Tuesday, March 3, was a particularly a day to remember in the annals of the Lagos State University. The institution hosted three high profile events that marked the school out as belonging to world class university mantra. Aside the 2020 World Wildlife Day commemoration, the Career Fair in conjunction with Jobberman, it also hosted the highly revered Rev Mother Esther Ajayi, the General Overseer of Love of Christ Generation Church (Cherubim and Seraphim) London. CYRIACUS NNAJI reports.
The Theme of this year’s World Wildlife celebration was “Sustaining All Life on Earth.”
At Lasu the Session was organized by the institution’s Centre for Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development in Partnership with the United States Consulate to commemorate the World Wildlife Day 2020 and was held at Aderemi Makanjuola Lecture Theatre in Ojo.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Olarenwaju Fagbohun in his keynote said the world wildlife day is an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful ad varied forms of wild fauna and flora, and raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that their conservation provides to people, adding that the day reminds all of the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime and human –induced reduction of species which have wide ranging economic, environmental and social impacts.
Fagbohun said man has from time immemorial has consistently depended on the constant interplay and interlinkages between all elements of biosphere, plants, animals, and microorganisms for his needs; the air we breathe, the food we eat, the energy we use and the materials we need for all our purposes.
He also said that through protection of forests as well as restoring natural habitats economic opportunities are created; helps in promoting agricultural diversity; plays vital role in the ecological and biological processes that are essential to life, among other benefits.
Fagbohun maintained that illegal wildlife trade is believed to be the world’s fourth most valuable illicit commerce after drugs, human trafficking and the arms trade.
He then maintained “The inescapable fact is that we need to do more to give effectiveness to the governance regime in place for the management of wildlife.
“At a time like this when ignorance accentuated by incidences of fake news in the social media, and mischief have increasingly become global features, there is the need for strong solidarity among institutions that play complementary roles to offer appropriate creative and inspiring narratives,” Fagbohun said.
He harps on the need to individually and collectively think creatively and innovatively on not just the need, but how best to conserve the Nigerian biodiversity (flora and fauna).
At the University Auditorium was a two-day Jobberman/LASU Career Fair 2020 where the Programme Manager Implementation, Jobberman, an internationally renowned career development organization, Precious Imuwahen Ajoonu, stated that one of the mandates of her company is to get 5million young Nigerians up-skilled and placed in dignified jobs in the next five years.
Ajoonu said “One of our mandates at Jobberman is to get 5million young Nigerians up-skilled and placed in dignified work in the next five years.”
She also hinted that the organization would create a Jobberman Ambassador in Lasu. “We are going to create a Jobberman Youth Ambassador here in Lasu and universities across the country where they have a sustainable strategy toward youth engagement and employment,” Ajoonu said.
On the reason Jobberman chose to partner with Lasu she said, “Lasu sits directly in our purview in that they have a young population, people in 300 level can benefit from our internship opportunity, they have graduates who are worried about the future in terms of job, so we feel it is very good to come here, meet with them, teach them employability skills, things like CV writing, cover letter, how do I apply for a job, how do I attend an interview? On the second day we are bringing employers to the campus, who will be interviewing on spot and offering things like internships and possible placements. So we chose Lasu specifically because Lagos is one of our strategic focus areas to help with youth employment.”
On the saying that Nigerian youths are unemployable she said, “We have over 2million people on our data base and we have access to over 60,000 employers, when we started this intervention we sat down with these employers and they said Precious these graduates are not employable. So what we did was do a skill gap analysis because, yes, they are not employable, but what do we do? Do we leave them and then we have crisis in society or do we help them?”
Director, Lasu Career Centre, Dr. Igot Ofem, on her part said there is a mismatch between the curriculum and what the employers are actually looking for. She said “What the career centre strives to do is trying to bridge that gap, and see how we can link our students to the world of work.”
She stated further that the country needed more human development centres “We need more human development centres in Nigeria, although I am aware that NUC at a point in time was trying to revise the curriculum to include something like this, but Lagos State University is the very first university to have a career development centre.”
Still counting, the last not the list on the bouquet of event on that Tuesday was hosting of Rev. Mother Esther Abimbola Ajayi, the General Overseer of Love of Christ Generation Church (Cherubim and Seraphim) London, wherein she accepted to build a lecture theatre at the Lagos State University (LASU) in Ojo.
Ajayi made the disclosure while responding to requests by the President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) South West (Zone D), Comrade Kappo Samuel Olawale at the Digital Jobs and Business Incubation for Youth across Africa which was held 3-in-1 Lecture Hall of the institution.
The event was organized by NANS Zone D in conjunction with Edubox, Headsup, Information Technology (IT) based outfits as a reflection of the drive to bridge the gap between the town and the gown through educational interventions and initiatives.
Ajayi also acceded to the request by the students’ body to buy a bus for NANS South West (Zone D). In her response she said “You want a lecture theatre, consider it done,” Ayayi responded while speaking to a mammoth crowd of students that hosted her in the institution.
Ajayi poured encomiums on the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Olarenwaju Adigun Fagbohun, saying “The Vice Chancellor is a leader that knows how to direct his people; he is an example of leadership quality.” She also acknowledged the school management saying that no man is an island and no man succeeds alone.
On his part, the Vice Chancellor of the institution acknowledged the academic excellence of his students by boasting “Give me two world class students and we will match with six Lasu world class students. What you see happening at Lagos State University is, as Lecturers are doing their own things to add value, the great students are doing their own things to add value, so no dull moment in Lasu. Our students are world beaters, and why do I say this? Any investment you made on this university will never be a wasted investment,” Fagbohun stated.
He told the students that Mother Ajayi has adopted the institution making Lasu one of the institutions that Ajayi would have her footprints embedded.
