President Goodluck Jonathan, Friday, called on universities in the country to make creative research their priority in order to provide solutions to the country's diverse challenges.

Jonathan who made the call at the day-three of the Golden Jubilee convocation of the University of Lagos, Akoka in Lagos, said universities, as the think tank of any nation, must be responsive in the area of creative research, which is one of the mandates for their establishment.

The President, who was represented by the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruquayyatu Rufa'I said , "I want to seize this opportunity to congratulate this prestigious university which has brought so much honour to this country as they celebrate their golden jubilee convocation ceremony. I also want to congratulate the graduands for successfully completing their various programmes in the university. I have no doubt in my mind that with the education you have acquired here, that you will achieve your dreams. However, I wish to also task universities across the country to be more creative more responsive towards creative research."

He noted that this is the only way through which they will be able to provide solutions to challenges in various facets of the country's economy and transformational agenda.

According to him, the current administration had committed substantial funds to sustain the development of the education sector, adding that academic excellence and national development would remain its core agenda.

He lauded the university management for coming up with programmes such as its National Research Conference which commenced in 2002 and urged other universities to take advantage of such programmes to improve on their status.