Asari-Dokubo already has
soccer institutions in Benin and Nigeria train youth free of charge.
The leader of the Niger Delta
People’s Volunteer Force, NDPVF, Muhajid Asari-Dokubo has joined the swelling
rank of private university proprietors with his establishment of a university
in the neighbouring Republic of Benin.
Mr. Asari-Dokubo, who already
owns a soccer academy in the West African country and another one in Abuja,
said the university, which will be known as King Amachree African University, KAAU,
had already been accredited to commence degree programmes beginning September
2014.
He told PREMIUM TIMES in an
interview in Abuja that the proposed university, named after his ancestor, was
a product of his two existing institutions in Benin Republic, namely King
Amachree Automobile/ICT Royal Academy and King Amachree Arts Academy. Both of
them, he added, currently award Diploma to their students.
Mr. Asari-Dokubo said he chose
to establish the institutions in Benin Republic because he does not only live
there, but has adopted it as his country.
“What we have now, we are
awarding only diploma now. “By next September, Insha Allah, the university will
start,” Mr. Asari-Dokubo, who dropped out of University of Calabar, he said.
“For now we have King Amachree
Automobile/ICT Royal Academy and King Amachree Arts Academy. Two of them were
merged. We have merged the two of them into king Amachree African University.
“King Amachree is my great
ancestor. He was king of the Kingdom of new Calabar.”
On his soccer academy, the 50
year old Mr. Asari-Dokubo, an indigene of Rivers State, who refused to be
tagged a former militant, said it was established to train the youth in soccer
free of charge.
“We plan to engage the youths.
It is free. We have a soccer academy in Abuja and we have another one in
Republic of Benin,” he said.
More Nigerians are forced to go
to Benin Republic, Ghana, Togo and other neigbhouring countries to acquire
education due to the incessant labour disputes and industrial actions within
the Nigerian university system as well as the deplorable state of education in
the country.
Currently, students of both the
federal and state universities in Nigeria are at home due to the strike
embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, over the
refusal of the Federal Government to honour its 2009 agreement with the union.
Other unions within the
education sector, including the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian
Universities, SSANU, have also embarked on solidarity strike while the Nigeria
Union of Teachers, NUT, and Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU, are reportedly on
the verge of doing towing that path.
Students of the over 50 private
universities in Nigeria, whose fees can only be afforded the rich, are however,
in session.
Mr. Asari-Dokubo is, like former
Niger Delta militants enjoying massive patronage from the current
administration, believe to be very wealthy but his source of income is largely
unknown.
There were speculation he made
his fortune stealing crude oil in the Niger Delta. But he denied engaging in
such practices, telling PREMIUM TIMES he had never been part of any act capable
of endangering the Delta.
source: Premiumtimes
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