The Government of China has awarded scholarship to 47
Nigerian students undertaking various courses at the University of Calabar.
The gesture done to the students was in
commemoration of the 47th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties
between China and Nigeria.
The Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Zhou
PingJiang, while presenting the awards on behalf of his country on Thursday at
the International Conference Centre of the university, said both countries
share so many things in common.
“We wish to take China-Nigeria relation to a higher
level. This year marks China 40 years of reforms and openness. We have reached
the level we are today because of three things-strong leadership, policies and
hard work.
“Nigeria is much better in natural resources than
China but Nigeria's population is about one third of China's population, so the
fear of the pressure to feed ourselves makes us work very hard. If we have
other alternative, we will adopt it but since we don't, we have identified the
three factors which are very serious ingredients to our success.
“There are
many similarities between my country and Nigeria. We became an independent
country in October 1 just like Nigeria. We are the largest country in Asia
while you're the largest in Africa. So, we share many things in common,” the
envoy said.
The ambassador also gave some hint about the
economic prowess of China in the globe, saying it derived from “reform and open
up” policy initiated 40 years ago, which are based on a tripartite system of
strong leadership, policy, and hard work.
He said after 40 years of that reform and open up
policy, China has become the second largest economy in the world.
Advancing reasons why students of the university
are beneficiaries of the scholarship awards, the ambassador said: “From when
this university started in the 70s, from the records I have, it was founded
with only about 800 students, but today the number has grown to over 40,000.
This is just one of the many achievements of this institution.
“The Vice Chancellor knows so much about China, and
so we chose UNICAL to mark the 47 years Nigeria-China relation because of the
honesty of the leadership and its visibility. The school is a leading second
generation university in Nigeria, so I'm impressed with the achievements so
far,” he added.
PingJiang praised the management of the university
for achieving great strides in academic and infrastructural development within
four decades of its existence as full-fledged university.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the
University of Calabar, Professor Zana Akpagu, said the school was grateful to the
ambassador for choosing the institution from the pack of other universities in
the Nigeria.
Akpagu said the award of the scholarship to the
students was an indication that the University of Calabar was steadily gaining
international recognition.
The vice chancellor said the university had
established an Institute for African and Asian Studies.
Akpagu, therefore, called on the Chinese Government
for support so that the Institute can succeed.
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