All is set for academic activities at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Iguoriakhi, as the Edo State government has completed the infrastructural upgrade of the institution.
The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Iguoriakhi is located in Ovia South West Local Government Area of the state. The school was temporarily closed in August 2017 by the Governor Godwin Obaseki administration due to inadequate educational facilities and poor standard of learning. Governor Obaseki, while adducing reason for its closure, said: “I shut down the school to enable me invest money in it and bring it up to standard. I will revamp the school so that the graduates will be employable”.
Many people would have regarded the above words as mere political statement, but coming from Mr. Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, a man who believes in reformation of the education sector and improving the quality of governance, a man who walks his talk and whom many have come to know as ‘wake and see governor’, his words have come to pass.
From the demolition of old structures to the development of large expanse of virgin land with beautiful structures, the College of Agricultre and Natural Resources Iguoriakhi is set to open for academic activities soon with a population of 2,000 students and well qualified workforce employed to man the institution. Governor Obaseki has left no stone unturned in terms of finance to re-building a world-class institution at Iguoriakhi that would produce quality graduates that would be self-employed. The Governor has assured that facilities needed for the smooth take off of the school are on ground.
According to the governor, “We are investing more in facilities, technology, broadband internet connection, fibre optics, and uninterrupted electricity. Plans are on the way to expand the Benin Iguobazuwa road for easy movement”.
The new College of Agriculture has three schools, namely: School of Agricultural Engeneering and Technology, which doubles as the main campus, is located at Iguoriakhi; School of Aquaculture and Marine Studies, Agenebode, and School of Forestry and Environmental Technology, at Uromi.
The physical structures include administrative block, library, lecture theatres, and auditorium with a sitting capacity of 1,000 students, and primary health care centre that will attend to the health needs of the school and the community. The school also boasts of a piggery, poultry, fishery and enough farmland for crop production. According to the Managing Director, Edo State Public Building and Maintenance Agency, it is expected that any student who passes through this institution would developed the requisite skills and capacity to be self employed. Emphasis, the Managing Director said, would not be base on theoretical knowledge alone but practical knowledge as well. One can categorically say that it is a job-creating institution.
Like a man that guides his new bride jealously, Governor Obaseki, before now, has been paying series of visits to the institution in the company of other government functionaries to ascertain the level of work done and to ensure speedy completion of the project.
The Governor also set up a committee with the Edo State Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa Esq., as chairman, to monitor and ensure strict compliance to set quality and standards.
Those who have been privileged to visit the institution will attest to the fact that what is on ground there can only be compared with what obtains in a world-class institutions outside the shores of this country. According to the Head of Service, apart from the physical aesthetics, the facilities as well as the structures are best-in-class.
While speaking at the pre-opening ceremony of the school recently, Governor Obaseki said Iguoriakhi has some of the best imposing structures and learning facilities compared with what obtains in any other mono-technic or university campus in Nigeria. He was quite confident that accreditation team that would soon be visiting the college in September will approve all the courses in the institution as a result of what is on ground. He was certain that the collaboration with some private investors in the development of the institution would fast track the growth of the agricultural sector in the state and thereby improves its economy.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Steve Idehenre, while lauding Governor Obaseki for his achievements in the College, said the institution would constitute a magnetic pull of most talented agriculture studies inclined students and faculties of sister institutions in Nigeria.
The consultant to the school, Professor Oluwafemi said the school has acquired teaching and farm equipment worth N625 million, and all ICT laboratories in the college are now 24/7 solar powered. Fishery and research farms, according to him, are fully developed and that the school will also run a vocational enterprise that would be opened to all categories of people in the society, in addition to the 16 programmes of the institution structured into the three schools.
The re-opening of the College of Agriculture Iguoriakhi for academic activities will no doubt create jobs for people and open doors for economic development and growth in the area.
It would be recalled that the College of Agriculture Iguoriakhi was established many years ago by the civilian administration of late Professor Ambrose Folurunsho Ali in 1981.The school was closed down by the military administration and reopened by the Lucky Igbinedion administration in 2001.
The school had the mandate of awarding National Diploma and Higher National Diploma in Agricultural Technology, Animal Science, Crop Science and Agricultural Extension.
