Ex president suggests modification of varsity curriculum to check unemployment

ben adhoc

December 15, 2015 12:38 PM

He recalled that since Nigeria had her first university in 1948 and now, the number of universities in the country had increased tremendously with millions of students graduating yearly.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advocated modification of curriculum of Nigerian universities to include skills acquisition, as a way out of the high rate of graduates’ unemployment in the country.

Obasanjo made the suggestion on Tuesday in Makurdi during a private visit to the Vice- Chancellor, Benue State University (BSU),Makurdi, Prof. Msugh Kembe.

Obasanjo lamented the high turnout of university graduates, while available jobs to accommodate them were getting slimmer by the years.

Obasajo said the country had reached the stage where attention had to be focused on job creation to accommodate the large number of graduates that were coming out of universities and other tertiary institutions.

The former president advised the V-C to forge collaboration with other V-Cs for the purpose of wooing foreign investors into the country to expand the economic space.

He commended BSU for its doggedness in sustaining its College of Health Sciences in spite of the many financial challenges, which resulted to graduating its first batch of medical doctors in nine years.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the school was inaugurated by the former president in 2007 during his second tenure.

Receiving the ex-president in his office, Kembe said the visit was "auspicious" coming " barely three weeks after the induction of the first batch of medical doctors from the college.’’

He appealed to the former president to use his influence within government circles to secure funds for the university to build hostels, the senate house and install needed facilities.

ben adhoc