Former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
has expressed concern over the unemployment rate in the country,
stressing that if urgent steps are not taking to address it, “the
country may be sitting on a keg of gun powder.”
He expressed this concern on Saturday at
the 16th and 17th convocation of the Tai Solarin University of
Education, Ijagun, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.
The institution was also marking its 10th anniversary.
Obasanjo, who advised the graduating
students to think outside the box to discover what they could do
positively on their own to survive, noted that the state and federal
governments must take the issue of job creation seriously.
He said, “If there is no job for the
unemployed to feed themselves and also to contribute to the development
of the country then, we will all be sitting on a keg of gun powder.
“We should be able to break the cycle of
poverty, through job and wealth creations. We can achieve this at both
the federal, state, local, family and individual levels.
“We must all see education as a tool for
making positive contributions to our country. But, if after your
education, there is no job, you must be able to think outside the box
positively, that is one advantage education has provided for you and not
making you a tool for evil machinations.”
Obasanjo, who was conferred with the
honorary doctorate degree in Political Science, alongside the late
matriarch of Awolowo family dynasty, Mrs. Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo
and business mogul, Aliko Dangote, said his administration had 12 years
ago mooted the idea of elevating four federal Colleges of Education into
universities of education.
But he added that it was the National Universities Commission that should explain why it did not take action on it.
He said the colleges the Federal
Government had proposed to upgrade included Adeyemi College of
Education, Alvan Ikoku College of Education, and two others in Kano and
Zaria.
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