25th November, 2018
Jethro Ibileke/Benin
John Mahama, the immediate past President of Ghana, has urged Nigeria and Ghana to leverage on their human and material resources to propel the sub-region to greater economy prosperity and dignity.
He made the appeal at the weekend during the 16th Convocation of the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State.
He said “Ghana and Nigeria being the two biggest economies in the West African sub-region, place certain responsibilities on us to become the engine room that propel our sub region to greater prosperity and dignity for our people.”
While proffering solutions to the economic recession and climate change on the continent, the ex President of Ghana said the various institutions of learning must be able to produce graduates that are creative and also able to think out of the box, in order to make the society better for all.
“Institutions of higher learning have a significant role to play in the transformation of our countries, first, by producing the required human resources, with the requisite skills to transform our societies for the benefit of our people.
“Our societies need innovative and creative graduands with questioning minds, independent of thoughts and creative thinking, to be able to think outside the box and proffer solutions that can help in the transformation of our countries.
“We need our Universities to also research on the major issues confronting today’s world, such as climate change, the like of populism in our politics, migration, financial recession, depressed commodity price etc,” he said.
On his part, the Deputy Chancellor of Iginedion University, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, wants the federal government to resolve all impasses with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to ensure smooth running of the academic sessions in the Nigerian’s institutions of learning.
He added that any countries that toys with the education of its citizens has no future.