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 Post
Graduate 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.
– PM News