The Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, has called for a total overhaul of Nigeria’s university education system to prioritize practical skills, innovation and human capital development.
Okonkwo said the system must move beyond awarding certificates to producing graduates equipped with technical competence and entrepreneurial capacity to drive national development.
He made the call on Tuesday while delivering the 14th convocation lecture of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, titled “Functional Education and the Nigerian Project: Strategic Human Capital Development for National Renewal”.
According to him, education should be treated as productive national infrastructure, with investments directed not only at classrooms and curricula but also at laboratories, workshops, research, digital infrastructure, technical personnel and partnerships with industry.
He urged the Federal Government and regulatory agencies to create policies and standards that encourage universities to focus on the actual capabilities of their graduates rather than certificates.
Okonkwo also called for a shift in the regulatory approach of the National Universities Commission, NUC, to place greater emphasis on graduate competence.
“The enduring lesson of history is therefore unmistakable: functional education is not a new educational philosophy; it is the timeless obligation of every generation to align education with the changing needs and highest aspirations of society,” he said.
“The question before us is not whether education should be functional. It always has been. The real question is whether we possess the vision, courage and collective resolve to make it functional for the Nigeria of the twenty-first century,” he added.
“The guiding principle should be simple: education must produce capability, because the ultimate measure of an educational system is not the certificates it awards, but the capacity it creates in its people to build, solve, innovate and transform society,” Okonkwo said.
He further said, “If functional education is to become a defining feature of twenty-first-century Nigeria, Government and regulatory agencies must create the conditions, incentives and standards that enable institutions to move beyond certificate-centered education towards capability-centered education.”
“Education should be treated as productive national infrastructure, with investment directed not only towards classrooms and curricula but also towards laboratories, workshops, research, digital infrastructure, technical personnel, innovation and industry partnerships,” he said.
Okonkwo charged the graduating students to measure success by impact.
“Become responsible citizens who contribute rather than merely complain, and measure your success not only by wealth or position but by the lives you improve, the problems you solve, the institutions you strengthen and the legacy you leave behind,” he said.
In his remarks, the founder of ABUAD, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, called for a review of university curricula to ensure graduates acquire skills required to function effectively after school.
Babalola said the concerns raised about the relevance of university education required urgent attention from the Federal Government.
“We cannot continue teaching students without considering what they are going to become in the future. That is the problem,” Babalola said.
“Certainly, there is a need for the Federal Government to amend the curriculum of universities to align with what we need after graduation,” he added.
“You will be surprised if you see what I am talking about concerning universities. My suggestion today is that something has to be done about the system. A private university should be properly structured to deliver the kind of education that prepares students for the future,” he said.