SchChat - School | Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma

Descriptions

Unlike the older Universities earlier mentioned, the story of Ambrose Alli University has similarities with many of the relatively younger Universities of the developing world whose establishment depended to a large extent on the vision and conviction of some political leaders who used persuasive and coercive strategies to overcome strong opposition to the implementation of what would normally be regarded as a people oriented development. As he often stated at different occasions in the planning stages and the on set of the University, Prof. Alli was very optimistic that posterity would justify his many decisions in the establishment of the University. There cannot be a better vindication of his optimism than the fact that the University which he established as Bendel State University, Ekpoma in 1981 (which after the creation of Edo State in 1992 had its name changed to Edo State University) has gone through an Act passed by the State House of Assembly and signed into law by the Executive Governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Nosakhare Igbinedion in 1999 been renamed (Professor) Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, after the founder. The idea of the University was firmly predicated on the dynamics of the rapid educational development through which the whole of Bendel State was undergoing in the late seventies and early eighties. Energized by the education policies which Prof. Ambrose Allli, the first Executive Governor of Bendel State was implementing at the time, education was rapidly becoming an industry in its own right in the State. There was a yawning gap in the available opportunities for teeming youths, to fulfil their educational aspirations at tertiary level. The number of potentially qualified University materials in our State far exceeded those in other States of the federation and the introduction of the quota system made matters worse. Even the University of Benin which started off as a State University (Midwest Institute of Technology) had been taken over by the Federal Government and made out of reach of most Bendelites.