Kaduna –
Prof. Labode Popoola, the Vice Chancellors of Osun State University, on
Tuesday, said that Nigerian universities are training students for jobs that no
longer exist. Professor Labode Popoola Popoola made the assertion in a lecture
delivered i
n Kaduna at the maiden Postgraduate Lecture Series of Kaduna State
University (KASU). The vice chancellor said that the development was in sharp contrast
with what obtained in world class universities which were training students for
future jobs. The don said that the absence of meaningful research in the
universities has crippled the quest for creativity and innovation required to
unleash sustainable development. He said contemporary Nigerian universities and
research systems cannot contribute to national development due to absences of
academic culture that drives process for good governance. According to him,
graduates of world class universities are sought after because they carry out
leading-edge research and are engaged in technology transfer. “This can only be
obtained where there is high concentration of talented lectures and students,
abundant resources and favourable governance. “But what do we see in Nigerian
universities; poor funding, poor planning, collapse of academic culture,
corruption and blurred vision among others”. He advised the academia in Nigeria
to come up with new ideas and engage the rest of the world through inter and
multidisciplinary research collaboration. Chairman of the occasion, Prof. A.S.
Nwankwo of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, described the lecture as
crucial in the discourse on the relevance of the Nigerian universities to the
society. On his part, Dr Abubakar Saddique of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria,
who was the lead discussant, traced the root cause of challenges in the
education system to poor service delivery at the basic level. He said that
students were poorly prepared at primary and secondary school levels for
university education. According to him, the business of universities is to
identify societal problems and conduct research to solve them. “Since Nigerian
universities cannot adequately prepare their students to effectively address
contemporary problems, how can they prepare them for challenges of the future?
“The country needs a bottom up approach; from the basic to the tertiary
institutions to be able to address the rot in our education system.” Earlier,
the Dean, Post Graduate School, KASU, Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa said that post
graduate students represent the pool for the next generation of academicians.
Ashafa explained that the lecture was designed to address the issue of quality
of training in the university system, to ensure competitiveness of graduates in
the continuously changing world. (NAN)
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