Tinubu tasks universities on research for national development –

President Bola Tinubu has urged Nigerian universities to live up to expectations as vanguard of research, teaching and community service to make human life better and fast-track national development.

Tinubu made the call at the 9th convocation ceremony of the Federal University Dutsin-ma, Katsina State, on Saturday.

Represented by the Vice-Chancellor, Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa, Prof. Abdulkarim Sabo-Mohammed, the president said: “Education is a cornerstone of national development, therefore, it must be responsive and transformative.

“I urge Nigerian universities to live up to expectations as vanguard of research, teaching and community service, in line with their tripartite mandate in championing demand-driven research to make human life better and enriched.”

The president also urged students to take advantage of the students’ loan scheme initiated to support their education pursuit.

According to him, over N70 billion has so far been disbursed to students nationwide.

Earlier, the Chancellor of the university, King Dandeson Douglas-Jaja, expressed happiness that out of the 77 academic programmes of the university, 74 have full accreditation, while four have interim accreditation.

He congratulated the graduands and urged them to be good ambassadors of their alma-mata in particular and the country in general wherever they found themselves.

Douglas-Jaja urged them to take advantage of the government’s programmes including; NYSC skills acquisition training and agricultural loan schemes, to enable them become self-sufficient.

In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Armaya’u Hamisu-Bichi, said that they were graduating 297 Postgraduate students.

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“Out of this number, 18 have Ph.D., 226 have Academic Masters, while 53 have Professional Diplomas and Postgraduate Diplomas.

“We are also graduating a total of 4,282 undergraduate students. Out of this number, 44 have First Class, 872 have Second Class Upper, 2,273 have Second Class Lower, 1,076 Third Class, and 17 have Pass Degrees,” he said.

Hamisu-Bichi said that the major problem facing the institution was insecurity.

“As you are aware, the security situation in and around Dutsin-ma in recent times has made us to abandon the main campus and crowd ourselves at the take-off campus of the university which is grossly inadequate in structures and facilities,” he said.

He, however expressed optimism that with the proactive measures being taken by the Federal Government to combat insecurity in the North-west, the university would move to its main campus.

The VC identified other challenges of the institution to include; lack of residential accommodation for staff, and inadequate students’ hostel among others.