Crawford University

Crawford University is a private Christian university in Igbesa, Nigeria, owned by the Apostolic Faith Mission. It was established in 2005 by Paul Akazue, the then leader and third Overseer for the Apostolic Faith work across Africa. Rev. Paul Akazue was the Proprietor and the first installed Chancellor of the Crawford University, before his death in May 2010.

Apostolic Faith Mission

The Apostolic Faith Mission was founded by the late Rev. (Mrs) Florence Louise Crawford in 1906 in the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon. A branch of the church was founded in Nigeria in 1944 by the late Rev. Timothy Gbadebo Oshokoya.

The church has its international headquarters in Portland, with regional headquarters in Europe, Asia and Africa. In Africa, the church is headed by the Africa Overseer (or Superintendent for Africa) who is based in Lagos, Nigeria. The present Africa Overseer is Reverend Emmanuel Adebayo Adeniran, who is also the proprietor of Crawford University.

The Africa headquarters, situated at Anthony Village, Lagos, is responsible for the administration of all branch churches in the continent. Each country, where the church exists, is headed by a country overseer (or district superintendent). Any country or branch church within the country is financially self-supporting.

The Apostolic Faith is a fundamentalist, trinitarian and evangelistic church. The church's mission is to pray, preach and publish and thereby enable millions of lost humanity know Christ and His redemptive power. The church is a non-profit organization financed through voluntary tithes and offerings from members.

History

The Church believes that the tripod of righteousness, resourcefulness and prayerfulness is a time-tested platform on which the true greatness of many nations had been built. The mooring for this notion is the eternal verity - “Righteousness exalts a nation”.

The ministry of Apostolic faith under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Paul Akazue considered the Nigerian Government's then deregulation of education policy as a golden opportunity for the Church to participate in the upgrading of educational standards in the country, by establishing her own educational institutions. The Church realized that education is a social service which cannot be financed purely on a sustainable basis with students' fees, hence they undertook the venture, simply because the Church believes that she has a sacred and patriotic duty to lend a helping hand to alleviate the ills which plague all the tiers of educational delivery in the country (Nigeria).

Crawford University is, therefore, a bold attempt by the Church to diversify into the third tier of education. The effort is geared towards producing graduates with moral excellence, self-confidence, inventive dynamism, and creativity. The Church believes that such graduates will be able to generate for themselves and the society in general, meaningful solutions to unemployment and other pressing manpower needs of the nation.

Crawford University received the operating licence from the Federal Government of Nigeria on the 9th of June, 2005.

The University was opened to the first batch of students on 30 September 2005. After one week of Orientation, lectures commenced on 10 October 2005. The first Matriculation Ceremony was conducted by the then Proprietor and Chancellor, Rev. (Dr.) Paul Akazue for the 235 pioneer students on 20 December 2005. The first graduation ceremony was held in 2009.^[1]

Goals and objectives

Crawford University describes its "overriding aim" as being to translate the institution into "a world class tertiary educational institution in the shortest time." Accordingly, its stated goals include:

• Provision of relevant courses of instruction and knowledge in an environment of world class conducive learning facilities;
• Promotion of scholarship and advancement of learning;
• Facilitation and pursuit of relevant research into human problems and their alleviation;
• Contribution to academic, social, cultural and economic development of Nigeria, and the world in general; and
• Undertaking general activities appropriate for a university of high repute in quest to produce well-rounded graduates, who are creative, academically sound, with good morals and the fear of God.

References

External links

• Crawford University website
• Crawford University Portal
• Nigeria: Western Delta Varsity Takes Off in Oghara
• http://www.apostolicfaith.org/NewsEvents/PastorsJournal/tabid/109/PostID/38/A-New-Leader-in-West--Central-Africa.aspx