Date: 2016-09-25

An Islamic faith- based university- Al-Hikmah University- in Ilorin, Kwara state has invested N80 million on crop production on 10 hectares of land as part of measures to support the task of ensuring sustainable food security in the state and the country at large.

Recently, due to the dwindling fortunes from oil and the need to ensure food security so as to wad-off imminent threat of hunger, the federal government has launched an ambitious agricultural programme. While launching the programme, the government enjoined all Nigerians, irrespective of their social leanings, to embark on what it termed as return to farm.

Indeed, it was in answer to the call by the federal government that the Al-Hikmah University sunk the sum of eighty million naira to boost farming and consequently, support the struggle for sustainable food security.

The Vice Chancellor of the fast growing university,Professor Taofeek Ibrahim told newsmen, during a media chat in his office, that the university has established a settlement farm at Igbaja in Ifelodun local government area of the state. According to the VC, the institution's authority took the bold step because of its believe that agriculture remains the only viable option to diversify the nation's ailing economy and ensuring a sustainable food security in Nigeria. The VC harped on the urgent need for the federal government to invest heavily on agriculture to bail the nation out of the current economic quagmire.

He advised the government to earmark arable land in different parts of the country for crop production and put in all the necessary machineries in place to ban out rightly, the importation of food in which Nigeria has comparative advantage. "While the effort of the current government in the area of agriculture,under President Muhammadu Buhari is commendable, the effort needs to be more pragmatic and aggressive in its approach.

"A more realistic approach therefore, is for us as a nation to move beyond theories and rhetoric and adopt practical and appropriate policy response to promote agriculture development through farm mechanisation, he stated." Ibrahim who called for the establishment of agriculture mechanisation support camps by at all tiers of government said such camps must constitute different experts who would provide necessary mechanised farms tools, seeds and drugs to farmers to increase their crop and animals production.

On the incessant clashes between farmers and herdsmen in some parts of the country, Ibrahim recommended the use of dialogue in resolving the thorny issue. On the sixth convocation of the university, the VC expressed delight that the first Islamic faith- based university in the country has become part of global history.

He noted that the university has come to occupy a distinct and pride of place in the annals of university education in Nigeria stressing that the university produced 21 First Class graduates out of a total of 874 graduates in the 2015/2016 academic session. The VC said the performance of the graduates had showed remarkable improvement when compared with the record of performance of the 2014/2015 academic session.

Ibrahim who said that there were 874 first degree graduates, added that 50 students from post graduate school bagged Master's degrees in Islamic and Arabic Studies. The breakdown of the graduands across colleges include 40 from College of Education, 252 from College of Humanities and Social Sciences, 271 from College of Management Sciences and 311 from College of Natural Sciences. He also said that a total of 207 graduates bagged Second Class Upper Division, 413 were with Second Class Lower Division, 207 with Third Class, while 24 had Pass grade.

He disclosed that in May 2016, the school secured the National Universities Commission's (NUC) approval to run part-time mode for some B.Sc. programmes. "And, in June 2016, we also got NUC accreditation for all our 13 newly matured programmes. Al-Hikmah Law programme brought on board by the immediate Vice Chancellor, Professor Sulyman Age, has fully commenced and is progressing satisfactorily at Atere Campus.

"My first year in office also marked the establishment of five new academic centres (the centres for summer studies, part-time and professional studies, ICT and distance learning and the centre for Islamic heritage and community development), he stated". The VC disclosed that in the next academic session," we hope to establish new academic programmes in the areas of agriculture, sociology, and health sciences, amongst others, and to commence online distance education".