The Chancellor, Covenant University,
Ota, Ogun State, Dr. David Oyedepo, has said that Nigeria is on the
brink of intellectual bankruptcy, noting that education in the country
is suffering serious neglect.
He said quality education remained
fundamental to national transformation and development as there could be
no political solution to advancement.
Oyedepo decried a situation whereby
Nigeria devoted only 0.76 per cent of her Gross Domestic Product to its
education sector while South Africa devoted 11.6 per cent and Cote
D’Ivoire voted 5.6 per cent.
Speaking
at the 11th convocation of the university on Friday, Oyedepo, who is
also the Presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church Worldwide, said
universities should provide platform for rigorous intellectual
discussion and not just to teach and graduate students.
In his address titled, “Towards the
rescue of a nation on the brink of intellectual bankruptcy,” he said,
“Continuous investment in education has helped Singapore to be where it
is today. Thus, we need to recover our brain power and self-esteem as
black men. We have zero excuse for where we are today. We need to move
from mere certification to enhanced productivity.”
The guest speaker, Prof. Jerry Gana, in
his address titled, “How to make Nigeria graduates more employable,”
said more emphasis should be placed on skill acquisition development
programmes, building high quality infrastructure and making university
education more accessible to those who are willing.
Gana said universities in the country
had a huge quality control gap, adding that the government should make
education a priority and work towards ensuring a better staff-to-student
ratio.
Earlier, the institution’s
Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Ayo, said of the 1,495 awarded first
degree, 157 had first class, 708 had second class upper division, 513
had second class lower division and 118 bagged third class.
Ayo added that 153 bagged postgraduate
degrees, noting that beyond their academics, the graduating students had
been taught about leadership, entrepreneurship and Information and
Communication Technology.
The overall best graduate, Winner
Deji-Folutile, who had 4.97 CGPA from Architecture Department,
attributed his feat to God and hard work.
The 21-year old, who is the son of the Editor, Saturday PUNCH,
Mrs. Bisi Deji-Folutile, said he would love to go into youth
empowerment and further his education. He added that he was still
painting his dream.
“I am overwhelmed, and even though it was tough I held on to God and he saw me through,” he said.
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