The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, has called on the Federal Government to intensify efforts towards establishing more specialised institutions of higher learning in the country.
Prof. Ambali, who made the call last Monday while declaring open the 7th International Students’ Day Celebration organised by the Centre for International Education (CIE), UniIlorin, said that it would promote enterprise and entrepreneurship in the country.
The Vice-Chancellor, who was represented at the event by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Technology and Innovation), Prof. Gabriel Olatunji, said, “We need universities that would be teaching graduates how to fish themselves, not the ones that will show them the way to the fish market”, adding that “Nigeria is ripe for Universities of Medicine, Pharmacy, Social Sciences, Humanities, among others where critical talents would be aggregated for increased value.
Earlier in his remarks, the Director of CIE, Prof. Mohammed Ibrahim, disclosed that the University has 272 international students from 18 countries and 21 foreign staff.
He noted that the presence of the Guest Speaker, Dr Josephine Ojiambo, who is a Deputy Secretary General at the Commonwealth Secretariat, is a boost to the Centre’s activities, as the international diplomat would contribute her quota to increasing the Commonwealth scholarship given to students and staff of the University of Ilorin.
In his address, the President of the Unilorin International Students Association (UISA), Mr. Hounnougbo Kandeski Arthur Arnaud, expressed the Association’s appreciation to the University administration for “creating an enabling environment to ease our learning and for creating a platform for cultural integration among all international students within and outside the great better by far institution, the University of Ilorin.