Nigerian universities have been urged to prioritise entrepreneurship and practical skills development, saying graduates must be prepared to create jobs rather than depend solely on paid employment.
Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Prof Obiora Okonkwo made the call at the 15th convocation ceremony of Veritas University, Abuja.
He advocated the integration of entrepreneurship education into all academic departments, including medicine, law, engineering and the sciences.
He said the country’s higher education system must move beyond the award of certificates to equipping students with the knowledge, skills and mindset required to become self-reliant and contribute meaningfully to national development.
The airline chairman maintained that entrepreneurship should not be treated as a peripheral discipline but as a core subject for every university student, irrespective of their course of study.
According to him, medical students should be equipped with the entrepreneurial knowledge to establish private practices, while law graduates should understand the business opportunities within their profession.
He also urged researchers to consider the commercial viability of their innovations, noting that research outcomes capable of attracting investors would help universities transform discoveries into practical solutions.
“Entrepreneurship I am advocating should not just be a by-pass discipline. It should be a core subject that must be made available to all the students in every department.
“So that if you are studying medicine, you are thinking of entrepreneurship for medicine.
What about tomorrow you want to be a private practitioner? If you are going to law, even if in the science department, these researchers will be able to think of the entrepreneurial aspect of their research outcome,” he said.
Okonkwo, a professor of entrepreneurship, said universities must prepare graduates to become self-employed and employers of labour rather than depend exclusively on the availability of paid employment.
He argued that the quality of education should not be measured merely by the number of graduates produced but by the knowledge, skills, moral values and sense of responsibility they acquire.
He also advocated stronger collaboration between universities and industries, particularly through internship programmes that expose students to practical experience before graduation.
He further disclosed that his convocation lecture on entrepreneurship education at another university had been adopted as a policy document, with a committee established to study its recommendations and determine how they could be implemented across universities.
He pledged to collaborate with the university to strengthen its academic programmes and support its ambition of becoming one of the leading institutions in Nigeria and Africa.
Okonkwo also commended the university’s management under its Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Hyacinth Ichoku, for its achievements and commitment to practical education.
