The Nation Newspaper

Tag: DON

  • Don: hold varsities liable for graduates’ success

    The warning from Prof. Augustine Ikelegbe to Nigeria was as stark as it was gloomy; Nigerian universities must either adapt to the demands of today and tomorrow or die. He said that Nigerian universities must reform how they educate their graduates to easily adapt to new technologies and become entrepreneurs or Nigeria would become the global dustbin, totally forgotten by the scientifically and technologically progressive world.

    He said this at the 12th Matriculation of the Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State, last weekend.

    Delivering a paper titled: “University Education and the Contemporary Labour Market in Nigeria”, Ikelegbe of the Institute for Security Studies, Lower Usman Dam, Abuja, called attention to the dire unemployment statistics facing country.  While the working-age population is a staggering 109 million, he said Nigeria’s full employment capacity was 83 million – leaving a deficit of 26 million unemployed people seeking for non-existent jobs.

    Breaking it down further, Ikelegbe said in 2017, 71 million Nigerians were classified as workers – with 54 million fully employed, 17 million under-employed and 12 million unemployed.

    Ikelegbe said unemployment was among Nigeria’s biggest social problems as about half of the 23 million people aged 15-35 years were under-employed while some 1.8 million Nigerians enter the labour market yearly – with 500, 000 of them graduating from the tertiary institutions.

    Ikelegbe said Nigerian universities must recognise that a pool of over five million unemployed graduates had accumulated as far back as 2014 and must have increased tremendously today.

    He said they were not providing graduates with adequate knowledge or practical skills in courses studied.

    “Many university graduates lack basic writing and communication skills and can barely write memos and briefs, or express themselves proficiently in English Language,” he said.

    However, he noted that the main cause of unemployment was that “less than 10 per cent of the graduates studied the 10 most employable courses in the country”.

    To address the problem, Ikelegbe said universities must take responsibility for their students’ success.

    “Universities must be held responsible for the successes, performance and capacity or otherwise of their graduates. Therefore, they must begin to be concerned about how their graduates fare in the labour market,” he said.

  • Don seeks inclusion of sustainability accountability in Nigeria’s financial reporting

    The current financial reporting system in the country has been described as inadequate in addressing the strategic earnings of corporate and individual entities.

    This assertion was made by Prof. Ishola Akintoye, a professor of Accounting at Babcock University, Ilishan- Remo, while delivering the university’s 28th Inaugural Lecture, titled “Accounting: A mismanaged concept requiring urgent redefinition”.

    In a statement by the Director of Marketing and Communication, Joshua Suleiman, Akintoye said the inadequacy arose because sustainability accountability was yet to be incorporated in the current financial reporting. He added that the efficiency of such report would impact greatly on sustainable financial reporting.

    According to him, the past conceptual framework for the definition of accounting “cannot be adequate in driving accounting in the contemporary times and in the future if efforts are not made for an urgent redefinition of it”. “The entire Accounting building which is currently cracking will sink beyond redemption.”

    He hinted that he and a team of Accounting experts were developing a new Accounting model named ‘Sustainability Accounting’ which goes beyond the current assumption of stability and growth, to bring in economic, environmental and social factors.

    The don noted that the team was leveraging on Global Sustainability Index which had been developed for countries of the world to provide direction for government, private sectors and individuals.

    These, he said, would serve as targets for all activities to be achieved in 2030.

    According to Akintoye, the sustainable development targets were 17, and they include no poverty, zero hunger, good health and wellbeing, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation.

    Others are affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequality, sustainable cities and communities.

    The Don said the targets also included responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace and justice, and strong institutions partnership all of which he said were required to achieve this goal.

    He asserted that an efficient sustainable financial report would enhance decision-making of the total stakeholders and guarantee ongoing concern of the business as well as the society in general.

    Akintoye recommended the inclusion of strategic accounting and sustainability accounting in the Accounting curriculum at every level of education, by the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission.

    He recommended further that the practice of Accounting must demonstrate and emphasise driving the future rather than short or medium term in the private and public sector of any economy if long term sustainability would be actualized.

    He expressed the need to include human and environmental assets in the venture capital in business commencement and in evaluation of the strength and weakness of a company.

    “Government in all countries should insist, through their local regulatory agencies, that environmental cost and human capital be revealed in the statement of financial position of all corporate entities for public consumption,” Akintoye added.

  • Don seeks investment in dairy production

    A former Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) Prof Abiodun Adeloye is seeking increased investment in the diary sector, saying it will support jobs in rural communities.

    He said supporting the industry would ensure that dairy farmers find new ways to improve productivity and efficiency in their operations.

    He said the market opportunity presented by the conversion of raw milk consumption into processed milk was huge, adding that the farmers needed support of best practices to increase yields, boost output quality, and, ultimately, raise incomes.

    According to him, the decline in volumes have impacted investments in the sector and marred the initiatives taken to develop milk farming communities and a cool chain infrastructure.

    While supply has not been able to keep up with demand, Adeloye noted that for many years, the dairy sector has fallen short of its promise.

    He explained that dairy farmers were not sure whether their milk produce will be bought or not because of lack of enough processing facilities and infrastructure.

    He said the government should empower Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to make dairy products.

    In most of the rural areas, farmers face the challenge of feeder roads to ease transportation to milk collection centres and dairies.

  • OAU ‘sex-for-mark don’ remanded

    A Federal High Court in Osogbo, Osun State, yesterday ordered that the “sex-for-mark” sacked senior lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU) Ile-Ife, Prof. Richard Akindele, should be remanded in prison custody.

    Justice Maurine Onyetenu ordered that Akindele be remanded at Ilesa prison for demanding sex from his post graduate student, Monica Osagie, before she could pass his course.

    The Professor of Management and Accounting was arraigned on a four- count charge by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC).

    The anti-graft agency alleged that the accused unlawfully demanded sex from his student and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section A (1)(2) of the Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Law.

    The accused pleaded not guilty.

    Read also: Sex-for-marks: Prof. failed me deliberately, says student

    Defence counsel Mr. F. Omotosho, who urged the court to grant his client bail, said: “He is a known professor and cannot jump bail.”

    The prosecutor, who is a senior legal officer with the ICPC, Mr. Kehinde Adetoye, opposed the oral bail application, saying the accused had refused to appear at the commission since he was granted administrative bail.

    He said: “We have been making efforts since November 5 to effect the service of the process. They have refused to come back and they were not reachable on the phone. We are surprised to see them here today. We just served them the process.”

    Justice Onyetenu directed counsel to the accused to file a formal application for the bail of his client.

    She ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody at Ilesa and adjourned the matter till November 27 for definite hearing.

  • Don proffers solution to LAUTECH crisis

    Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) pioneer Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof Isaac Adebayo Adeyemi has advocated the re-introduction of tripartite meeting involving the Vice-Chancellor and the education commissioners of Osun and Oyo States to resolve the university’s crisis.

    The professor of food science and engineering made the call while delivering LAUTECH’s second valedictory lecture at the main campus in Ogbomoso yesterday.

    The university’s Public and Alumni Relations Unit Head, Lekan Fadeyi, in a statement, said Adeyemi observed that the meeting would sustain mutual confidence between the owner-states.

    The retiring don was of the view that the avenue could be used to iron out thorny issues, with members reporting to their principals as a way of entrenching unity of purpose.

    He said: “LAUTECH may have had its fair share of crisis, but the University has maintained its leadership among its peers. If you ask me, the future is brighter and I have strong hope and belief that we shall overcome.”

    Adeyemi, who is the immediate past Bells University of Technology, Otta, Ogun State Vice-Chancellor and the Polytechnic Ibadan Governing Council Chairman observed the need for unbroken synergy between government, parents, lecturers, non-teaching staff and students in promoting greater understanding of any institution’s vision and mission.

    LAUTECH Vice-Chancellor Prof Adeniyi Gbadegesin thanked the retiring don for his immeasurable contributions to LAUTECH, assuring him that posterity was on his side whenever the institution’s history is written.

     

  • Don rates Anchor varsity high

    Instructors and participants from Africa and beyond rose from a three-day International Conference held at the Anchor University, Lagos (AUL) with excitement and appreciation to the organisers.

    The conference with the theme: “Basic and advanced times series analysis: Theory, practice and programming” was hosted by AUL in collaboration with the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics (ISBIS).

    Speaking at the end of the training, Prof Luis Alberiko Gil-Alana, an instructor with ISBIS, expressed his delight at the quality programme and logistics put in place for the conference by AUL.

    “If I have to compare the quality of this conference with the ones I have attended in Africa before now, and this includes South Africa, Benin, Kenya and Rwanda, I will say Anchor University organised the best so far. I was treated to a unique experience on this campus,” said the professor of Econometrics and Quantitative Methods at the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.

    Another ISBIS instructor and Associate Professor of Econometrics at Strathmore University, Nairobi, Prof Robert Mudida, said, “It is almost impossible to believe that Anchor University is less than two years old. The organised system on the campus and the orderliness are amazing. I am not surprised that these have positively reflected on the quality of the conference.”

    A participant, Forster Shitsi, from the Department of Banking and Finance, Marshalls University, Ghana praised AUL’s infrastructure;  another participant, Balogun Damilola of the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Bowen University, Iwo, said her expectations were met.

    “I am happy I got what I paid for at this conference. The standard and the quality of training made it a rich experience for me,” she said.

    At the opening, AUL Vice Chancellor, Prof Joseph Afolayan had  urged the participants to make the best of training as time series analysis has a lot to offer in academic research and enquiries.

     

  • Less than 36,000 doctors attend to over 182 million patients in Nigeria -Don

    Nigeria has less than 36,000 doctors attending to over 182 million patients. A medical expert of Health Policy/ Systems Development Unit, Department of Community Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Jubril Mohammad Bashar, has disclosed

    Bashar disclosed this at a one-day capacity building workshop on Basic Healthcare Funding in Nigeria for the media organised by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) which was held recently at Chesterfield Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.

    According to Bashar, Nigeria needs no fewer than 237,000 medical doctors to meet World Health Organisation (WHO) standard, as opposed to the “36,000 working in the country today.”

    To corroborate this fact Dr. Bashar cited example of Jigawa State which has the highest number of health workers in Nigeria but 92% of them are auxiliary nurses, laboratory attendants and cleaners, while Kaduna State has more of ghost doctors and ghost hospitals.

    Bashar, who spoke on Financing for Primary Healthcare: Harnessing Domestic Funding Opportunities, Enabling Policies and Legislation, pointed out that lack of success in achieving health care financing has continued to be a challenge in achieving universal health care in Nigeria.

    “The health of any nation is very vital to the development of that country. Therefore, for any country to develop, the health care sector must be adequately funded,” he said.

    In his address, the Executive Director CISLAC, Mallam Auwal Ibrahim Musa, pointed out that the ultimate goal of the project is to promote policy implementation of government’s commitment to primary health care in Nigeria.

    “This is so because the challenges facing primary health care in Nigeria are complex and essentially arising from poor legal regulatory frameworks and implementation, economic and socio cultural challenges.”

    Investigative journalism in the words of the Programme Manager CISLAC, Chioma Kalu, may be challenging and constrained by finances, access to information, threats from individuals or society but it is highly rewarding for journalists in that it propels them to levels where others cannot get. They may even get international acclaims and awards.

    “Investigative journalism is the panacea towards rebuilding our primary health care. It will bring about accessibility and attendance to health centres. It may also reduce cost, thereby enhance affordability,” Kalu said.

    At the end of the workshop, participants recommended the following: Full-fledged community consultation in planning and processes establishing primary health care to enable ownership, attendance and monitoring; Strategic community-oriented advocacy in demanding accountability from the policy and legislative realms; Strengthened judicial institutions to enable social equity and justice, and appropriate implementation of existing legislation;  Persistent site visits by civil society to primary health care facilities to observe challenges, monitor situation, track progress and document reports to educate the policy and legislative realms;  Increased focus on public-private spending to encourage equitable distribution of comprehensive primary health care services in Nigeria, as a middle income country, among others.

  • Don advocates expansion of foreign policy makers

    The President of Society for International Relations Awareness (SIRA), Prof. Nuhu Yaqub, has said the scope of the country’s foreign policy should be expanded.

    Speaking yesterday at a public lecture on ‘Democratic Control of Foreign Policy: The Nigerian Experience’, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos, he said politicians were undermining foreign policy for personal gains.

    The lecture was organised by the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria (ARCAN).

    Yaqub said National Assembly members were not really interested in the welfare of Nigerians, noting that the lawmakers’ attitude and comportment indicated that they were only after their interests.

    He said: “It should be noted that foreign policy is not completely divorced from domestic policy. In doing that, national interest should be the guiding rule in foreign policy making.

    “But when you look at the way politicians conduct themselves, you begin to wonder whose interests they are serving. They are interested in the commercial gains they will make. They engage in cross carpeting, vote buying and manipulations of the electoral process.

    “Therefore, we need to have members of the civil society, non-government organisations, business group and other agencies to participate in foreign policy direction in the country. It should no longer be left in the hands of politicians alone.”

    The speaker said there should be awareness and enlightenment on foreign policy direction,  stressing that the public input would make positive impact.

    He noted that it was no longer fashionable to limit the country’s foreign policy to the government alone, urging the public to pay attention to democratic process.

    “It has worked out well in a number of countries that are serious about changing their foreign policies to reflect domestic interests. In deciding it, poverty must be eradicated; education must be given its rightful place.

    “The better the people are educated, the better they make input in foreign policy direction. At the moment, we have large number of people of school age, who are out of school. This must be improved upon because the better educated a society, the better inputs come from the public in foreign policy implementation,” Yaqub said.

    ARCAN Chairman Ambassador Oladapo Fafowora said it was in the interest of Nigeria’s foreign policy and effectiveness to ensure wider participation.

    He added that the objective of the country’s foreign policy will achieve its aims when it gets public support, noting that when the government takes into account public views, the better for the country.

    “The National Assembly has not been effectively performing its duties in terms of foreign policy. The reason is that foreign policy is not the kind of issue, which will excite the public. They are much interested in bread and butter issues.

    “The National Assembly must assert its right as part of its responsibilities. There must be synergy between foreign and domestic policies. Where this exists, there will be greater chances of success in foreign policies implementation,” Ambassador Fafowora said.

     

     

     

     

  • Don advocates teamwork in research

    Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof Tolu Odugbemi, has urged academics to embrace teamwork to enhance their productivity in conducting research.

    Odugbemi said this while delivering the Annual Lecture 2017/2018 of the School of Postgraduate Studies, UNILAG, at the J.F. AdeAjayi Auditorium last Thursday.

    Speaking on the topic: “Teamwork and Divine Intervention: Reminiscences on Research Activities in a Developing Country Setting, Nigeria”, Odugbemi took the packed audience through his journey researching into medicinal plants in various parts of the country and showed how teamwork and divine intervention helped him achieve results.

    The Professor of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology said his work in collaboration with others have attracted both local and international awards.

    He said: “I have reflected on some of my past research areas in collaboration with outstanding students, scholars, colleagues and remarkable teachers.  In sincere appreciation to divine intervention, most of the research works and publications in reputable journals, with sense of humility, have attracted local, national and international honours and awards.

    “Some of the areas include: Eperythrozoon coccoides and mixed infections; diarrheal diseases and pathogens, streptococcal infections; sexually transmitted infections/disease in particular in children; nosocomial infections.

    “Teamwork created new avenues in research endeavours for me in a way that the prestigious Fogarty International Fellowship (NIH) Award supported my research at the USA in 1982/83.  My supervisors, Dr William Albritton, Dr Robert Weaver and Dr Robert Arko made the doors wide open for my significant works on antimicrobials and resistance, molecular biology with distribution of plasmids in pathogens; unusual pathogens; kingella denitrificans, rare and unknown pink-pigmented organisms.”

    In the course of his research, Odugbemi said he not only worked with academics from other fields but with royal fathers, herbalists, and other locals who had understanding of local plants, their uses and where to find them.

    He called for more research into medicinal plants in Nigeria, which he said demands teamwork and an interdisciplinary approach.

    “The research efforts into medicinal plants should be intensified in Nigeria.  I commend those scientists who have shown commitment to the scientific study of medicinal palnts in our research institutes and tertiary institutions.  It must be state that studies of some rare plants demand courage, determination, humility and respect for community elders, priests (e.g. Abore) otherwise the research would end in frustration and failure.  Teamwork, in an extraordinary way, pays a lot to achieve positive findings,” he said.

    In his speech, Chairman of the event, Dr Daniel Olukoya, the General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM), and a former student of Odugbemi, made a case for increased research at the postgraduate level to improve quality of the students and research output.

    “It is our hope that the quality of research outputs from the students of the PG School would soon start making waves in top-rated journals on various areas of specialisations across the world as well as in breakthrough findings, particularly in various aspects of life that are perculiar to Nigeria, Africa and the Black World,” he said.

    The event closed with the presentation of scholarship worth N200,000 each to outstanding PhD students by the Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, Prof Solomon Ajiboye.

    The recipients are: Jonah Uteh, a student of History and Strategic Studies; Esther Thontteh, a student of Estate Management, and Moruf Rasheed, a student of Fisheries.

    Ajiboye said the scholarship was raised from a fund endowed two years ago and called for more support to enable the PG School give more recipients.

  • Don declares presidential ambition on PRP platform

    A retired professor of Business Education, Mahmood Aliyu, wants to fly the presidential flag of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) in next year’s elections.

    Aliyu, who retired from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 2014, declared his interest in the race in Ilorin yesterday with a promise of mass oriented programme if elected.

    A PRP government, according to him, will not only fight corruption, but will effectively tackle the elements that breed corruption in the country.

    He also pledged to enforce comprehensive public declaration of assets and liabilities by public office holders, abolish discriminatory salary and wages system.

    The professor promised that PRP government will monitor individual investments as well as ban private practice by civil servants.

    Aliyu expressed PRP believes in genuine federation and will ensure national unity on the basis of justice and equitable political, social and economic opportunities for all citizens.

    “Come 2019, with the emergence of PRP as a government in the centre, the era of some animals being more equal than the others will be over.

    “All Nigerians will be treated on equal grounds as Nigerians on their individual merit,” he said.

    The presidential aspirant, who lamented the level of infrastructural decay in the country, said his government will declare a two-year state of emergency in the education sector.