Sen. Henry Seriake Dickson University receives Operational License
No investment makes meaning as investment in education-Dickson
By Passman Akpos
The National Universities Commission has granted the Senator Henry Seriake Dickson University Operational license.
Senator Henry Seriake was the Governor of Bayelsa State who handed over to his predecessor, Senator Douye Diri, he his a current serving member of the Nigerian Senate.
This was contained in a statement credited to the founder of the University, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson.
The statement reads in full, “Today, I was at the National Universities Commission where I joined 36 other Proprietors and promoters who were officially and formally presented with the certificate of registration of new private universities in Nigeria.
The HENSARD University, which is the first private University in Bayelsa State, will promote high academic, ethical and professional standards comparable to any university anywhere else. It will commence academic activities later this year and also run a robust pre-degree foundation school aimed at raising the standards of young people desirous of University education with links to several universities in Nigeria and abroad.
I established the Bayelsa State Polytechnic, Aleibiri, for the development of technical skills, the Isaac Boro college of education Sagbama, the international institute of Tourism development, Yenagoa, the Driving institute, Yenagoa, School of Agriculture Ofoni, sports Academy, Asuama, I granted monthly subventions to even Federal institutions in Bayelsa:10 million naira to Federal University Otueke and 5 million naira to Federal Polytechnic Ekeowe.
While doing the above, we embarked on reforms to sanitize existing tetiary institutions and our infrastructural interventions and investments in Niger Delta University has made it look like a serious university, same goes for the school of Nursing and Midwifery in Tombia and the college of Health Technology, Otuogidi.
I introduced novel policies and laws supporting these innovations in the educational sector. Some of these are:
Even at a recession, I granted employment to all first class graduate of Bayelsa state and Ijaw origin to encourage them to pursue their academic careers in our various tertiary institutions and in the public service.
I held regular meetings and annual dinners to encourage teachers, increase their morale as the most important work force in the state.
I also built and handed over boarding schools with improved facilities to all the armed forces and security agencies in Nigeria, which is why the Army command secondary school in Ebedebiri started, a product of that partnership with the military and security agencies. I hope all the security services are following up and living up to expectations.
In our hunger for empowerment and advancement of human capital, our government granted unprecedented scholarships to various Bayelsans who had admission in various disciplines within Nigeria and some of the best institutions around the world. For these initiatives and the impact our government made on educational indices, my efforts and that of my team received commendations from the country’s highest policy organ, the National Council on education severally and other regulatory bodies and institutions.
I dedicated a lot of time, effort and resources to promotion and deepening of frontiers of education, and human capacity building as I fore said. I did all of these in a period of unprecedented National recession. I did it because as I always say, no investment makes meaning as investment in education.
