Dr. David Oyedepo, the presiding Bishop and founder of Living Faith Church worldwide, has said that an inability to identify problems and solve them, renders every PhD degree useless.
While addressing some PhD graduates of the Covenant University (CU) in Ota, Ogun state, Oyedepo urged people to come up with innovations that can solve problems plaguing the society.
The Chancellor, told them their inability to do so would mean their research programme was useless. Bishop Oyedepo promised to make funds available to them to identify problems and find solutions.
Speaking at a meeting with the young scholars, Oyedepo said Nigeria has been unable to address its challenges because of a lack of capacity to get the job done.
He decried situation in which PhD holders seemingly lacked the thinking capacity. He said: “I have come to provoke your potential. There is more inside you than the earned certificate. If you cannot think out solutions to problems, your PhD is a complete waste.
“When we say Doctor of Philosophy, we are saying master of thinkers; someone committed to finding solution to life’s problems. And until our learning translates to thinking, our PhD is zero.
“All that we have done going through the rigour of PhD is to ignite our thinking capacity. It’s so important that we have what it takes to recreate our country and the world.
“Hinting that Nigeria has more PhDs than four European countries, Oyedepo wondered why Nigeria was not getting similar result as the Europeans.
“The gas turbine (at CU) was not working because Shell was on strike. So why can’t students of Chemical Engineering build reserves? Why do we look at problems as if we are not concerned?”
Oyedepo said the scholars must learn to manage themselves, time and task, to be able to provide solutions to problems. He noted that the scholars must learn to manage themselves, for qualitative production.
