President Muhammadu Buhari, on Saturday, urged the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, and other tertiary institutions in the country to find lasting solutions to many challenges facing Nigeria as a developing nation.
As the first indigenous University of Nigeria, President Buhari, also urged UNN to lead the way in training graduates who would create jobs for our young school leavers. He equally urged UNN to play leading roles in the economic diversification of the country.
To achieve this feat, Mr. President challenged UNN and other universities to emphasize training on entrepreneurship so that graduates would become job creators, instead of perennial job seekers.
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He made the statements at the 50th convocation ceremony of UNN, for the conferment of postgraduate Diplomas, higher degrees, the title of professor emeritus and the award of honorary degrees.
Mr President who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah, also challenged tertiary institutions in the country to work with the industries to increase the level of production in the country so as to achieve a diversified economy.
He also said “Along this line, I expect our universities to update their curricula to make them relevant to the changing needs of the workplace. This will not only guarantee faster jobs for graduates but will help them acquire the skills set for the industries,” he said.
He equally said that the unity of the country is threatened by militancy, banditry and ethnic tensions in various parts of the country, but said he believes that universities as centres of innovation have roles to play in finding lasting solutions to these problems.
Talking about the commitment of his administration to quality education, he said “Through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, we have continued to address the infrastructural needs of our universities across the country. However, competition for these funds has become keener because of the recent increase in the number of tertiary institutions in the country. The situation has been worsened by the global downturn which has affected the national revenue.
Thus, our expectations must be realistic,” he said.
Vanguard