… as UNILAG holds the second Mike Adenuga (Jnr) Entrepreneurial Studies Annual Lecture
Sunday Adebisi, a professor in Business Administration at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka has proffered aggressive job creation through small-scale businesses, and investment into innovation drivers among others to help Nigeria recover from its economic quagmire.
Adebisi made the call during his speech at the second special lecture of Mike Adenuga (Jnr) Professorial Chair in Entrepreneurial studies titled: “Navigating the Present Stormy Nigerian Economy: The New Enterprise Nigeria as the Anchorage” when he proffered 14 solutions that will help the country come out of its economy quagmire is ideally implemented.
“All the unpalatable indexes and storms of unemployment, poverty, high Human Development Index (HDI), inflation and other social challenges usually occur most times, due to the inability of the government and society to create decent jobs.
“The main solution for Nigeria to combat all these storms is a purposeful and intentional focus on innovation and entrepreneurship dedicated to value creations in all facets of the Nigerians’ life,” he said.
Adebisi cited China, Singapore, and South Korea as examples of countries that boosted their economies by adopting aggressive job creation and intentional massive investment in entrepreneurship.
“The totality of China, Singapore, South Korea and Indonesia today is innovation and entrepreneurship; it is their forte and culture of global competitive relevance and wealth creation.
There is no alternative to this by a nation such as ours plagued by numbers of present social challenges and chaos. Many of the previous social programmes deployed by the previous leaders of Nigeria have not been able to rescue the country from the storms we found ourselves in,” he noted.
The first Occupier professor at Mike Adenuga (Jnr) Professorial Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies emphasised that a look at the past social investment programmes by different Nigeria’s regimes shows that there were no singular handshakes between any successive governments to continue what the previous administration had started.
“Even administrations from the same party origin never continued one another’s project because it is usually the political elites’ programmes and not the citizens’ programmes.
“If they had instituted the programmes jointly developed, and co-owned by citizens, the leaders’ mentality would be impossible because citizens are the same irrespective of the ruling parties or persons hence, they will defend the programmes that have positively impacted on them,” he stressed.
He highlighted other 13 steps the present government should take to salvage the country’s sinking economy which he described as ‘Destiny Titan Vessel No. 1960’ such as realistic diagnosis and accountability of the present predicaments, collective acceptability and guilt for the present predicaments, fit-for-purpose infrastructural projects, 25 years food security plan, stop the borrowing, and push for debt rescheduling, and Acadia-solution consortium, among others.
Folasade Ogunsola, the vice-chancellor of UNILAG in her address called on Nigerians to invest in education, and entrepreneurs to address the prevailing economic challenges.
“Our workforce has the potential to be productive and I’m using this opportunity to call on all Nigerians to invest in education, entrepreneurship and research.
We also need new thinking to solve the problems of the world of today and take on the issues of the future,” she said.
Folasade applauded the Entrepreneurial Studies Centre’s role in bridging the gap between academic excellence and practical innovation among youngsters in Nigeria.
“Today marks a milestone not only for our university but for the advancement of entrepreneurial education in Nigeria and beyond. The endowment of this Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies represents a forward-thinking vision to bridge the gap between academic excellence and practical innovation.
“It reflects the values and contributions of an icon of entrepreneurship, Mike Adenuga Jnr., whose exemplary career embodies resilience, creativity, and transformative leadership,” she said.
The vice-chancellor expressed her delight that UNILAG is championing this initiative, as it aligns seamlessly with the university’s strategic goals of promoting interdisciplinary research, creating industry-academic partnerships, promoting town-gown relationships, and equipping our students with the skills needed to not only thrive in a dynamic global economy but be leaders that shape the future.
Ibukun Awosika, the chairman of the special annual lecture in her address expressed delight at the insightful lecture from Adebisi and promised to ensure that the solutions proffered get to the right authorities.
“Most times our leaders make decisions based on what they know, they don’t always mean harm with their decisions. If the message is not taken to them, they may not know the right way out of the economic quagmire.
“So I will see that the message gets to the right ministries and persons I know. Besides, we may have to get you to speak on television to educate our people on this,” she said.
Dignitaries at the vent include Lucky Aiyedatiwa, governor of Ondo State, who was represented by his deputy; Taiwo Osipitan, chairman of DMA BOT; Ayodele Atsemuwa, deputy vice-chancellor, in charge of development services, Bola Oboh, deputy vice-chancellor academic and research; and Lucian Chukwu, deputy vice-chancellor, management services, among others.
