Professor of Mechatronics Engineering, Abiodun Musa Aibinu, has urged parents to stop imposing career choices on their children, saying Nigeria must prepare young people for emerging opportunities in drone technology, artificial intelligence and robotics.
Aibinu, an innovation and AI advocate, said children who failed to secure admission into competitive courses such as Medicine and Law should not be made to feel that their future was less promising.
He stated this in a statement signed on Saturday and made available to Peoples Daily.
The university leader said parents should allow their children to discover their interests and abilities rather than force them to pursue careers driven by their own unfulfilled ambitions.
“Are we sometimes trying to fulfil, through our children, ambitions we could not achieve ourselves?” he asked.
Aibinu said parents had a responsibility to guide and support their children but should not dictate their career paths.
He added that university administrators also had a duty to educate parents on the importance of allowing students to make informed decisions about their future.
“As Vice-Chancellors, we must sometimes have the courage to guide parents as well as students. Our responsibility is to nurture potential, not impose unfulfilled dreams,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria needs professionals across different fields, including medicine, law, drone engineering, artificial intelligence, robotics and technology entrepreneurship.
He said the growing drone industry offered opportunities beyond piloting, including engineering, software development, manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, data analysis and commercial services.
Aibinu explained that young Nigerians could design drones, develop their software, maintain their systems or establish businesses that deploy the technology to provide services to farmers and other industries.
He urged parents, policymakers and industry leaders to recognise the potential of emerging technologies and support young people to acquire relevant skills.
The professor warned against an education and career system that prepares young people only to seek employment in established industries while neglecting opportunities in emerging sectors.
“We should not prepare young people only to seek jobs in existing industries. We should also prepare them to participate in industries that are still emerging and to create them,” he said.
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