By: Tunde Olofintila
The Deputy Commandant of the Nigerian Army College of Logistics and Management, Ojo Cantonment, Lagos, Brigadier-General Jerry IB Manjang, has described the increasingly famous Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, as a successful and flourishing empire.
Manjang who led a 51-man team of Officers and Students of the College to ABUAD yesterday in continuation of the College’s “environmental research visit to some selected states of the federation” predicated his position on what the university’s Founder & Chancellor, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, has made of the university in quality and functional education, healthcare delivery, human capacity development, employment and food security within the university’s 15 years of its existence.
The One-Star General said that with what he saw during the tour of the university, Babalola has impacted many people in different callings in Nigeria and humanity in general.
His words: “After touring the serene campus, the ABUAD Enterprise Farms, the Independent Power Plant, the Industrial Park and the ultra-modern 400-bed Multi- System Hospital which has been endorsed by leading Healthcare Stakeholders as “the most well-equipped Hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa”, we saw the excellent work you have been doing to ensure human capital development and food security”.
He added: “With the way the students we met on our way related with us, I have seen the good works the university has been doing in the lives of our youths.
“For me, I have watched you from afar. But today, I am sitting next to you. Your life has imparted many in Nigeria and humanity in general. You are here to receive us personally. I Never expected that. I am highly delighted by your uncommon humility”.
Commenting on Babalola’s contributions to Human Capital Development, he said: “In the area of Human Capital Development, I saw what you are doing to empower and liberate Nigerian youths. You do not only train them, but you also provide them with accommodation. You also feed them free.
“And at the end of their training, you give them starter packs and seed money to start their own Agri-businesses. It is my opinion that whoever benefits from your youth empowerment programme and is not liberated, has a problem”.
Manjang’s position was corroborated by two of his junior colleagues: Major M. Hamji and Major WE Abanji.
According to Hamji: “Aare Afe Babalola has taught all of us a big lesson on what we can do to ensure job creation, how to eradicate poverty and optimize security not only in Ekiti State, but also in the country at large.
According to him, if there is one Afe Babalola in each of the country’s other five geo-political zones, there would be no unemployment or poverty in Nigeria as everyone would be gainfully employed with no time for frivolities or criminalities.
Abanji, in a voice suggestive that she has already become a student of Afe Babalola’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Agri-business said she is enthusiastically looking forward to starting her own Green Farm in the nearest future.
Responding, Babalola, who thanked Manjang and his team for visiting his university, wondered why people should be queuing for rice, beans and other palliatives in a country blessed with good arable land and supportive climate for anybody to grow food and feed himself, sell leftovers or give to others.
He pleaded with those giving out food items and particularly those queuing up to receive them not to turn the country into a country of beggars amid plenty.
Waxing biblical, the former Pro Chancellor & Chairman of Council of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, counselled that Nigerians owe it a duty to God to work so that they could eat, adding that “a person who does not work does not deserve to eat”.
On the place of quality and functional education in the life of a people, he said:
“Education is critically important to all of us. Once one has quality education, he/she is made, and it is bye-bye to tribalism, hunger, unemployment, bigotry and extremism”.
He commended the Nigerian Army for its well-known discipline which he confirmed he saw first-hand when he was conferred with the Honourary Degree of the elite Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, in 2016
His words: “When I arrived Kaduna, I was surprised to see a “battalion” of fully dressed Military Officers waiting to receive me at the Kaduna Airport. They ushered us to the Reception Hall of the Airport and they insisted that I and my team must eat before we proceeded to the Academy. I told them I had had breakfast before leaving home. But the leader of the team insisted that we must eat because that was the order from his Superior Officer.
“As we were going to the NDA, the entire road was lined with fully dressed military men. When we got to the Main Building of the NDA, we were ushered into the office of the Commandant who, together with other leaders of the Academy, received us very warmly.
“During the Convocation and Award ceremony, I was pleasantly surprised that the hall was not only very quiet, but also nobody left his seat throughout the duration of the Convocation ceremony. To me, that was the peak of orderliness and discipline.
“Before the 2016 NDA Convocation, I believed that my university, ABUAD, was the epitome of order, orderliness and discipline. As a matter of fact, some people used to taunt us that our university is more of a military institution. But with what I saw in Kaduna that day, I gave, and I still give kudos to the military for its discipline. And we are taking after that here in our university”.
According to him, people are not doing well because they lack discipline, but the Nigerian Army is the master of discipline.
He hoped that one day, the level of discipline in the Nigerian Army will be embraced by the populace, adding that “the day the level of discipline in the Nigerian Army and ABUAD goes round Nigeria, there will be no problems anymore”.
In her welcome remarks, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Smaranda Olarinde, recalled how the university navigated its way from a modest beginning when Academic works commenced on Monday, January 4, 2010, to a university of global acclaim which was recently ranked on June 18, 2025 by Times Higher Education Impact Rankings as No.84 in the world, No. 3 in Africa and No. 1 in Nigeria for four consecutive years: 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Olofintila is ABUAD’s Director of Corporate Affairs