President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday urged Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities to strengthen the existing internal security network in their institutions, he also expressed regrets that no university in Nigeria has been ranked globally among the best 100 universities.

Jonathan gave the advice at the 40th Convocation ceremony of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in Osun.

Represented by Prof. Viola Onwuliri, the Minister of State for Education, Jonathan advised the vice-chancellors to be proactive in maintaining law and order.

He also urged the institution to be security-conscious to detect and arrest the activities of insurgent groups in their various campuses.

“You should strengthen the internal governance structures of the institutions and should create new ones if necessary to make them more sensitive and responsible to the needs and demands of staff, students and other stakeholders,’’ he said.

The president, however, called for dialogue between formal and informal groups in order to promote greater flow of information between staff, students and universities authorities.

He commended the university for having the best distance learning centre, cloud computing and telepresence facilities in the entire Nigerian university system as adjudged by the National Universities Commission.

Jonathan also expressed happiness over the institution’s outstanding performance for the third consecutive year, saying OAU had been adjudged as the best and number one university in Nigeria by the Webometric.

He expressed regrets that no university in Nigeria had been ranked globally among the best 100 universities, adding that this must be addressed.

Jonathan, therefore, called on Nigerian universities to brace up and ensure they were counted among the Ivy League universities in the world.

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of OAU, Prof. Bamitale Omole, expressed appreciation to all stakeholders and members of the governing council for their support and commitment to the course of great Ife.

Omole appealed to the graduands to be good ambassadors of the university, and urged them to contribute positively to its development.
He assured that the graduands had been equipped with values, orientations and work ethics that would make them succeed in all sphere of lives.

Tony Elumelu postgraduate prize for the best graduating masters’ student in economics was awarded to Olalekan Olaniyi and Oluwaseun Omotoso.

Omolara Agunbiade was awarded best graduating masters student in business administration.      Source: NAN