As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu marks his third year in office, Whitecloud TVET Solutions Limited joins millions of Nigerians in reflecting on the progress made in critical sectors that drive national growth, particularly Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), skills development, and human capital advancement.

Over the past three years, the administration has demonstrated a growing commitment to repositioning skills acquisition as a cornerstone of economic development, youth empowerment, job creation, and national productivity. At a time when nations across the world are investing heavily in human capital, Nigeria has continued to take strategic steps toward equipping its citizens with practical, industry-relevant skills needed to thrive in the modern economy.

One of the most remarkable developments within the nation’s skills ecosystem has been the increasing attention given to Technical and Vocational Education and Training. Through policy reforms, stakeholder engagements, and institutional support, TVET is gradually gaining the recognition it deserves as a vital pathway to employment, entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainable development.

Particularly commendable is Nigeria’s growing engagement with WorldSkills International, the global movement dedicated to promoting excellence in vocational, technological, and technical skills. Nigeria’s participation in the WorldSkills community represents a significant milestone in the nation’s journey toward global competitiveness.

Beyond membership, it opens opportunities for Nigerian youths to benchmark their competencies against international standards, participate in global skills competitions, foster innovation, and showcase the immense talent and potential that exists within the country.

WorldSkills serves as a platform where nations prepare their workforce for the future, and Nigeria’s involvement reflects a deliberate commitment to producing a generation of highly skilled professionals capable of competing and excelling on the world stage.

This achievement aligns with the broader vision of creating a workforce that is not only employable but also globally relevant.

We also acknowledge the efforts of the Federal Ministry of Education in driving reforms within the TVET sector. The establishment of strategic committees and frameworks under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Education under the leadership of the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Olatunji Alausa has further strengthened coordination, stakeholder engagement, and implementation of policies aimed at transforming skills development across the country.

Equally worthy of recognition is the pivotal role being played by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) under the leadership of its Director-General, Dr. Afiz Oluwatoyin Ogun. Through various initiatives focused on vocational training, apprenticeship development, workforce readiness, and industry-driven capacity building, the ITF has continued to bridge the gap between education and industry while supporting the Federal Government’s vision of building a skilled and productive workforce.

The renewed emphasis on practical skills acquisition, digital competencies, entrepreneurship, and industry partnerships has created new opportunities for young Nigerians to acquire relevant knowledge and become active contributors to the nation’s economic transformation.

As a leading organization committed to skills development and technical education, Whitecloud TVET Solutions Limited recognizes these achievements as important building blocks toward a more prosperous and self-reliant Nigeria. We remain committed to supporting government efforts, collaborating with industry stakeholders, and providing world-class training that equips Nigerians with the competencies required for success in today’s rapidly evolving world.

As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu celebrates three years of leadership, we congratulate him on the progress recorded in advancing skills development, strengthening technical education, and laying the foundation for a more competitive and economically resilient nation.

We also commend all stakeholders, institutions, development partners, and industry leaders who continue to contribute to the growth of Nigeria’s TVET and skills ecosystem.

Together, we can build a nation where skills drive prosperity, innovation fuels growth, and every Nigerian has the opportunity to realize their full potential.
Congratulations, Mr. President, on three years of purposeful leadership and commitment to national development.

Signed
Mr. Jasper Oluranti Netufo
Chairman/CEO
Whitecloud TVET Solutions Limited

By Sola Ajisafe, Esq

I was at Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, yesterday for an important function. I felt proud of what one man can do, and angry at what government has failed to do.

The Ado/Ijan Road, now known as “Afe Babalola Way,” is an eyesore. It serves a Federal Polytechnic, a world-class private university, the Ekiti Golf Club, an agricultural settlement, and multiple government establishments. Yet neither the Federal Government nor the Ekiti State Government has treated it as a priority. For 16 years since ABUAD was established, this critical corridor has been left to rot. This is not just bad infrastructure. It is ingratitude.

Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, is Ekiti’s most significant living contribution to Nigeria and the world. A local boy who conquered the legal profession and was recognized by leaders, including Queen Elizabeth II. At 97, he has built what no government in Nigeria has matched.

Over the past sixteen years, he has created employment and opportunity on a scale that rivals the state itself. ABUAD currently employs more than 2,500 academic and non-academic staff, with over 5,000 additional support staff working as cleaners, artisans, drivers, farm hands, and others. That employment base has turned the institution into one of the largest private employers in Ekiti.

The university’s impact has not gone unnoticed. It has been ranked No. 1 in Nigeria by Times Higher Education for four consecutive years, 2022 to 2025, No. 3 in Africa, and No. 84 globally on impact ratings. Those rankings reflect not just academic output but the university’s role in advancing healthcare, research, and community development.

In healthcare, ABUAD operates a Multi-system Hospital ( AMSH) that has become a referral center for the country. The hospital runs an MRI unit, CT-Scanners, Digital X-Ray machines, 17 dialysis machines, and has performed over 400 dialysis procedures. Just two weeks ago, more renal transplants were successfully performed to make a total of 50 renal transplants carried out without complications for donors or recipients in ABUAD. The center also performs cardio-thoracic surgeries and runs an IVF clinic.

Beyond the hospital, Chief Afe Babalola established the Afe Abiye free antenatal program for women in Ekiti State, a model similar to Ondo’s Mother and Child scheme, ensuring that thousands of women receive care without cost. He also established two hospital annexes at Odo Ado( Girigiri) and Basiri all within Ado Ekiti.

His philanthropic contributions to Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti and Ekiti State University coupled with yearly empowerment programmes for Ekiti State farmers, traders, artisans and scholarships for students are monumental.

Where government infrastructure has failed, ABUAD stepped in. The university runs an independent power plant not connected to the national grid, and a private dam that meets the water needs of the university and its farm. It also operates an industrial park with space for 126 factories, and a fully integrated farm that produces vegetables, fruits such as pepper, mangoes, papaya and tomatoes, livestock including birds, fish and other animals, and processed products like flour, cassava, plantain, rice, pepper, and cashew nuts for local consumption and export. The farm even has its own feed mill for livestock, and the institution is involved in recycling to sustain its operations.

The economic multiplier effect is evident. ABUAD attracts students from all 36 states and the FCT, as well as from countries including the US, China, and across Africa. To further open up the State, Chief Afe Babalola personally contributed N2 billion for landing equipment at the newly established Ekiti Cargo Airport and N450 million for the construction of its current car park.

This is what one man did for Ekiti without waiting for Abuja or Ado Ekiti. He even provided his house as the take-off administrative office for the State university at inception.

And what did Ekiti and the Federal Government do in return? They left the road to his university unmotorable.

Governor Biodun Oyebanji is widely regarded as an Omoluabi. Unlike two of his predecessors, he has publicly shown respect for Chief Afe Babalola, prostrating for him in line with Yoruba ethos. But respect without action is empty. Governor Oyebanji recently delivered a lecture at ABUAD, yet avoided the Ado/Ijan Road entirely and came through the bypass. That tells you everything.

President Bola Tinubu is an alumnus of ABUAD, having received an honorary doctorate from the university. The Federal Ministry of Works claimed to have awarded the road two years ago, then passed it to FERMA. Since then, silence. Nothing has been done.

So I ask; How does a country honor its heroes while they are alive? The best gift Ekiti State and the Federal Government can give Chief Afe Babalola at almost a century is not another plaque or title. It is to fix the 8.5km road that bears his name so he can drive on it, and so the students, patients, staff, and investors who keep ABUAD running don’t destroy their vehicles and waste their lives in traffic and dust.

Anything short of immediate resumption and completion of work on this road is a dent on Governor Oyebanji and Minister David Umahi. It tells the world that Nigeria celebrates its builders only in speeches, not in deeds.

Ekiti opened its doors to the world because of ABUAD. The least the world can expect in return is a road that works.

Fix Afe Babalola Way. Now. While the man can still see it.

Oloroogun Sola Ajisafe, Lawyer/Journalist. He is from Oka Akoko, lives and practices law in Akure, Ondo State.

Bamidele Johnson

VAT does not know who drinks what. Every time news breaks of Hisbah, Kano State’s moral police, smashing bottles of beer, millions of people, mostly in the South, erupt in rage.

Band A rage, that is. Most of the anger, I believe, is expressed by people who identify as Christians and who see the Muslim North as bad news.

The comment sections, especially on Facebook, burn hottest. The question that comes up again and again is why should states that ban the consumption of alcohol receive VAT from alcohol? I used to think this was a clever gotcha, but I no longer do. The argument rests on a moral instinct that feels good but dissipates in the face of law, economics, or basic fairness.

The claim is simple. If some states ban alcohol and even use religious agencies to seize or destroy it, they should not benefit from VAT generated from alcohol produced elsewhere. It sounds like justice. It is not. It is fiscal confusion. I do not expect this view to be popular with the permanently enraged.

VAT is not a prize awarded to states that host certain industries, but a national consumption tax collected by the Federal Government and shared using agreed constitutional formula.

Once collected, the money loses memory of its origin. It stops being alcohol VAT, gambling VAT, pork VAT, nightclub VAT or interest-based banking VAT. It is just VAT.

This debate is often framed as entitlement. If you ban alcohol, you should not “chop” alcohol money. I do not think states with Hisbah and other agencies that convulse at the thought of liquor are taking alcohol money. What they receive are statutory allocations from a common pool to which all parts of the federation contribute in different ways.

No state earns VAT by permission. None. Every state receives VAT by membership; because Nigeria exists as one fiscal unit.

There is also the small matter of selective memory. If moral purity is the standard, alcohol cannot be the only issue. VAT also comes from gambling, interest-based banking, insurance tied to interest and uncertainty, pork-based food items, nightclubs, adult entertainment, lottery and media content that would give religious leaders across faiths fits.

Southern states do not reject VAT because some of it comes from predatory loans, betting apps, pornography-adjacent entertainment or music and films churches regularly denounce. Moral filtering becomes impossible once the lens widens.

The argument also ignores economic reality. Citizens of states with alcohol aversion and moral police pay VAT outside their states every day. They travel, trade, bank, rent homes, insure assets, borrow money and work across Nigeria.

VAT is paid at the point of consumption, not at that of belief. A trader buying goods in Onitsha or a traveller spending in Lagos pays VAT regardless of what their home state bans. To deny their states a share is to believe that the economy stops at state boundaries.

The noise around Hisbah and smashed beer bottles, while emotionally powerful, is a distraction. Destroying alcohol within a state is an internal regulatory choice that has nothing to do with national revenue sharing.

A state can ban an activity locally without losing access to federal resources generated nationally. There is also an uncomfortable undertone that deserves honesty.

The Southern position suggests that religious difference should determine fiscal worth and that some Nigerians deserve less because their moral codes are stricter or simply different. Once accepted, that idea does not stop at alcohol. It starts asking who truly belongs and on what moral terms. That is no fiscal argument.

If we believe Nigeria should abandon pooled revenue and adopt strict derivation, the honest path is to argue for full constitutional restructuring and fiscal federalism across all sectors.

It is weak to single out alcohol and gambling as a special moral exception while enjoying the same system everywhere else.

VAT is not a moral endorsement of how other Nigerians live. It is the price of sharing a country. Sharing a country means no group gets to redesign the national revenue framework in the image of its own theology after the money has already been collected.