…And they are all girls
By Jet Stanley Madu
Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council, McPherson University, Prof Olurinde Lafe has described current challenges in Nigeria as huge opportunity for Nigerian graduates and young people.
He admonished that with firm commitment on the part of government to address the failures in every sector, particularly, infrastructure, the unemployment level which is currently too low for the youth population would tremendously improve.
He spoke during the second graduation ceremony of Mcpherson University, Ogun State which Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State was chief host.
According to him, such opportunities will take armies of young, smart, well-educated, and vibrant Nigerians to solve.
Lafe said with the quality of graduates produced by some universities presently, the country would need not shop for labour outside the shores.
We need about 7km of paved roads per 1000 people to meet world average, we have less than 1km per 1000 people. A total of 1.27m km of new paved roads will need to be constructed for Nigeria to attain the world’s average. Even at an average construction cost of $1m per km, Nigeria will require $1,270bn to build new paved roads just to meet the average world per capita standard.
These development projects the pro chancellor maintained “will need funding, project managers, administrators, publicity, etc. Imagine the number of architects, engineers, builders, scientists, ICT specialists, mass communication specialists, artisans, economists, bankers, realtors, etc. that will be needed to meet all these demands.
“I believe a firm commitment to solving the power problems (180GW of modern distributed power infrastructure), building 18 million new units to meet the acute housing shortage, and constructing 7km of paved roads per 1,000 people, will generate over 60 million direct and indirect jobs across the nation.”
Lafe was optimistic that the graduates have received quality training from the institution to equip them for the enormous task of rebuilding the nation.
Giving a breakdown of the graduates, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Adeniyi Agunbiade said that of the 45 graduates, four made First Class, 21 graduated in Second Class Upper Division while 20 graduated with Second Class Lower Division.
Miss Ojumah Faith Onyekachukwu, of the Department of Physical and Computer Sciences, emerged best graduating student with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 4.84 while Sule Ifeoluwa Tope, of Business Administration was the second best with a CGPA of 4.77.
Another female, Adediji Flourish Moyinoluwa, of the Department of Biological Sciences (Biochemistry Programme) emerged the third best with a CGPA of 4.72. Ishola Temiloluwa Adunola emerged the fourth best graduating student. “These results, said the VC, reflect again a situation of total academic dominance by the womenfolk.”
Ojumah, who did not agree any less with the pro-chancellor declared the readiness of the fresh graduates to confront the challenge of nation building. “We’re not in any way scared. McPherson has trained us to face challenges. If we could survive four years here, I don’t think there’s anything we cannot survive. We have been trained to withstand those challenges and emerge stronger and better.”
She shared her experience of studying sometimes without light, and described it as “difficult and limiting. As Computer Science student, you need to always work with your laptop. But, when you can’t charge it, you can’t connect to the internet, that is limiting.”
In his remarks, the General Overseer, Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, and visitor to the university, Rev. Felix Meduoye explained that the church established McPherson University as a way of complementing government efforts in providing education. He disclosed that since inception, the church has subsidized school fees quite substantially.”