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| President Goodluck Jonathan |
President Goodluck Jonathan, Saturday challenged
stakeholders and managers of the nation’s universities to complement the provision of facilities
that enable institutions to function optimally, saying the Federal Government
alone cannot shoulder the responsibilities of funding tertiary institutions in
the country.
The president, who gave the challenge while speaking at the 31st convocation ceremony of the
Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, stressed the need for universities to
explore opportunities for productive and beneficial partnership with the
organised private sector to supplement the revenue they get from the Federal
Government.
Jonathan, who was represented at the occasion by the
Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okogie, said “The
universities should form productive and beneficial partnerships with the
private sector, so that they can generate needed funds to supplement allocation
from the Federal Government.”
He noted that while it is necessary for the Federal
Government to maintain its commitment from budgetary sources, time has come for
the management of universities to cast their nets wide and generate resources
for their various institutions.
According to President Jonathan , there should be a change
of attitude from believing that the responsibility of government is to provide
all the resources while the management simply incurs the expenditure.
He urged the management of universities to be more
aggressive in diversifying the revenue base without compromising the essence of
a university.
Jonathan noted that Usman Danfodio University had continued
to live up to expectation in terms of scholarship and the noble tradition of
the Sokoto caliphate.
He said the importance of education to the development of
people and society cannot be overemphasised and as such government will
continue to support all tertiary institutions that would serve as catalyst to
development of the country.
“Our tertiary educational institutions are pivotal on which
the transformation agenda rest upon, hence the need to develop them to achieve
the desired targets,” he stated.
The president harped on the need for universities to lay
emphasis on programmes designed to improve entrepreneurial skills that will
benefit students after graduation.
While congratulating the graduands for completing their
studies, the president charged them to
rededicate themselves to the service of the nation.
He also congratulated the recipients of doctoral degrees and
reminded them that the honour done to them was a further call to duty.
In a remark, the vice chancellor of the university, Prof. Riskuwa Shehu, said a total of 11,532
graduands received various degrees and diplomas.
He stated that 120 received Ph.D; 968 masters degree , 673 got post -graduate diploma while 8,509
got bachelors degree.
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