The Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), His Royal Eminence, Edidem Ekpo Okon, Abasi-Otu V, the Obong of Calabar, has urged graduating students of the University to be solution providers, and think solutions in terms of job-creation and not job-seeking. The Chancellor gave the charge while delivering his address at the just-concluded 31st Convocation Ceremony of the University.
The monarch challenged the graduating students to deploy the knowledge they had acquired into practice by creating positive systems and platforms, which have the capacity to generate employment for other young men and women, saying doing this would make them to contribute their quota towards reducing unemployment rate in the country. The Chancellor thanked President Bola Tinubu for heeding to the calls of stakeholders in exempting universities and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) in order to enhance the corporate governance system of the nation’s universities, while appealing to the President and Visitor to the University to look into the constitution of governing councils for the federal universities.
The Obong of Calabar, who urged the graduating students to be worthy ambassadors of the University in all facet of their life. The royal father called on all stakeholders to join hands with the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olusola Kehinde, and the University management as they collectively strive towards building the FUNAAB of their dreams. Earlier, a convocation lecture had been delivered by the Secretary to the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU), Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, where the don charged higher institutions in Nigeria to embrace modern agricultural practices, noting that food production should be technology-driven through deployment of drones, robots, driverless tractors, among other new age equipment and facilities.