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'Entrepreneurial Skills Much More Valuable Than University Degrees'

July 20, 2014 2:29 AM

A university certificate is important but not a necessity for everyone says Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah

Nigerians need to focus more on developing entrepreneurial skill rather than acquiring university degrees in order to find relevance in Nigeria's consumer-based economy.

This much was stated by Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah in a Leadership interview.

He argued that the high incidence of unemployment in the country is due to the ill-placed emphasis on degrees.

According to the Bishop, the degree-by-all-means trend is a post-colonial mentality that must be done away with.

“We lost the script somewhere along the line, and the idea of a university degree smacks of post-colonial mentality,” Kukah said.

"It is only in Nigeria that you find a man with seven children who believes that all the seven children must become graduates"

Bishop Kukah said getting a university degree is not a necessity for everyone, pointing to the Igbo creative and entrepreneurship which has earned them some degree of self sufficiency.