Obasanjo Tasks FG On Employment, Job Creation

OLUSEGUN OBASANJOFormer President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday tasked the Nigerian government to intensify effort on job creation and employment generation.

Speaking at the third convocation ceremony of the Baze University, Abuja, the former president stressed the need for skills acquisition programmes in university enviroments.

Obasanjo, who presented a paper on “Education and Employment Generation”, pointed out that the surge in the number of migrants who embark on the perilous journeys through the Mediterranean to Europe, call for an urgent need for job creation.

Nigeria, he said, should have a rethink on job creation and employment generation, and the rethinking, he pointed out should start from the university environments by having programmes aimed at creating jobs and employment opportunities.

He also urged the federal government to create an enabling environment for young entrepreneurs to thrive via business-friendly policies.

Obasanjo urged the students to be good ambassadors of their university as they go into the world.

Earlier in his remarks, the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, noted that the commission would work closely with private universities across the country to advance the frontiers of knowledge in Nigeria.

The NUC boss disclosed that the commission would soon convene a summit on private universities with the aim to ease bottlenecks that hinder smooth operations in private universities.

Two hundred and twenty nine students out of which 21 bagged First Class degrees, graduated from the university.

The Vice Chancellor, Professor Tahir Mamman, said 125 students from the Faculty of Management and Social Sciences were awarded Bachelor of Science degrees in the 2015/2016 academic session.

He also said 61 students graduated from the Faculty of Law while 43 from faculty of Computing and Applied Sciences were also awarded degrees.

The graduating students were presented degrees in their various disciplines by the Chancellor, Alh. (Dr.) Ahmadu Abubakar.

Nine of them were honoured as the best graduating students. They include: Nkechiyere Nneka Agu, Khadija Sa’ad Mohammed, Chioma Annebella Obiajulu, Ridwan Olusukanmi Kareem and Dike Chijioke Obalum.

Others are Samira Tsamiya Ladan, Farida Abdulmumini Aminu, Fatima Harani Maiyaki and Saidu Umar Baffale.