RSU's 37th/38th CONVOCATION LECTURE: SHIFTING GEARS FROM EXAMS TO PATENTS
Group Photograph with The Chairman Dumo Lulu Briggs, the Guest Lecturer Dr. Daere Akobo, Vice Chancellor Prof Isaac Zeb-Obipi including other official shortly after the convocation Lecture
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Captains of industry and academic stakeholders gathered in Port Harcourt on Wednesday for the combined 37th and 38th Convocation Lecture of the Rivers State University (RSU), where a strong case was made for shifting the paradigm of Nigerian education from certificate accumulation to wealth-generating innovation.
The lecture, titled "Joint University-Industry Ventures: Entrepreneurship, Technology, Sustainability, and People Nexus for Rivers State University," became a rallying point for a new partnership between the gown and the town.
The Charge: From Thesis to Market
The Guest Lecturer, Dr. Daere Afonya-a Akobo, Chairman and Group CEO of PANA Holdings, delivered a stinging yet inspiring critique of the current academic output in Nigeria.
Akobo challenged the university system to move beyond graduating students based solely on examinations and start graduating them with commercially viable patents. Citing grim statistics, Akobo lamented that Nigeria produces only two patents per one million people annually, a figure he described as grossly insufficient for a nation seeking economic dominance.
"How can we move from using tests to graduate students to using patents to graduate students? It is the patent that brings money," Akobo stated. "You have a thousand and one theses that you have written in the library. We need to begin to use accelerators to turn those into money."
In his remarks, Akobo, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors (FCIoD), advocated for the "Triple Helix" model—a strategic interconnection between Universities, Industry, and Government—citing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras as global benchmarks where academic innovation drives GDP.
He further challenged multinational oil giants like Shell, Chevron, and ExxonMobil to establish endowment funds for Nigerian universities similar to their investments abroad, while also calling on the Rivers State Government to build "State Capacity"—both extractive and directive—to channel resources toward industrialization.
Chairman of the Occasion and Chairman of SEPLAT Energy, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, reinforced the lecturer's position, describing the presentation as "timely, insightful, and transformational."
In his remarks, Lulu-Briggs advised the fresh graduates that the world they are stepping into is no longer shaped merely by mineral wealth, but by "creativity, adaptability, and courage." He emphasized that in the modern global market, collaboration is the pathway to scalable impact.
Sharing his personal trajectory with Platform Petroleum, Lulu-Briggs recounted how conviction and calculated risk-taking turned a rejected 7-storey building plan into the 19-storey Platform House. "Entrepreneurship must become a culture, an attitude of curiosity and responsible leadership," he charged the graduating class.
In his address, the Vice-Chancellor of Rivers State University, Prof. Zebulon Isaac Zeb-Obipi, welcomed the dignitaries and the graduating class with a message centered on the university’s readiness to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and industrial application.
He highlighted the institution's commitment to producing graduates who are not just employable but are employers of labour, and expressed gratitude to industry giants for their presence.
In the lecture, Chief Lulu-Briggs praised Dr. Akobo’s aphorism that "The journey of a thousand miles begins with the RIGHT mind" as "upgraded wisdom," thanking the Vice-Chancellor and the Guest Lecturer for a delivery that touched on Medicine, Law, Engineering, and Management.
Bringing the intellectual harvest to a close, the Chairman of the Senate Lectures Committee, Prof. Patrick N. Nwinyokpugi, delivered the vote of thanks, expressing appreciation to the Guest Lecturer, the Chairman of the occasion, and the University community for a successful event, urging RSU to become a hub for patents and industrial solutions.
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