership positions.

He called for a change of heart to move the nation forward. He also called for national rebirth beginning from the family, saying this would reposition the country and restore its lost glory.

The cleric described Oba Adetona as a unifier, a colossus and "a Solomon of our time," who used the palace to unite all Ijebu sons and daughters irrespective of their political or religious lineage.

The Awujale, Mr Ademowo noted, was a mentor and enabler whose life is full of monumental achievements in his 64 years on the throne, noting that he had touched many lives through endowment programmes.

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