Paul Arinze, general manager, Public and Government Affairs, Mobil Producing Nigeria, has called for the restructuring of curriculum for Mass Communication in the UNN to incorporate fundamental areas in entrepreneurship and management.
Arinze, an alumnus of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,(UNN) said the new curriculum would enable graduates of the Department find their feet in the globally competitive labour market.
He made the call while delivering the 3rd Jackson Annual lecture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN) recently.
Jackson Annual Lecture was instituted by the Department of Mass Communication in 2007, in memory of Thomas Horatio Jackson, the editor of Lagos Weekly Record who used his colonial newspaper to fight against colonialism and advocated for better leadership in the Nigerian society.
Arinze said that although there was high rate of youth unemployment in Nigeria, there were thousands of lucrative job openings in the country.
According to him, “these openings are extremely competitive and are filled up by persons with a combination of the right skills set, right experience and right attitude; persons who can hit the ground running and add multiple value to organisations.
“Sadly, graduates of our universities are increasingly unable to match these expectations, and a great number of the openings are filled by ‘returnee graduates’ Nigerians who study in foreign universities.”
Speaking on the “Developing Communicators and Entrepreneurs for Knowledge based economy,” he debunked the belief that one must have a godfather before securing a job in Nigeria. He however emphasised that globalisation had widened the scope of competition in the labour market and reduced the chances of Nigerian-trained graduates to secure employment in the country.
He said that Nigerian-trained graduates no longer compete among themselves but had to face a pool of globally trained talents who apply for job openings in Nigeria even though they were not resident in the country.
REGIS ANUKWUOJI Enugu
