US Don Tasks Govt on Education, Research Funding

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

A Professor of Chemical Engineering, Adesoji Adesina has said the country cannot achieve sustainable development or solve its multiple problems if it continues to pay lip service to education and research funding.

Adesina, who is the founder and Chief Executive Officer, ATODATECH, Los Angeles, United States, while delivering the 78th Interdisciplinary Discourse of the Postgraduate College, University of Ibadan, also said Nigeria cannot achieve sustainable development without funding research driven by national priorities.

He then called on President Muhammadu Buhari to formulate well defined national priorities to enable researchers develop solutions to the problems confronting the country.

Speaking on the topic ‘An Approach to Research and Innovation in National Development: Entrepreneurial Culture in Nigerian Tertiary Education’, Adesina said Nigeria can only move forward if innovative researches are conducted in line with national priorities.

While describing research as the cornerstone of developed societies, he regretted that Nigeria commits only 0.22 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to research, saying, “Nigerian researchers are conducting researches that are not entirely aligned to national priorities, but only innovative researches can bring sustainable development.”

The former professor at the University of South Wales, Sydney, Australia therefore called on the federal government to formulate policies that will make private organisations, institutions and government fund researches.

In her remarks, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Olanike Adeyemo said the international funders fund researches that are of priority to them, urging the federal government and other private firms to “fund researches and scholars to make Nigeria a priority in their researches and come up with scientific solutions to her problems.”