By Fatola Abdullahi

Prof. Rahamon Bello, Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos (UNILAG), recently unleashed to the public about one of its 2014/2015 graduands bagging 5.0 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) out of the institution on its 2016 convocation ceremony. Furthermore, this was also described as first of its kind in the history of the institution and seemingly in Nigeria's education system.

Mr Ayodele Daniel Dada, the said "record breaker", studied psychology in the institution under the Faculty of Social science with perfect scores of excellence in all courses undertaken in the department of psychology. No doubt, he had crossed lots of hurdles like assignments, practicals and overnight study for continuous assessments and semester exams for eight good semesters and was not swayed by all these challenges, indeed he's a pro in the field.

However, it was discovered that the institution's convocation lecture slated for February 29, 2016, has an interesting and vision-inclined topic drafted as, "Positioning Nigeria as the Technology Hub of Africa" having the discussant to be the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu. Many of us will be wondering how the writer discovered Mr Ayodele as an inevitable tool for the realization of making Nigeria a technological hub in Africa, my brief analysis below will relay the possible ways to everyone.

As we are all aware that the Akokite "guru" studied psychology while some of the courses undergone during his academic years in the department are related to establishing a path for positioning Nigeria as a technology hub in Africa. For this vision to be attained in Nigeria, our Industrial and power sectors need to be awoken from their slumber, saved from the verge of extinction and upgraded to a world class standard as achieving these visions rely on the capabilities and the capacity of the existing human resources.

A higher percentage of the human capital in Nigeria is "under-capable" to handle tasks assigned to them. The human capital are the personnels or members of staff involved in running the activities of any organization (small or large) for the purpose of Having a productive outputs. These human resources need psychological training for them be successful. Mr Ayodele would have taking a 2-unit course known as Industrial Psychology (PSY 204) in his 200 level first semester. The problems of personnel training in Africa, working conditions in African organizations, motivation strategies and giving incentives to boost the morale of the personnels would have been learnt and researched by him while possible panacea would have been discovered.

Aside PSY 204, related courses like personality assessment 1 and 2, cognitive psychology 1 and 2, political psychology and others which can be found in their curriculum are capable of equipping the Akokite genius and make him a tool for positioning the country as technology hub of Africa. The implications of development in adolescent, early and middle adulthood stages for National education policy, health policy and technological policy would have been learnt and I strongly believe the possible remedies to resolve them would have been known to him. All these developmental stages have to be examined before drafting a policy that is technologically inclined.

The power sector demands a capable leadership and personels to manage it as there are series of misdemeanors recorded years back resulting into the current blackout and unstable supply currently experienced across the country and thereby sending many industries and productive companies packing and exiting the country for other neighboring countries with uninterrupted power supply.

The Akokite icon would have learnt political psychology under which personalities of politicians, powers and politics, factors influencing judgement and decision making would have been studied. All these knowledge are expected to be found in personalites and politicians who will be saddled with the management responsibilities of the power sector as it's a complex sector to handle in the country.

The fact still remains that our tertiary institutions lack the capabilities to extend practical knowledge to students. Nevertheless, I believe in Mr Ayodele's theoretically and practically endowed intelligence and with the excellent first class division honors award he will be taking out of UNILAG, he's one of the graduates needed for positioning Nigeria as a Technology hub in Africa and the world at large.

On this note, I urge the government never to take graduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions (Monotechnics, polytechnics and universities) with levity, as amidst these personalities, if trained, retrained, motivated and well-funded to upgrade their standard of living, are capable individuals who can make the dream of the convocation lecture title realizable and achievable.

https://ibadanelite./2016/02/28/unilag-2016-convocation-lecture-mr-ayodele-an-inevitable-tool/