Lack of basic moral principle among graduates, danger to national survival, says Provost

The Provost, Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo, Professor Adeyemi Usman, has declared that compulsive quest for material acquisition, stagnation of national development, as well as wrong corporate and economic decisions will persist in the country, until tertiary institutions nurture not only the intellect, but build the characters of young minds and empower them with the moral force to resist
tendency towards moral infractions.
Usman made the assertion in Oyo town at a sensitisation forum on Wednesday.
The don said the country “is in dire need of students who will become employers of labour and adequately imbibe basic moral principles and not just entrepreneurial skills”.
He added that this will go a long a way in ensuring hard-work, integrity, honesty and accountability to run a successful enterprise and develop good sense of judgement.
“It will also lead to decrease in the current leadership deficit,
prevent constitution of moral baggage, but enhance basic knowledge of employer/employee relations, sound attitudes for corporate governance, good management of the economy and progressing national development”.
He said tertiary institutions must begin to ask questions about the kind of nation they plan to hand over to these future leaders, and be ready to take tough decisions that will make the country attain the goal of becoming part of the leading economies by Year 2020.
“Our mandate must be the promotion of moral values and sound ethics, in addition to institutionalising the culture of excellence in teaching, learning and research”.
To address the current leadership problem in the country, Usman posited that tertiary institutions must, as a matter of utmost concern, begin a systematic realignment of programmes towards producing leaders that have moral background, and whose perspective about life is not restricted to compulsive acquisition of material wealth”.
According to him, “the country urgently needs people who are driven by patriotism as being exhibited by the present administration. This is the appropriate time for tertiary
institutions to rise to the challenges of parlous state of the
economy, the global meltdown in oil earnings which are the mainstay of our economy and attendant palpable fear among the populace, by producing innovative research and a plethora of workable policy advice that will evolve a new path for national development.”
Usman hinted that the college, which was established in 1977
and has the best qualified staff and specialised training facilities in Special Education not only in Nigeria, but in West, North, East and Central Africa, is rethinking its strategies to make it more functional and relevant to the dynamics of the present age.
The college, which is the only one of its kind in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, also has the largest conglomeration of handicapped students that could be found in any higher institution in Nigeria.