A UNIVERSITY REBUILT FROM WAR: FINANCE MINISTER NGAFUAN SAYS TUBMAN UNIVERSITY'S 17-YEAR JOURNEY FROM 287 STUDENTS TO 3,000 PROVES PUBLIC INVESTMENT CAN TRANSFORM LIBERIA'S SOUTHEAST

BY: Rufus Divine Brooks Jr.

HARPER, Maryland County – Finance and Development Planning Minister Hon. Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan has called William V. S. Tubman University one of the clearest proofs that a nation can be wounded without surrendering its future,” as the institution marked 17 years since its elevation from a technical college to a full university.

Speaking at the university’s 17th Founders’ Day Celebration in Harper, Minister Ngafuan said the growth of Tubman University reflects what is possible when public investment is matched with vision and determination.

The Minister recounted the institution’s history, from its founding as Tubman College of Technology in 1978 with 87 students, to its closure during the 1989 civil war, and its rebirth in 2009.

“When President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf signed the Act elevating this college to a university, some questioned whether it could succeed this far from Monrovia,” Ngafuan said.

“What began with 287 students has become indispensable.

Today, the university serves nearly 3,000 students across six colleges and more than twenty degree programs.”

He credited former President Sirleaf, Dr. Elizabeth Davis-Russell, current President Prof. Dr. Olu Q. Menjay, and the people of Maryland County for refusing to accept that quality higher education must stop in Monrovia.

Minister Ngafuan linked the university’s expansion to increased government budgetary support.

He said Tubman University received approximately US$1.5 million in early government support in 2009, and its allocation in the 2026 National Budget is approximately US$6.4 million

He noted that about US$1.1 million under the current program is supporting capital works including repairs to the Academic Complex and Elizabeth Davis-Russell Building, renovation of staff quarters and classrooms, reconstruction of the perimeter fence, and construction of a new College of Engineering and Technology Building.

“Government is not doing this university a favor by supporting these projects. We are carrying out a national duty,” he said.

“The taxes paid by citizens must create opportunity in every region of our country.”

Meanwhile, In a major national update delivered during the ceremony, the Minister announced that Liberia has for the first time in its 179-year history crossed US$1 billion in domestic revenue collected in a single year, according to a real-time dashboard from the Liberia Revenue Authority.

“This achievement belongs to all Liberians – the market woman who pays her taxes, the worker whose income is taxed, the business that complies with the law,” Ngafuan said.

“A nation that wants greater control over its future must raise more of the resources needed to finance that future.”

He cited examples of what the revenue is financing: ambulances and buses for Jackson F. Doe Hospital, a new nursing complex at Grand Gedeh University, road works, and improved salaries for public servants.

Speaking on the Founders’ Day theme “Seventeen Years of Excellence: Advancing Knowledge, Innovation and Service,” the Minister said a serious university must move knowledge “from the textbook and into the rice field” and innovation “from the laboratory and into the marketplace.”

He proposed a 5-year compact for the university: complete ongoing projects before starting new ones; connect learning to work through internships; invest in faculty development; give students a voice; and make Tubman University the Southeast’s “problem-solving laboratory” for issues like coastal erosion, renewable energy, and food processing.

Addressing students directly, Ngafuan urged them to focus on competence, character, and national service.

“Government can finance a classroom, but it cannot force you to learn,” he said.

Your education must become somebody else’s evidence that Liberia can work. Liberia needs your dreams to include Liberia.

We must remain logged in to our country.”

The Minister was accompanied by several Maryland County natives serving in the Ministry of Finance, including Budget Director Rev. John Monger and Senior Technical Focal Point Ms. Carolyn Myers Zoduah.

The celebration was attended by Maryland County Superintendent Hon. Nathaniel Toe, Bishop Michael Tuan Sieh, Sr., traditional leaders, students, faculty and alumni.