[b]FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has advocated an amendment to the constitution so that performing governors from any part of the country can be posted to other states. He spoke in Uyo at a dinner organised for him in Government House, Uyo at the weekend.

Also, Obasanjo yesterday canvassed the need for the curriculum for postgraduate education in the nation’s universities to be directly relevant to development.

He said that the curriculum should take cognizance of basic challenges of food security, sustainable infrastructure and good governance in its research, ahead of meeting the Vision 20:2020.

Obasanjo who said this at the Seventh Annual Lecture of the University of Lagos, School of Postgraduate Studies, Akoka, Lagos, noted that postgraduate education in the country had expanded in the last 10 years but should, as a matter of relevance, look inwards in response to social challenges through evidence-based and scientific researches.

Delivering the lecture titled: “Strategic positioning of postgraduate education in Nigeria,” Obasanjo said that it was incumbent on the nation’s university system to achieve four major breakthroughs based on research. This is to solve key challenges to development in the country, especially in the power sector, food insecurity, health, environment and good governance.

He said that the most desirable curriculum was one that would respond to the need of the society to become one of the 20 largest economies in the world by year 2020.

Apparently remembering his military days, he regretted the constitutional barrier forbidding democratically elected governors from governing states other than their own.

According to him, in the era of military government, administrators were posted to states other than those of their origin, wishing that such a system could apply in a democratic setting to create room for Governor Godswill Akpabio to bring his wealth of experience to bear on other states within the sub-region and Nigeria as a whole.

“Akpabio will soon turn Akwa Ibom to a paradise using the flyovers and all forms of transportation including roads, airport, independent power plants and the gas processing industry. Railway will soon come. The truth is that the governor is not only doing things that benefit the state alone but other states. I feel proud what you have done in the last four years,’’ Obasanjo noted.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees Chairman stressed the need for collaboration between some governors in the South/South and South/East Regions, urging Akpabio to make sure his state was made a hub of economic activities in the region. He said that the projects executed in the state were beneficial to the state and her neighbours.

“If you have not landed in Uyo, you have not gone to any place in this part of the country,’’ he added.

He urged the Akwa Ibom State government to lay greater emphasis on agriculture as a key to the development of the state, noting that agriculture would create employment opportunities for the jobless and

feed the teeming populace.Obasanjo advised the governor to accommodate the opposition since, according to him, Akpabio has not disappointed him in his leadership style.

Earlier, Akpabio said he was a beneficiary of good governance brought about by Obasanjo during his tenure as the President of Nigeria.

The governor thanked Obasanjo for supporting him and for coming to the state to participate in the kick-off campaign of PDP in the state.[/b]