Legal luminary, Aare Afe Babalola, has expressed confidence that a new constitution will enhance and boost the nation’s industrial, economic and all-round development.
The elder statesman stressed that a new constitution would ensure free involvement of Nigerians in the industrial development and growth of the country.
Babalola stated this in Ado-Ekiti during ABUAD-China Partnership Forum Meeting with delegates from the China-Nigeria Consortium on Industry and Education, where he decried continued refusal by the federal government to issue a free trade zone certificate to the university.
The over 132 – units of ABUAD Industrial Park located in Ado-Ekiti, according to the senior advocate of Nigeria, was enough to turn the story of Nigeria around, if well annexed, and utilised.
He noted that China was some 25 years ago a very poor country but recalled that the people were wise to create an area now called free trade zone which makes the country economically stable.
“When Nigeria became independent in 1960, China was nowhere, but China today is the number two, next to USA in almost everything.
“Americans, Germans and others came there to start industries and the Chinese studied them and that was how Shanghai became a very developed industrial area, free, so that you don’t pay for anything.
“That was the idea we were craving for. I have applied for free trade zone for the past two years; they didn’t give me here. It is to enable people to come and trade here and set up industries here.
“I have an American company which want to start building cars in our industrial park but up till now, we were denied the free trade zone certificate.
“If we have regional government as we had before, we would have developed more than what we are today. That is more reason why Nigeria needs a new constitution, otherwise we may not develop,” Babalola declared.
He described partnering with China as an achievement saying both partners can partner in many areas “because of our zeal and intention to make it better than others, we want universities and organisations in China to partner with us”.
In her address, the Secretary-General of the China-Nigeria Consortium on Industry and Education, Ms. Wendy Wang, who spoke through an interpreter, commended Aare Babalola for his visionary achievements in education, engineering, and health.
She described ABUAD as the best institution in Nigeria, highlighting its integration of cutting-edge technologies in its curriculum.
Earlier in her address of welcome, the Vice Chancellor of ABUAD, Prof. Smaranda Olarinde described the visit, as a replica of the one earlier made by her and a select ABUAD team sponsored by Babalola to China recently.
She disclosed that, with the partnership, ABUAD would soon start manufacturing vehicles and robots.