Babalakin tasks Nigerian leaders on wealth creation

Nigerian leaders have been advised to think more of creating wealth than managing the countries resources to get out of economic recession.

The advice was given by the Chairman of Bi-Courtney, Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN) who noted that the 1979 Constitution of Nigeria only emphasised sharing of the nation’s commonwealth and rather that how to create wealth.

Babalakin who spoke at the 6th convocation lecture of the University of Osun (UNIOSUN) in Osogbo said the time had come for Nigerians to be more concerned about creating wealth than managing resources which he noted “was no more available.”

He expressed hopes that Nigeria will soon get out of recession, adding that the universities have greater roles to play in re-directing the orientation of the people to wealth creation.

He noted that Nigerian leaders in the past gave the wrong impression that the country was rich when actually it lacked all the indices of a wealthy country.

Babalakin called on stakeholders to assist the government in funding the education sector since it had become clearer that government alone cannot fund the universities to make them rank among the best in the world.

In his paper titled: “Making a World Class University in a Depressed Economy,” former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI) Prof. Adebisi Bamiro challenged the university authorities to think of how to increase their revenue base to meet the challenges of the 21st century.