Former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has said it is getting more difficult to find people of integrity.

Prof Osinbajo stated this at the 2024 Matriculations of Miva Open University in Abuja, on Satuday.

Making a case for Open University, which he described as the future to delivering effective higher education in Africa, he said higher education in Africa cannot be effectively delivered to the number of those who want university degrees if they have to build physical universities to accommodate them.

He said: “Every year, more than 1.7 million applicants write the UTME exams conducted by JAMB, and an average of about 400,000 gain admission to the universities. So there is 1.3 million, mostly young people, who annually are eligible but do not have an opportunity for university education.”

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“Consider that Nigeria also is growing at about 6 million people every single year. There is absolutely no way that a brick-and-mortar approach to providing infrastructure for university education can ever work. We must also realise, and when I say we, I mean education policymakers, teachers, students, and employers of labour, that education as we knew, it is gone forever.”

While congratulating the students, Osinbajo urged them to go and have real success, saying, “That real success is not just doing well for a few years or gathering some internet followers for some time. Real success is leaving a lasting impact through your work, your contributions to society, or the values that you are able to impart to others.

“It is about what endures beyond one’s immediate lifetime. What, then, are some of the critical must-haves or must-do’s for real success? The first is integrity. And integrity might sound like cliché today, but it is absolutely the cornerstone of real success.

“Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Be known for your consistency in applying high moral values or principles. If you borrow money, repay. Don’t make promises you can’t fulfil; integrity pays. It is getting scarce. It’s getting more difficult to find people of integrity. So, it is in demand. And I can say that because people of integrity are in demand, they are much sought after by everyone.

“⁰Even thieves are looking for men and women of integrity to keep their stolen money with. Life is a marathon. It’s not a hundred metre dash. The person who will last that marathon is a trustworthy person because trust is the currency of business and interpersonal relationships. If you are known to have no integrity, everyone will soon know it. And because many of the best opportunities you will get will be based on recommendations, it is easy to become marketable.”

In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the varsity, Prof. Tayo Arulogun, said not less than three thousand students are matriculating into 14 undergraduate programmes distributed around four schools of Computing Science, Allied Health Sciences, HAGA Communication & Media Studies, and Management & Social Sciences.

He said: “This is a clear indication that the university is the choice of study destination for the teeming youth population that are eager to access university education.”

He said the massive increase in gross enrolment across degree programmes suggests that the university has made tremendous progress within one year of its existence.