Obasanjo Tasks Private Varsities On Solution To Nigeria’s Insecurity, Infrastructure Development

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on private universities in the country to carry out research and other activities that can offer solution to Insecurity plaguing Nigeria.

The former president said this on Saturday while delivering the 16th convocation lecture of the Bowen University, Iwo.

Speaking on the the topic, “Strengthening private universities for greater contributions to national development,” the ex-president stated that
public and private universities should be at the vanguard of promoting patriotism and honesty.

Obasanjo also called on universities to pay urgent attention to values re-orientation.

He said universities have roles to play in strengthening national development through the generation of ideas and provision of data that would influence national policy formulation and implementation.

The former president said, “Our universities should be the vanguard of the efforts for promoting the inculcation and sustenance of values including fear of God, honesty and love of country.

“Our private universities have done fairly well so far, given their young age, and will need to be strengthened to meet the high expectations of the citizenry in the years.

“Private universities must pay attention to human capacity development, research capacity strengthening to unveil solutions to insecurity and other challenges facing the country, good facilities and infrastructure, strengthening curriculum implementation, creativity in fund generation and management.”

The Vice-Chancellor of Bowen University, Prof. Joshua Ogunwole, said 90 students graduated with First Class out of the 1021 students who graduated from the university in 2020/2021 academic session.