What I saw at a University in Nigeria

WHAT I SAW AT A UNIVERSITY IN NIGERIA NOT TOO LONG AGO was something like this. Trashed research works, Theses of University students even to PhD level.

You ask why?

I will sing : "...if you ask me, na who I go ask, the matter wey we see so, e tey wey e start, no be me go talk am..." You know the rest of the song. But, let me share this with you.

Last week, I was in a discussion with one of my most respected Profs.

I asked him: why do we have a lot of research works with nothing to show for them? Nothing, or let me say almost nothing, has come from the Nigerian universities as a global innovation or product. Or let me say I have not seen anyone (please I stand to be corrected).

I asked him why don't we also add a section to our research format called INNOVATION in which an investigator or a team of researchers that do a research work can be tasked with thinking and creating novel and useful ideas, implementable by ICT and other technologies?

Then he said many things. A lot of things! All led to a conclusion that he buys my idea, and that there have been few efforts in that direction.

Well, I said, we at EdPower_Network will start to advocate for that. I will personally push it to the current able Dean of the Faculty of Education, UNILAG and then to Nigerian University Commission (NUC) through EdPower Network. Twitter too will hear about it!

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I recommend that every department should have Research and Innovation Office (RIO) that will be searching through the Innovative ideas that students have come up with in projects and other educational activities, to identify the ones with greatest commercial potential. Pick them up for further development, implementation, commercialisation etc.

We can't afford to let school be a place where potentials are built but not allowed to prosper! Why is FACEBOOK or GOOGLE not from a university student Practical or Thesis? Same for TWITTER, ALIBABA.COM, ELECTRIC VEHICLES, COVID-19 VACCINE, etc.?

Why are NIGERIAN universities relying on Government for almost everything? UNIVERSITIES CAN MAKE MONEY! YES! THEY CAN MAKE MILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, QUOTE ME ANYWHERE! but now, they are in one way or the other, liabilities to the government.

There is one sure way out of this African mess: RESEARCH & INNOVATION! And I am not talking about researches that hold no wow-values.

I beg my Profs. and Drs. to forgive my outrage, if I have stepped on toes in the process: I also stand to be corrected.

Babajide Arulogun
Senior Education Officer, Lagos State Teaching service.

Picture credit: DrRaphael James