Fifty-seven of the rescued Chibok schoolgirls have got admission at the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola Adamawa state.
This was disclosed in a statement by the university’s spokesperson, Mr Daniel Okereke on Wednesday after the school’s 2021 annual Convocation and Pledge Ceremony.
The girls, “now young women and first-year university students. They hope to help build a better and more peaceful Nigeria at Africa’s premier Development University,” the statement said.
He said the girls take their places among the newly matriculating students, including dozens transferring from foreign universities, particularly from the United States and other Nigerian universities.
“These 57 Chibok students had been enrolled in the AUN New Foundation School (NFS) program as they prepared for university work, and for life,” the university said.
The girls have been on the scholarship of the Federal government, under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, and were sent to AUN, which has the facilities and resources to mentor them through their personal healing, educational development, and gradual community reintegration.
Many of them have indicated an interest in studying Law, Natural and Environmental Sciences, Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Business Administration, Communication, Multimedia Design, and Economics.
New students enrolled in the American University of Nigeria Classes of 2023, 2025, and 2026 began their academic and life-changing journey at a colorful and well-attended event on October 18, 2021, the statement said.
The university president, Margee Ensign, charged them to find solutions to the problems facing our world today without fear or doubt.
“Whether it is climate change, challenges to our very health, threats of violence, injustice, desertification, inequality, poverty, pollution, tyranny, all our problems are man-made and so are the
solutions,” President Ensign told the freshly enrolled students who come from 27 states and three countries outside Nigeria.
Many of them were accompanied by parents and relatives to the university’s fall semester Convocation and Pledge Ceremony held in the large-capacity Lamido Aliyu Mustafa Commencement Hall.
“Here at AUN, we begin with honesty and hard work. We look the world in the eye; we look Nigeria in the eye with an unflinching gaze. We confront problems with accurate facts, not fake facts. We work hard to distinguish between them. We see the world’s problems for what they are, and we find ways to make things better. It can be done. It must, and it will be done. And we will do it together,” she said.
