Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by fire heart entertainment and viewers like y Thank you.

You can do your global impact by going into your local neighborhood, even your community, to empower and encourage leaders.

As Africa's premier development university, the American University of Nigeria has been providing these resources since 2004.

Tonight, President Frazier is back to help us learn how students at this university learn skills to help them in their communities.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

Know you from Los Angeles?

This is Kelsey's PBS.

Welcome to everybody with Angela Williamson and innovation, Arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, doctor Angela Williamson.

I know you enjoyed that first episode with President Frazier.

He is back and we are going to talk about the American University of Nigeria, because this is the 20th anniversary.

Thank you so much for coming back for a second episode.

No thank you.

I'm glad to be here and being able to talk about the school's 20th anniversary.

I mean, once again, as we say in America, that's pretty awesome.

Is incredibly awesome.

Also, too, when we left off, we wanted to talk about in this segment, not only the American University of Nigeria's legacy, but your legacy as the president.

So let's talk about that.

I appreciate that.

So, you know, I hear people tell me all the time, they go, hey, you had good days back in or many years ago, or we want to get back to where we were.

And, and at times they did have, a little bit of higher period before Covid, but I always smile and I laugh and I say, we're never going back to that point.

And I smile and sad because we are going to go so much further, so much higher, that we won't even see that because it'll be in our rearview mirror, because what we're going to do is going to be more than anybody could imagine, more than anybody could have ever hoped for, because we're going to do it together.

When one person tries to do something, you can't go as far as when you get people together.

And I've got the best faculty, staff, students you could possibly have board a founder that cares about the school and a country that is hungry for this type of education and this type of opportunity.

And the legacy that I want to leave here is one that this place will say, you know what?

That guy, he may have been not everybody's cup of tea, but he certainly cared for this university more than most people.

And he cared more in his pinky.

Sometimes than most people ever would, care about this university and this institution.

So I want them to know above everything that I'm leaving this place better than when I came in.

And I will fight every single moment.

Some days I work 25 hours.

If there was 25, just to make sure that we get what we're doing.

So, do care immensely.

It's never been about a paycheck.

If it was, I could be working in America for a little bit more money.

But it's not about that.

I didn't leave my children, my family, everything to come right here.

I came here because I want to have an impact.

And I can't tell you a place that's any better than Nigerian people.

I mean, some of the most honest, kind people.

It's never about money.

I keep saying this all the time.

I've had people that have very little that make very little money, offer me meals, give me gifts, things that they do.

Always think of the story from biblical times of the widow's mite, and it's always about what somebody is giving in their intentions of their heart.

And the people here I've never found any more generous people.

They remind me of my people of Appalachia, so I fit in quite well with the people here.

Well, and we spent some time out in the community and the community is very important.

So how does the community build into a NS mission?

Well, we have a whole office that actually dedicates to community service for the students.

So the students many times on Thursdays, Fridays, I'll give you an example.

Me and the Muslim Student Association.

During Ramadan, we're working on a project where we go to one of our largest mosque and foundations, and after sundown, we're going to feed the people, and we're raising the money for and give shoes to children and do some projects like that.

I've worked with Christian churches on projects that we've done, things where we've done mental health awareness and others.

The honor students in this campus, they adopt it an orphanage.

And, I know we'll get a chance to see it, as well.

And you get to go to this orphanage, and they got the electricity for the kids in the orphanage.

They've raised money.

These kids, these students here just absolutely care about other people.

And I can tell you that with the education they're getting, coupled with their, grasp of what humanity is about and caring about others, these are the people that everyone needs in the world, not just Nigeria.

We need more Nigerians like this as Americans and the United States, but these people are starting jobs here.

They're doing so many things.

So community is huge for us.

We're actually an entrepreneur university.

Every student takes entrepreneurship classes.

They're starting businesses everywhere.

I mean, they're starting businesses when they're in college still.

I mean, these kids, they never cease to amaze me.

And that was the vision of the person who started this, right?

The founder had that vision.

You're right.

He wanted the institution to not just have people that go out to be employees.

We're making them critical thinkers.

We're making them look into the future, and we're preparing them to be lifelong learners.

When you prepare people to have that type of education, then it doesn't matter what happens in life.

Who knew that we have jobs in cybersecurity 30 years ago?

Who knew the internet would be there in the 1960s and 70s?

And all of this keeps popping up, but our students are prepared to be lifelong learners.

So no matter what life throws at them, they're going to have that skill set to be a heart of service, a heart for entrepreneurship, a heart for people and the educational background.

And that is the essence of the greatest of American education.

And we have it right here.

We're not creating little Americans by any means.

We're creating lifelong learners who believe in the same system that we did, and it's making the world a better place.

Our kids are everywhere.

Our students all over the world.

You recently just went to a conference with other presidents from other universities, mostly in the U.S.. How is your conversation with them?

Because you have such a unique focus here.

It's unlike any other.

It is.

You know, I laughed a few times because my alma mater was there, and the president, just a wonderful fellow.

But, he was laughing because he wanted to share, for, mission, Campbellsville University in mission.

And so Joe Hopkins shared about me, and he said, this guy never stops talking about his students, never talks talking about Nigeria and his people.

You could see the passion in his face and his eyes when he talks about his students that he feels such a connection with.

And, the students.

I had a few, professors and few, presidents say, you know, that genuine love that you have for them, and it seems like they have for you because we follow you on LinkedIn or Facebook.

They said, I wish I had that at my institution.

So that's American presidents telling me that.

So, you know, if money wasn't an issue, I'd work for free.

But unfortunately I have bills and I have to pay.

But, but the blessing of being in a place where it never feels like you're working, it feels like you're doing what you're meant to do, then you never work a day in your life because you're truly living a career and living what you love.

And living what you love.

So let's pick up on that one.

There are certain qualities that a person should have if they want to be a president of the university.

So what qualities do you think makes you that strong?

President?

We talked about humility.

We talked about service.

What other qualities are important that you feel that it's your mission?

Sure.

So, you know, my children and I, we joke about it sometimes.

And, my my youngest son, he's the baby of six, so he's constantly telling me how old I am and I shouldn't be playing basketball because I'm going to get hurt playing with the kids or playing soccer.

He goes, I bet they beat you a lot.

Look how much gray hair you have, dad and everything.

So, I don't think definitely my basketball ability or soccer ability makes me as a prerequisite to be a president.

But what it really takes to be a president is you have to have an integrity about you, because there is not enough checks and balances.

Many times in the system, I have to be able to lay my head down every single night and know that I did what was best for my university, for the best, for my students, and the best for the people that I serve here.

And I'm doing it all in honor of my family.

And so as a president of a university, that integrity never needs to be anything that people are going to question.

So I try to follow policies, procedures.

You know, I'm not always giving everybody the answer they want, but I'm always trying to be fair.

If I leave here and they say that president was a fair president, that he cared about people, but he did things the right way, then I succeeded.

You know, education is an important part of being a college president and experience.

So I've been at large research institutions like the University of Kentucky or the University of Louisville, but I've been at small private liberal arts schools like Upper Iowa University or Iowa Wesleyan or Campbellsville University.

And those times that I spent and all these different schools help me understand the gamut of U.S. education, because this school is more like a teaching university.

We do research and things, too, but we focus on the undergraduate education to give that quality experience so it fits in well with the Council of Independent Colleges, which is where I went to the conference with.

And so I was with thousands of college presidents, but it was, interesting.

They were all like, tell us a little, how did you get to Nigeria when they said, where are you the president from?

And I'll say American University of Nigeria.

And at first they'll be just looking like this and they'll go, what?

Nigeria, like the country?

I go, no, like the state in America.

No, I'm kidding, I just teased what?

Because what you're doing here is unlike any other, and I just feel that you wouldn't have it any other way.

No.

You know, I love things being different, and, And I'm from a different background.

my friends tell me here I'm probably the youngest, if not close to the youngest vice chancellor in the country, because usually in a lot of the public schools, especially the vice chancellors, are positions where people have served many years.

And it's a great ceremonial opportunity.

But I am a blue collar worker and I'm going to work and I'm going to do things.

People are like, you're so hands on, I go, I know I am, because if I'm hands on, then it sets an example for others to be able to follow that there is no free rides here.

Everybody that's here needs to work and to be a part of the solutions for us to go together.

Because remember, as I said earlier, together we can do so much more than I could ever do separately.

So I couldn't do this without my faculty, without my students, without my administration, and definitely not without my, students that are, you know, behind me every single day helping me with whatever I ask.

I can ask them for anything that's so funny.

And they'll be like, oh, yeah, yeah, we can do this.

This will be fun.

Yeah.

What about this?

Well, in your population, your student population, they're so helpful.

We have absolutely enjoyed being here and can't wait to do more episodes with them.

And what about the respect they show to all of us?

I mean, isn't that amazing how kind they act?

Very kind.

And I think that's important.

As you put the characteristics of what you want to take into the future, right?

Yes, ma'am.

No, I think you're right.

And and just the respect that they show in this culture for people in positions of a president.

but anybody even older, you'll hear in this culture, they'll call people aunties or they'll call them uncles.

And, you know, a mama, they really do have that respect.

The family unit reminds me of what my mama used to teach me about the 50s.

In the 60s in America, they take care of their families.

They're always.

You're the oldest child.

You're making sure you're helping.

If you're making money sending money back to your family, you're making sure your mom and dad is being taken care of.

There's no need for, assisted living in this country and, and, nursing homes for elderly, because the people will take care of their family here.

And so I'm not picking on those that do that.

It's just a different life.

But it's a lot like America, a good 30 or 40 years ago in that simpleness that is so humble, but also touching how much they love their families.

And it really has hit me, and it's hopefully going to make me even a better dad in the future.

So why is it so important for your students to be here and move into the community?

Sure.

So first and foremost, we're not making widgets, we're not making cups, we're not making some type of products.

What our product is actually, though, is students and the lives of those students, the education and what they do.

The example of these students that are out in communities as alums, touching lives, doing things.

That's the essence.

American University of Nigeria is not a campus in Yola.

Now hear me out.

It's not just this little physical campus setting here.

It's a spirit.

It's it's a people.

It's a group.

It's all of us that have come through this system either worked and been touched or are students, and they take American University in Nigeria with them to Silicon Valley.

They take American University of Nigeria to London, to Lagos, to Abuja and to Yola.

I know you'll meet with one from Yola here and you'll learn about what they're doing in this community.

And that's just one story of many stories of what these students are doing all around the world.

A U.N. is so much more than a physical campus.

It's a spirit.

It's a spirit of love, humility, caring and education that all comes together and it meets and it makes these stallions that we call that's our mascot, the aone stallions.

And honestly, I'd put them up against anybody in the world.

Come on.

Oxford, Harvard.

We'll go.

Thank you so much for spending three segments with us.

Thank you.

Stay right there and we'll be right back.

Welcome back.

I'm here with an alumni from the American University of Nigeria.

Thank you so much for being here.

So tell our audience your name and tell us what you graduated in.

My name is Guerra montoya.

T even class of 2017.

I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Natural and Environmental Sciences, and I majored in environment and health, although I'm not doing, environmental and health at the moment, I sort of drifted a bit into the social sciences.

So I did a Bachelor of Arts after my Bachelor of Science, and, also did a master's in social sciences.

And is it that master's in social sciences is what you are doing in your research today?

Yes.

Tell us about that.

All right.

So I background to the research I'm doing now actually goes back to when I was doing my Bachelor of Science.

so part of the things that, stands out in Ian is the sort of work study, research opportunities we get in.

Even so, when I was, in my final year, I think I was like a research assistant to one of my professors.

Yes.

So we did, we went to the field.

We were working on a, cholera, alleviation research.

Yes.

So we we went to, one of the specialist hospitals because there's a we have a recurrent cholera outbreak here in Adamawa State, especially when it's in the rainy seasons.

So one of my professors actually invited this, this medical doctor from Harvard.

Yes.

So he came from Harvard.

He had just done he was a medical doctor by profession in Nigeria.

And then he decided to go to the US to do a masters of Public Health in Harvard.

So when he finished, he invited him over to say, you know what?

Let's do?

Let's look at what's happening with this cholera thing in Adamawa State.

You know, so she introduced me to him, to, work with him as her research assistant.

So it was three of us in this project, went to the field to see, okay, to interview, you know, victims of cholera.

A state government has fixed spaces.

The reality of the resurgence of polio.

It will have more to attend with as over 61 cholera cases have also been recorded.

The latest outbreak is the recorded is recorded in Nigeria, Yola North and South Local Government Area of the state.

Doctor Sally Lowry, who represents the director, Public Health and the state Ministry of Health, disclosed this at a Social Mobilization Committee meeting on face to Covid 19 immunization held as a primary health care center in Yola, the state capital.

So it was in that process that I picked an interest in, in a health care, in, health systems research.

And I'm focusing primarily on health care workers, you know, because those are the superheroes.

You know.

Tell us a little bit about how this disease impacts the state of Nigeria, especially your state that you're in right now.

Yeah.

So, when you look at the, socio economic indicators in, in Nigeria, you'll find that Adamawa State, the North in Adams states does very poorly.

If you look at health care, if you look at, literacy rates, if you look at all the socio economic indicators we do very poorly.

So that disease is recurrent because, there is no proper systems, waste management systems.

Yes, that's what I mean.

and because there is no proper waste management systems, you find that when it rains, people are, easily contact these, diseases.

And so it's goes a long way to affecting a lot of people.

People have to leave school when it rains because they get sick, you know, these diarrhea, so it happens yearly and, and that becomes like a menace in the state.

And, I mean, our audience just needs to know the American University of Nigeria is actually in the middle of this state where this disease is the largest.

Yes.

And with this research, what do you want to develop for that?

So that makes that change in the community okay.

So the American west of Nigeria, I'm sure you know, now that we, we call ourselves with Development University, so be not the center of this.

I think my experience when I was a student, I saw, public health, interventions playing out in the field and how a UN is actually in the forefront, because we would be in meetings with the Ministry of Health, we would be in meetings with stakeholders in the health care field, NGOs, Red cross, W.H.O., Unicef, you know, so a U.N. was working hand in hand with these partners to see how we could, alleviate this issue in, in the society and so part of the things we were doing was we would go into communities where, this flooding was happening and we would chlorinated water, you know, provide people with, soaps, you know, teach people how to how to manage their water and food so that, you know, these microbes do not get in and so that they can live healthy.

So Ian plays a, a key role.

So what is our major questions that we have about AGU is the American University of Nigeria for our audience, is that what is a UN's global impact.

So in your research, if this research is able to find a cure for this disease, what do you think the impact of this university would be?

Okay, so the research generally, will help us to understand, healthcare from a social context.

You know, a lot of the times when interventions are being put out there, it's more about numbers.

It's more about, okay, this amount of people, dying, this number of people are going through this.

so from a social context, that's where the social science comes in, is that we are able to interact with people to understand their situation beyond just numbers, to say, okay, this is the number of people going through this, this, this.

We want to understand the why, the why.

Yes, the why and the how.

You know, the why in the hell.

Yes.

And that helps to inform interventions from the big bigger organizations are the like W.H.O.

because they are after numbers, but social scientists, after the lived experiences of these people, you know, what they are actually going through.

And that backs up the numbers.

So that that gives the research more, it gives it more weight, it gives it more, power.

and the global impact is people now have a better understanding of what is actually going on in the ground level.

You know, they have won.

And it's not just about numbers, numbers, it's about what is and what are these people actually going through.

And that may motivate more partners to, sending more aid to the region.

You know, that may also help them to understand how to actually, how to change the interventions to make it more effective.

Okay.

For example, somebody does not have food to eat, right?

But you tell them or they don't have, yeah, they don't have food to eat, but you tell them eat proper food in the first place.

They don't even have food to eat.

Right.

So you can't just keep prescribing interventions, when you don't understand the real problem, you know?

So this sort of research helps you to get, in depth data, understanding of what is actually going on behind closed doors.

What is the solution?

Well, first we have to look at agriculture, right?

Inverse.

It's more like, it's it's an intervention that needs to come from the government.

Right.

Let's look at how we can invest in agriculture.

Want to make food more available, to make food more accessible and to make food more affordable?

Right.

So, empower farmers, for example.

Right.

And this is a problem we've been having in Nigeria for, for a long time.

where and it goes back to security right at the moment, you find that people are not able to go to the farm because they are being hunted by all kinds of, thieves, bandits, heads, man, and, you know, all these people.

So if you are able to make security, strengthen security, and the farmers have the confidence to go back to the farm, you know, and invest in these farmers, provide incentives, right?

Provide them with fertilizer, all kinds of things that will make encourage them to go to the farm, right.

That will make food more of, of available and more affordable.

Right.

And sensitize the, the, the youths.

So if you find that a lot of young people don't want to go into farming because it's like, you.

Know, it's farming.

Yeah, it's farming.

People are just sitting there offices, you know, and do interviews like this, you know, cool stuff.

Nobody wants to go to the.

Farm, but it's.

It's important.

Yeah.

So let's sensitize the youths, you know, tell them and it's not just important is profitable.

Right.

So sensitize the youths.

You know, get them to like things like farming so that there's more people who are interested in making food available and, provide social welfare programs also in, in society that helps the, the people that don't have, you know, access to that may not be able to afford food, provide social welfare programs for them, you know, so that they can have they can have food.

So do you think that the private sector can help this problem?

Yeah, definitely.

I think it's not, something that can be solved from one angle.

We need, partnership with public and private partnership to be able to address this.

you can think of cooperative societies.

You could think of how, the, the private sector could come in in terms of, logistics as well, you know, because one of the issues when it comes to agriculture is transportation.

You know, so in terms of logistics, how can the private sector come in, you know, to be able to transport food from one, area to another?

You know, so there's many ways we could look at it, but definitely, a public private partnership would would go a long way in addressing this problem.

You told me you're a researcher and you always, as researchers, you have a goal and a legacy.

So what do you want that to be for?

You?

Well, for me, so primarily my research is primarily, primarily on health care workers.

like I said, those are the real superheroes.

background story.

My mom was the first health care worker that I.

That I actually was a nurse.

So she was the first person that sort of give me a glimpse of what it's like to be a healthcare worker.

She would drop me in school very early, should go to work.

She would come back really late, you know.

So I saw what it meant to be a health care worker, you know, saving lives, you know, and, funnily enough, she actually she got sick and she died, you know, so I saw what it means to save lives.

And then your own life is not being prioritized.

Right.

So that's where my interest in health care workers research, started from.

And then when I worked with my, with my supervisor.

So my legacy and in this sort of research would be to amplify the voices of these people who go the extra mile to see that other people, find, healthy.

my legacy would be to make their work much easier because as a social scientist, you amplify some of the challenges that people go through.

and so when people are able to see that, okay, this is what these people are going through, how can we make that work easier?

You know, if I see health care worker smiling, health care workers not going on strike, you know, imagine, doctors and nurses going on strike because they are not well catered for.

You know, it's the whole the society, the like, the backbone of the society, you know, so when we have less of those things happening, that would be my legacy.

You are a prime example of an a UN graduate.

And thank you so much for spending time with me.

Thank you.

So much.

And thank you for joining us on everybody with Angela Williamson at the American University of Nigeria.

Viewers like you make this show possible.

Join us on social media to continue this conversation.

Good night and stay well.

Hi, I'm Angela Williamson, host of everybody with Angela Williamson.

Thank you for watching.

Clicks.

If you enjoy my show, a well as all the other shows here on Cox, pleas consider supporting the station.

Your support helps keep all your favorite programs available.

You can support KLC by calling 888998 clicks or by visiting cxotalk.

Again, thank you for watching Kelsey's PBS.