Employers of Labour are Often Unfair to Fresh Graduates, Says Unilorin VC

The vice chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Sulyman Age Abdulkareem has expressed displeasure over unfair treatment of fresh graduates by some employers, said many companies in Nigeria are often unfair to fresh graduates by expecting them to start performing optimally on duty without giving them necessary train for the sake of adaptation.

Professor Abdulkareem expressed this while addressing Journalists at the University campus as part of the activities line-up to mark 36th convocation ceremony of the school.

The VC said “ I believe our employers are unfair to our graduates, I can say that because when I left this country, I know what made me standout when I got to America, it was the train they gave me in Nigeria, and you can see, immediately our students got there with first class, second class, they become stars. I could remember when I finished my Ph’d my supervisor said ‘go and find me more students in Nigeria’ we can now see why I said our employers here are unfair, there is no place in the world where you have fresh graduates and ask them to start operation without necessary training, employers have to train newly recruited staff, if they truly want the best from them”

“In order for any newly recruited staff to do justice to task ahead, it’s expected of the employer to first give necessary training, it would even help in terms of adaptation. You can’t just say because someone have a degree and he should just come and start work immediately. It doesn’t work that way. There must be necessary training”

Talking of his achievements, Professor Abdulkareem said “in the last four years that I have been in the leadership saddle of this University, the goal that I have been vigorously pursuing is enhancing the status and ranking of our University as an international center of excellence for learning, research, probity and service to humanity”

Added that “we were gratified to win the 2019/2020 JAMB’s pioneer award for ‘The Most Subscribed University’ with a cash prize of Seventy-Five Million Naira (N75,000,000.00). The University also bagged the JAMB’s award for the University that admitted the highest number of foreign students for the 2019/2020 academic session and was thereby awarded another cash prize of Seventy-Five Million Naira (N75,000,000.00) ; making a total of One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (N150,000,000.00) that our University got from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) during the 2019/2020 academic session. Similarly, NUC’s 2020 ranking placed University of Ilorin as the second best in Nigeria after University of Lagos”

Noting that “one of our great achievements in the 2019/2020 academic session, which we are passionately proud of, was the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) we consummated and signed with the Nigerian Army to support research development of ballistic composites and the promotion of local content development”

Talking about number of students graduating from the school, Professor Abdulkareem said University shall be convoking a total of 10,922 students, noting that 9,338 are First Degree/Diplomas graduands while the remaining 1,584 are graduating with Higher Degrees/Postgraduate Diplomas.

Added that in the First Degree/Diploma category, we have 180 First Class, 2,836 Second Class Upper Division, 4,879 Second Class Lower Division, 1,110 Third Class and 14 Pass. We also have 140 MB;BS graduands, 46 graduands in Nursing, 5 graduands with Distinction and 16 with Pass in Optometry, 6 graduands with Distinction and 49 with Pass in Pharmacy while we have 37 graduands in Veterinary Medicine.

Saying further that a total of 20 graduands are obtaining Diploma from the Institute of Education. For emphasis, the total number of higher degrees to be awarded at this occasion is 1,584. This figure comprises 142 Postgraduate Diplomas, 1142 Masters from various Faculties, 113 MBA/MPA/MILR/MGIS/MPH/MHPM and 187 PhDs.