In Ibadan, the Precious Cornerstone University (PCU) is sounding a clear alarm. At a press conference marking its 4th Convocation and 7th Founder’s Day (scheduled for 7-11 November 2025), its Vice Chancellor, Timothy Adejumo, ripped into Nigeria’s leadership: make this country livable or keep losing your best minds.
“No place as good as home — but if home doesn’t feel comfortable, people will leave. If everybody goes away, who will develop this country?” Adejumo asked, squarely. He pointed to the ever-rising tide of young Nigerians fleeing in search of safer, fairer, more promising ground abroad.
The message is blunt and urgent: leaders, you’re losing your human capital — and you’re handing it to someone else.
Exodus of Talent: Not a Statistic, a Warning
Adejumo did not mince words. The continuous emigration of bright young minds, driven by security concerns, infrastructure collapse and weak governance, is threatening the very future of the nation. If youth leave, who’s here to build, innovate and sustain the economy?
His words are backed by PCU’s own growth story: come convocation week, 143 students will graduate this year, bringing PCU’s alumni tally to 456 graduates. Among them: 14 First-Class honours, 65 Second-Class Upper, 47 Second-Class Lower and 17 Third-Class degrees. The best graduating student, Mr. Lawal Eniola Kolawole (Dept. of Computer Science), secured a CGPA of 4.84 out of 5.0.
And yet, this triumph rings against the backdrop of perennial challenges: the infrastructure that fails, the governance that falters, the opportunities that keep going abroad.
PCU: Blessings-or-Burden Mindset
PCU’s theme for this year? “The Trailblazer Set”. Because, says the VC, these aren’t the graduates you wait to hire — they’re the graduates you build into employers, innovators, leaders.
In a bold move, PCU is awarding an entrepreneurship certification alongside each degree — a visible shift from producing “job-seekers” to cultivating “job-creators”. “They are change-makers being released to be blessings, not burdens,” Adejumo emphasised.
And the numbers back it: during the 2025 Entrepreneurship Week under the theme “Spark Innovation; Ignite Entrepreneurship”, PCU registered 47 student-led enterprises with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). These are young people setting up rather than settling for.
Credentials, Programmes, Growth
Beyond convocation and entrepreneurship, PCU is asserting its academic credentials. The institution was established in 2017 under the auspices of the Sword of the Spirit Ministries and is located in Ibadan, Oyo State. (sotsm.org)
The VC announced that PCU has secured accreditation from the National Universities Commission (NUC) for all its current programmes. (pcu.edu.ng) Additional programmes—such as Nursing Science, Public Health, Medical Laboratory Science, Human Nutrition & Dietetics, Music and Creative & Performing Arts—are undergoing verification. PCU also claims to have launched postgraduate programmes (MSc, MPhil, PhD) in Microbiology, Accounting, Business Administration, and a Part-Time MBA.
In July 2024, PCU announced full accreditation status for four additional in-demand programmes: Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, Mass Communication and International Relations. (pcu.edu.ng)
If credentials matter in this conversation, PCU is positioning itself firmly within that space.
Convocation Week: Ceremony with Purpose
The upcoming week-long event isn’t just pomp and circumstance. It kicks off with a Foundation Day thanksgiving service on Sunday (9 November) led by PCU Chancellor Francis Wale Oke who will anoint the graduands. Activities culminate on Tuesday (11 November) with the formal Award of Degrees & Prizes as well as conferment of Honorary Doctorates (Honoris Causa). The convocation lecture—titled “Beyond Certificates: Preparing Graduates for Relevance in a Knowledge-Driven Economy”—will be delivered by Joshua Selman.
The message is clear: don’t just get the certificate. Be relevant. Build something. Be the answer.
The Hard Truth for Nigeria’s Leaders
Here’s the striking takeaway from PCU’s VC: if the country remains mired in insecurity, weak infrastructure, poor governance, its best young people will vote with their boots. They will go to where they are valued and where their potential can be leveraged.
For a nation that needs to harness its youth bulge and intellectual capital to compete globally, this is not a small issue. It is existential.
Adejumo’s call is simple: make Nigeria livable — or watch your future engineers, programmers, scientists, entrepreneurs pack their bags and leave.
For PCU, the university may be small (just eight years old), but the ambition is large. The challenge it casts at national leaders is no less significant: do the work, fix the foundation, or someone else will benefit from your brain-power.
In the story of Nigeria’s future, this is more than just an alumni celebration — it’s a wake-up call. And as the Trailblazer Set prepares to step out, the question echoing through PCU’s corridors is loud and clear: will Nigeria be ready for them?