VC urges varsities to embrace Buhari’s diversification agenda

The Vice-Chancellor, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Prof Kayode Soremekun has advised his colleagues across the country to look inward and devise initiatives for revenue and employment generations to complement the agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The VC spoke in Oye Ekiti during the inauguration of a seven-man committee for the establishment of the Faculty of Pharmacy in the university.

Soremekun who took over from his predecessor, Prof Isaac Asuzu, a couple of months ago, said the university is setting up the machinery for the establishment of mechanised farming to make the university a food basket and food security zone of the nation.

The Vice Chancellor, who described the atmospheric condition of the host town as a goldmine for the establishment of farm in the university, added that the current economic situation in the country called for all tertiary institutions to go into other business ventures.

“When I came on board, I looked round and found out that we are sitting on goldmine. This town has good soil and very expansive land that we can deploy for mechanized farming to provide employment for professionals from these institutions and ensure that we attain food security.

“President Buhari is looking for alternative ways to provide employment for jobless graduate and other productive Nigerians and universities, as engine rooms of the economy we must key into this agenda”, he advised.

The head of the committee and Professor of Pharmacy from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Prof. Adebayo Lamikanra, said the convocation of the committee was meant to prepare grounds for swift take off of the faculty.