Oyedepo says Nigerian academics have got to go from being bookish to grooming thinkers

LIVING Faith Church Worldwide founder Bishop David Oyedepo has challenged Nigerian academics to stop being merely bookish and start grooming thinkers in their dealings with young people.

Currently, the chancellor of Covenant University in Ogun State, Bishop Oyedepo, said his experiences with those in the academia shows that many of them are simply so proud of having become authorities in their chosen fields. He noted that that this not enough though as they need to go a step further by indoctrinating in young scholars the art of thinking out ideas which would address some of the challenges plaguing the black continent.

Speaking while delivering the keynote address at the 54th meeting of the Committee of Deans of Post Graduate Schools in Nigerian Universities, Bishop Oyedepo said global solution providers such as Nibert Einsten, Isaac Newton  and the Wright Brothers among others,  once had a brainwave in their time which led to great revolutions in their respective fields. He warned Nigerians that repeated complaints would not work, asking them to battle their challenges headlong.

Bishop Oyedepo said: “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.

"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, Bishop 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. He stressed that leadership is not being in the drivers' seat but adding value.

"As a dean, you must start thinking what difference you are going to make in that position and what contributions you can make in terms of innovation. 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,” Bishop Oyedepo added.

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. Earlier, the chairman of the association Professor Bamidele Sanni, said the theme of the event: Repositioning postgraduate education for sustainable national development: the leadership dimension’ threw a challenge in their path as academic leaders who must groom better successors.