9,000 Nigerian students in Malaysia says envoy •••as GDP rises to $237b

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By; Oladele Adedayo, Ado-Ekiti.
Malaysia’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Lim Juay Jin has said that no fewer than 9,000 Nigerian students are currently pursuing various courses of studies in Malaysian universities.
He also disclosed that a total of 450 Nigerians had so far attended Nigeria/Malaysia Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP).
The envoy made the disclosure in Ado-Ekiti on weekend at the Afe Babalola University during a visit.
He spoke at a programme tagged “Diplomatic Talk“ organised by the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy of the university.
According to him, the affected Nigerians choose to study in Malaysia, having realised that his country was one of the top tertiary education destinations in the world.
He said the students were studying at all levels of education, including undergraduate, masters as well as doctoral studies.
The Envoy however expressed the desires of his country to further deepen its bilateral relations with Nigeria.
The envoy attributed the development to availability of facilities, affordable fees, friendly learning environment, quality tutors, good governance and stable economy, comparable to what obtained in Europe and America.
Jin said the GDP of his country with a population of just 30 million people, currently stands at $237b while her per capita income is $8, 800.
He said Malaysia was also making the waves in the areas of agriculture, especially palm oil which he said his country that gained independence from Britain in 1957 had been able to use to advantage.
Responding to the Envoy’s lecture, eminent lawyer and founder of the host university, Chief Afe Babalola said it was unbelievable to realise that Malaysia, a rather smaller country which could not compete with Nigeria in anything many years back had overtaken it.
He, therefore canvassed a return of the country to the days of smaller units of regional governance so that too much powers would not be concentrated at the centre, while the country would be easy to administer.
“If we had maintained the regional government as found in the 60’s, we would have developed even better than Malaysia.
“Our fore fathers considered the population, land and resources as very large, that was why they introduced regional government. It has always been the smaller, the better”, he said.

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