Posted by By TONY OSAUZO, Benin on
President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on the militants in the Niger Delta region to lay down their arms and channel their energies into productive ventures and participation in the on-going development agenda for the region.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on the militants in the Niger Delta region to lay down their arms and channel their energies into productive ventures and participation in the on-going development agenda for the region.
President Obasanjo who spoke through the Minister of State for Education, Dr.(chief) Adewumi Abitoye at the 32nd convocation ceremony of the University of Benin, expressed joy that the College of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Effurun , had finally taken off after the initial delay.
'The Federal Government is determined to see the college blossom into a full-fledged specialized university to cater to the demands of the oil and gas industry, as well as the educational needs of the youths of the Niger Delta," the president pledged.
Nigerian universities, the president said have no choice but to invest heavily in ICT facilities if they are to be competitive in today's knowledge and information technology driven world, even as he acknowledged the impact of ICT at the University of Benin .
President Obasanjo who also acknowledged the major strides of the University of Benin, noted that the school was one of the universities in the vanguard of the Post-UME tests aimed at bringing a higher degree of credibility into competitive examinations for admission into Nigerian universities.
'This policy now being implemented by all Federal universities is sanitizing the admission process for more qualified and focused youths; It is oblivious that the university system is beginning to reap the benefits of this initiative," the president testified.
He said there was no going back on the on-going holistic reforms in the educational sector, and urged all stake-holders, including all staff unions to identify with, and courageously support the sincere intentions of the Federal Government to arrest the rot in the educational sector.
'We invite our academics to rise up to the new paradigm of robust, multi-dimensional approaches to public policy analyses, as it is not possible to divorce the educational sub-sector from the realities of the political economy of our great country," President Obasanjo said, even as he called on universities to buy into government anti-corruption crusade.
A total of 7,327 were conferred with diplomas, degrees and higher degrees during the convocation, while Professor J. O. Ayanru, a retired professor of Ophthalmology, was conferred with the title, Professor Emeritus.