The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr Samuel Ogbuku has urged Nigerian universities to overhaul their teaching models and shift from certificate-driven learning to problem-solving education.
He warned that the current system was failing to meet national development needs.
At the 2nd Convocation Lecture of the Federal University Otuoke (FUO) in Bayelsa State, his call for a radical reinvention of Nigeria’s higher-education system echoed across the packed convocation hall.
Delivering his keynote address titled “From Degree-Awarding to Problem-Solving Institutions: Retooling University Education for Nation-Building,” Ogbuku decried what he described as an entrenched academic culture where promotion and prestige depended more on the number of journal papers published than on research that solved local problems.
“We have built an academic culture where promotion is often tied more to the number of papers published… than to the impact of research on society,” he lamented.
Speaking with urgency, he painted a stark picture of a widening gap between universities and the productive sectors of the economy.
According to him, employers frequently complained that graduates struggled with critical thinking, creativity, digital competence, and hands-on experience skills central to thriving in a modern economy. The consequences, he warned, were becoming increasingly visible.
He linked these challenges to decades of underfunding and infrastructural decay, Dilapidated laboratories, outdated libraries, overcrowded classrooms, and poorly motivated staff, he said, had pushed universities towards theory-heavy, exam-driven teaching models that rewarded memorisation rather than ingenuity.
“A system that is underfunded struggles to be innovative,” he stressed.
As part of the solution, Ogbuku recommended introducing compulsory capstone projects across disciplines, projects tied directly to real problems in communities, industries, or government sectors.
This shift, he argued, would promote practical thinking and anchor academic work in genuine societal needs.
Strengthen Entrepreneurship and innovation
further urged universities to strengthen entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems on their campuses.
Although centres for entrepreneurship existed in many institutions, including FUO, he noted that they were often treated as mere attachments rather than strategic hubs for creativity and enterprise.
Strengthening them, he said, was critical to producing graduates who could create opportunities rather than wait for them.
Ogbuku highlighted the Niger Delta’s environmental crises, oil spills, gas flaring, flooding, biodiversity loss and challenged universities in the region to lead research and innovation targeted at solving these long-standing problems.
“Nigeria cannot afford to be a passive consumer of other people’s innovations,” he warned.
Instead, he called for bold investments in digital technology, local manufacturing, and climate-focused research.
Reiterating that “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” the NDDC boss encouraged graduating students to see themselves as problem-solvers equipped to shape the nation’s future. “The degree in your hand is not a trophy; it’s a tool… Do not treat your degree as the end of learning.”
Demonstrating the Commission’s commitment to educational development, Ogbuku announced that the NDDC had awarded contracts for a five-kilometre internal road network at FUO, a modern convocation arena, and a five-star Corpers’ Lodge.
He also pledged to endow two professorial chairs in the university, one in honour of his late father and another dedicated to cancer research.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Teddy Charles Adias, expressed gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for appointing a new Chancellor to one of the nation’s youngest federal universities.
He urged graduating students to embrace lifelong learning, stressing that “learning never ends.”
The event also featured the formal installation of the Paramount Ruler of Idoma Worldwide, Elaigwu Obagaji, as the new Chancellor of the university, an honour that added a regal flourish to a day centred on reflection, transformation, and hope.
In the end, Ogbuku’s message resonated: Nigeria’s path to sustainable nation-building lay not in producing graduates with stacks of certificates but in nurturing thinkers, innovators, and problem-solvers capable of transforming their communities and, ultimately, the nation.
PIAK