Date: 2017-09-29

PIONEER private Islamic university in Nigeria, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, has produced 16 First Class graduates out of 916 students across various programmes, departments and faculties in this year convocation ceremony.

Speaking with journalists on seventh convocation ceremony of the university in Ilorin on Tuesday, the vice chancellor of the Islamic University, Professor Taofeek Ibrahim, said that breakdown of the graduates included 827 undergraduates and 89 postgraduates.

The vice-chancellor said that 208 bagged Second Class Upper, 434 with Second Class Lower, adding that 143 had Third Class while 26 got a pass.

Professor Ibrahim, who said that 2017 result of the graduating students showed remarkable improvement in academic performance, added that the authorities remained committed to doing better until it eliminated students graduating with Pass and Third Class grades.

The vice-chancellor also said that the nation's educational system should be restructured to address national needs.

"To effectively address the problems of unemployment in Nigeria, we need to identify our areas of need, the needs of our markets, our consumption pattern, what products and services are needed and what jobs we need to provide, and therefore, what areas to invest our funds for the much-needed progress and development of individuals, families, organizations, institutions, governments and the country at large", he said.

He also said that the Nigerian university system and academics should move out of research and publication for just scientific and literary writing prowess, rather, he said they should graduate to "researchers with the ability to inform useful and practicable policies, life-impacting technological innovation and development and the ability to identify and solve problems confronting the humanity".

The vice chancellor, who said that corruption was the very basis of Nigeria's lack of growth, progress and underdevelopment, added that nothing was more responsible for the nation's mismanagement and maladministration other than corruption.

"Whereas Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah built functional refineries before Ghana's discovery of oil, years after, Nigeria, today, lack efficient oil refinery", he said.