Deploy PhD Knowledge To Transform Society, Deputy Speaker Tells Scholars

House of Representatives Deputy speaker, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, has challenged scholars in Nigeria to use their PhD knowledge to transform society and serve humanity.

He urged PhD holders to turn their researches into real-world impact for the good of the society and humanity.

Kalu made the appeal when he addressed guests at the 38th convocation of the University of Calabar, where his PhD thesis was spotlighted as the best in his alma mater, over the weekend.

Speaking directly to PhD graduates from the Faculty of Law, Kalu asked them to reflect on their tortous academic journey, which he described as rigorous.

He stressed that a doctoral degree carries weight beyond the certificate.

“A doctoral degree is not merely the highest academic qualification but initiation into responsibility.

“It signals not only that which we have mastered as a body of knowledge, but that we are now entrusted with its use”, Kalu maintained .

He then posed two challenges to the new scholars: “What is knowledge, if it does not serve? What is research if it does not reach beyond the pages on which it is written?”

Drawing on the words of the late President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which one can use to change the world,” Kalu stressed that earning a PhD is not just a privilege.

Instead, he argued, it is “an obligation to transform the society to assist humanity.” He added, “The burden of thought, of innovation, and of intellectual leadership rests, in no small measure, on our shoulders.”

Kalu closed with a frank assessment of a key problem facing developing nations.

“Yet we must be honest: the distance between knowledge and impact remains one of the defining challenges of our time,” he said.

“Across many developing societies, including ours, research output has not always translated into policy, and scholarship has not consistently shaped systems.”