Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has expressed confidence in the young Nigerian graduates to solve the biggest problems of Nigeria.
The Vice President at the 60th anniversary of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Saturday, was optimistic that young nigerian graduates has the capacity to provide solutions to the biggest challenges in the country.
Vice President Osinbajo representing President Muhammadu Buhari as Visitor, and Special Guest of Honour, was accompanied by Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State to the convocation ceremony of the University.
The Chancellor of the University, Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Dr. Yahaya Abubakar, preside over the convocation, as Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State delivered the Convocation Lecture.
Vice President Osinbajo noted that young Nigerians, particularly, the OAU graduands, stood on the shoulders of great men and women before them, adding that the onus is on their generation to “deal with the biggest issues that confront the world, and our nation.”
He maintained: “And it is big and innovative ideas that will solve those problems. You will have to confront the problems of climate change and a world moving away from fossil fuels, and you will usher in the age of renewable energy and green solutions.”
Osinbajo stated that this generation of young Nigerians are equipped and could proffer solutions in the areas of education, agriculture, health care and security.
According to Osinbajo: “Yes, the challenges are huge, but you are well equipped to resolve them; and the evidence is there… Since 2016, despite two recessions, young Nigerians have built 6 unicorns; a unicorn is a company that is valued at over a billion dollars.
“You will deal with the issues of feeding, educating, providing healthcare and jobs for the fourth largest population in the world in a few decades.
“We will need smarter Agric solutions to feed the huge numbers, technology is already helping to crowd-fund Agriculture and develop more prolific seedlings.
“You will confront the need to vastly improve our public and clinical healthcare. We must build on the work of the Genomic Centre at Ede, and the local vaccine production efforts going on already and make local drugs for hundreds of millions of Nigerians.”
The vice president observed that the education sector needs several new solutions, including designing methods to teach millions even outside of classrooms, acknowledging that “there are many young men and women already doing great things using technology to reach children in far flung areas with education.”
Prof. Osinbajo also noted that the use of technology and improvement in nationwide policing would help Nigeria address its security challenges.
The Vice President highlighted: “The insecurity problems we are experiencing, the rise of terrorism in several parts of this large country and access to modern weaponry by non-state actors tell us that we must be smarter in policing the country, using smart drones and surveillance equipment. The politicization of importation of arms tells us that we must manufacture our own arms.
“Already Proforce, led by Ade Ogundeyin, is manufacturing APCs and MRAPS in their factory in Ode Remo and exporting. So, are Imperium, and the government owned DICON (Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria) producing different types of munitions. The future is smart weapons benefiting from A.I. and machine learning.”
Osinbajo commended the vision of the University’s founders and management in driving the academic excellence for which the Obafemi Awolowo University is known, an institution which has produced great thinkers and leaders throughout its history.
Citing the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, for whom the university was renamed, the VP recalled that “Chief Awolowo, for many years Chancellor of the University, gave some of the most memorable and consequential lectures on the political economy of Nigeria; and addressed some of its most crucial problems, including the imperative of democracy, national economic development, ideology of governance and national census figures.”
The VP stated that OAU was very much ahead of its time when it named its medical faculty, the Faculty of Health Sciences, and its engineering faculty, the Faculty of Technology.