General overseer of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, Dr. David Oyedepo is of the believe that the black man’s greatest challenge is not intellectual bankruptcy, but laziness and inability to task his thinking faculty towards realising assets that will benefit his immediate environment.
Speaking at the 54th meeting of the Committee of Deans of Postgraduate Schools (CDPGS) in Nigerian Universities at CU premises, the cleric said his experiences with those in the academia shows that many of them are simply so proud of having become authority in their chosen fields.
In his words:
Everywhere I go in Nigeria today, everybody continues to complain that things are not working; but who will start how things will work and when?
That person is you and that time is now; and post graduate education should serve as a platform for inciting our students into thinking solutions. Today, it is thinkers that rule the world and we should be development-oriented in things we do.
To make that difference, Oyedepo challenged the deans to start thinking out of the box, saying that is what would propel them to imbibe same culture into their students.
Leadership is not being in the driver seat, but adding values. As a dean, you must start thinking what difference you are going to make in that position; what contributions in terms of innovations and feat.
You have no business being in that position if you cannot make that difference that will be a reference point to your successors years after you have left.
Further, Oyedepo suggested the ‘read thinking’; concept which according to him, combines research alongside critical thinking of solutions. Man’s biological configuration remains the same regardless of colour or height, Oyedepo argued.
He said Africa has a lot to tap from Covenant University which was birthed through indigenous thinking and currently ranks as the second best university in Nigeria just within 15 years of existence.
Source – Naijaloaded
