Get Guardian on GoogleAchievers University, Owo, Ondo State, has called for urgent industrialisation as well as action to align training with productive employment, stressing that the country’s expansion of higher education had outpaced the economy’s capacity to absorb graduates.
The call came during the institution’s 16th convocation ceremony in Owo, Ondo State, which also marked its 19th anniversary, where 836 students, comprising 786 undergraduate and 50 postgraduate students, graduated, with 98 undergraduate students earning First Class Honours.
The Chancellor of the institution and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, said the federal government had invested in education through the Student Loans Act and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, disclosing that NELFUND had disbursed N372.62 billion since its portal opened in May 2024.
He added that the administration resolved a 16-year-old agreement with university lecturers, raising their salaries by 40 per cent effective January 1, 2026, with a review after three years.
Dogara added that while insecurity predates the current administration, the government had sustained military operations against Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province, bandit groups and kidnappers.
He cited reports that more than 13,000 terrorists had been neutralised and over 124,000 fighters and their dependants had surrendered through deradicalisation and reintegration programmes.
“Acknowledging these efforts must not be confused with declaring victory. Security initiatives must ultimately be judged by their lasting impact on the lives of ordinary Nigerians,” Dogara said.
He called for intelligence-led security operations, stronger protection of farmlands and transport corridors, and the dismantling of financial and logistical networks supporting terror groups.
Meanwhile, Dogara charged the graduands to deploy their knowledge in service to the nation, stating that “you did not arrive here by accident. You arrived through early mornings and late nights, through examinations that tested your nerves and seasons that tested your faith.
“At some point, some of you wanted to stop, but each of you went on. That choice is the true meaning of the degree you will receive today.”
On his part, the pro-chancellor, Prof. Bode Ayorinde, frowned at commercial lending rates of 25 to 30 per cent per annum, contrasting them with single-digit rates in trillion-dollar economies such as China, Japan, Germany, the United States and India, and called for a banking system that supports production rather than discouraging it.
Ayorinde stated that he said, adding that banks should be judged not only by profits but by their contribution to production, innovation and employment.
He said, “Nigeria earnestly aspires to join the league of trillion-dollar economies; we must emulate their industrialisation model and financing architecture to truly belong,”
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Omolola Irinoye, disclosed that the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria approved pre-clinical accreditation for the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery programmes and increased the annual admission quota from 50 to 120 students.
She said medical students recorded an 86 per cent pass rate in the Part I MBBS examination, while 91 pioneer students progressed to clinical training at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo.
The convocation featured the conferment of honorary awards on the Osemawe of Ondo Kingdom, Oba Victor Kiladejo, Captain Edward Boyo, Founder/Managing Director of Landover Company Limited, and Engr. Norbert Oleah, Founder/Group Chief Executive of Technova Africa International Limited.
