*Disburses N50m to over 800 students
By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
The Obafemi Awolowo University Muslim Graduates’ Association (UNIFEMGA) has tasked the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on the education sector in the country.
UNIFEMGA gave the task in a communique issued at the end of its 2023 Annual National Re-union signed by its National President, Engineer Olanlege AbdulFattah and the PRO, Shamsideen Adenopo.
The association stressed that Nigeria has a long way to go as far as development is concerned and needs to go extra miles to actualize the goal.
” Nigeria should declare a state of emergency in the educational sector so that we can produce high quality manpower for the industry and for the purpose of self employment and enterpreneurship”, it said.
UNIFEMGA added, ” The universities are producing graduates that lack skills for employment and creative ability. There is need for universities to generate income to complement government efforts.”
” The sector cannot be funded alone by government.There is urgent need to invest in higher education by both the state and private sectors for national development while authorities at the higher Institutions need to be more prudent in their spending”.
It urged the Federal and State Governments to adhere to the UNESCO recommended budgetary allocation to the educational sector to improve educational development in Nigeria, saying, the issue of brain drain, obsolete equipments, constant disruption of academic calendars by both labour and students’ unrest, archaic curriculum are some of the few challenges facing tertiary institutions in Nigeria and the incoming government must urgently address it.
UNIFEMGA also stressed that Nigeria should strive to improve significantly on all the major rankings so that Nigeria can reclaim its lost glory.For the business environment to thrive government should provide the enabling environment such as focusing on the issues of electricity, infrastructural development and human capital development.
On activities of the association , the communique said that, ” to date from the inception of the programme in 2009/2010, the Association has disbursed about N50 million to over 800 students of the Institution”.
It stressed that the conference equally witnessed the presentation of 120 scholarships and grants to OAU students totaling the sum of N9.43million by the Association as part of its welfare gesture to the students on campus.
At the reunion, the association also launched its new website and a new history book and had its keep fit exercise and novelty match as well as its Annual General Meeting (AGM) where its activities in the past one year were reviewed.
