THE chancellor of the Southwestern University, Okun Owa, Ogun State, Babatunde Odufuwa, an engineer, says education remains a key driver for development and growth in Nigeria.
Odufuwa made the remarks on Thursday during the second convocation ceremony of the university, held at the main campus of the institution, OkunOwa, OdogboluLocal Government Area of Ogun State.
“In many countries, education is viewed as a good investment in national developments, as it is expected that the educational system will produce the quality and quantity of human resource required for economic growth.
“Education remains the most important element in the process of human progress whereby ignorance is eliminated and the development of knowledge, skills, talents and the capacities of human beings are attained,” he noted.
Odufuwa noted that to build the capacity of the country, its people must be properly trained with knowledge, skills and experience.
He affirmed that education is a right and not an obligation, and a crucial vehicle for shaping human potential for productive ends.
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Nigeria, he said, would remain dormant unless its human resourceis adequately developed and utilised to exploit and fabricate the non-human resources into consumable articles.
He congratulated the graduates for their academic feat,and urged them to uphold ethical conduct in their business dealings in the labour market.
“Business ethics is a big issue in Nigeria’s environment. There is currently a deficit of ethics and integrity at several leadership levels in the country today. Graduands must maintain a high sense of discipline and embrace qualitative education,” he said.
The acting vice chancellor, Prof. BabatundeOdesanya, charged graduands to be agents of impact to the society.
He noted that all academic programmes of the institution were fully accredited by the National Universities Commission, and that “plans are underway to establish new faculty and programmes in the school to promote learning.”
In his convocation lecture, the Head, Department of Accounting, University of Benin and chairman, governing council of the institution, Prof. Famous Izedonmi, said there is nothing a nation could do to spur growth and development without education.
Izedonmi said, “Education is a weapon for meaningful change, revolution and orientation. The level of development in most developing nations and countries of the world is largely attributed to education. Hence, educating the masses should be the paramount concern of those in leadership.”
At the convocation ceremony, 250 were conferred with Bachelor degrees from the Faculty of Social and Management Science and Faculty of Pure and Applied Science.
An eminent personality, AlhajiBalogunIdowu, was conferred with the Doctor of Science degree (HonorisCausa) in Business Administration for his numerous contributions to higher education in Nigeria.
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