Former President Goodluck Jonathan while speaking at Baze University in Abuja over the weekend, counseled Nigerian students to stay away from a life of crime and while calling for institutions to provide education “with a soul”.
Dr. Jonathan, who was the special guest of honour at the 4th convocation of the private university, said that social vices such as cultism, thuggery, armed robbery and kidnapping were reflecting badly on the academic environment.
“It is important to note that the negative activities of some of our youths are portraying the academic environment in bad light,” he is quoted as saying.
”I urge the graduating and other students of this university to realise that those people are out of line, and it is not cool, whenever they involve themselves in such abhorrent social vices as cultism, thuggery, armed robbery and kidnapping.
“They should know that they let the nation down, each time they engage in acts that debase human dignity and hurt our values as a nation of great people,” the former president said.
Jonathan further made a case for the kind of responsible education that will inculcate moral values in our youths.
“I would, however, clarify that our kind of education must be the type that will have a soul,” he maintained. “That is why I always challenge the staff, especially the academic staff, to develop curricula that will produce respectable and patriotic citizens and graduates, in tune with our peculiar social and economic environment.”
“We must aspire to restore those glory days when a graduate’s value was weighed equally in character and in learning.”
