Of researchers and research commercialisation

Kunle Awosiyan, Lagos

Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu, Education
Minister

Various records have shown that Nigerian researchers are not doing badly in the global academic circle but it is quite disheartening that most of their works have proffered little or no solution to the country’s social-economic problems.

A good example of a renowned researcher is Professor Tolu Odugbemi, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos. To a large extent, the Medical Microbiologist has done well in the field of medicine where his over 200 works have proved him as one of the strongest voices in global medicine. Again, last week at its 2007 convocation ceremony, the University of Lagos reeled out 14 outstanding researches that could win international recognition.

Works such as “Human and an African causal theory: A comparative study” by Dr. Azenabor Godwin of the Faculty of Arts and Humanity; “Oxidative damage and repair: Fire Alarms and Fire Extinguishers” by an Associate Professor Odukoya Olufemi of the College of Medicine and Science; “Modelling land degradation and land cover change in the coast of Ondo State, South-West Nigeria” by Dr. Mayowa Fasona and Omojola A” could impact the current economic recess if they are commercialized.

But for years, the Federal Government had continued to give research grants to universities with the plan of transforming the economy from the academic ground as it is done in the United States, United Kingdom and recently Singapore. It must also be noted that China developed its technology first through researches carried out within the university system.

Not only that, series of investigation had revealed that most developed countries became successful because they were able to transfer their academic knowledge into the open market where business enterprises sponsored academics to research into particular field of knowledge.

In other words, these countries commercialize their breakthroughs while Nigeria has failed to do so. According to Dr. Odukoya, paucity of fund, lack of commercialization of research works and inadequate facilities have been the major impediment to research in Nigerian universities. As she put it, “ It has not been easy. Research does not have a meaning when it is not commercialized. The work must be transformed into product and put to market. Through this you get the value of what the researcher has done.”

Odukoya whose work “Oxidative damage and repair: Fire Alarms and Fire Extinguishers” addressed the health implication and cure from consumption of snack, junks and various substandard toothpastes by Nigerians described the fire alarms as health problems that might arise from the habit and fire extinguisher as solution to those problems.

She said that her work was a collection of series of researches on how the incessant consumption of snack and substandard toothpastes had destroyed the dentition of many Nigerians who are now fond of going to fast food restaurants. Disturbed, Odukoya said that though the result of the research was good, it could not get to the open market because she lacked the capacity to commercialise it.

“At present, I’m planning to get a herbal outlet to commercialise the product. This will give my students the opportunity to see and learn from it,” she said. According to Dr. Mayowa Johnson whose work, “Modelling land degradation and land cover change in the coast of Ondo State, South-West Nigeria” won the best prize for the Faculty of Social Science, UNILAG, the Vision 2020 agenda of President Umar Yar’Adua to transform the nation’s economy to one of the top 20 economies of the world can only be realized if only research through qualitative education is accorded a prime place.

He said, “Research in every aspect of the national economy holds the key towards moving us to the Promised Land as a nation. No nation can possibly achieve a state of technological development that is higher than her state of human development. I therefore call on the Federal Government to encourage and support high quality research through generous donation and research grants.”

He stressed that researchers and doctoral students in Nigerian universities relied more on external funding than from internal sources, calling on the Federal Government to establish a research institute fund specifically for promoting doctoral and post-doctoral research in the country.

“This, apart from encouraging qualitative research and access to state of the art facilities at home will also arrest the disturbing and persisting trend where we lose our best brains to the developed countries,” he said.

We’ll improve access to learning - Bowen

By Sulaimon Olanrewaju

Professor John Pickett of Rothamstead Research,
UK, who was guest lecturer at Bowen University’s
maiden Guest Lecturer Series, receives a plaque
from Professor Emmanuel Aduayi, Dean, Faculty of
Agriculture (right). Photo: Sulaimon Olanrewaju.

Bowen University, Iwo has reiterated its determination to improve access to learning in the country. According to the Registrar of the institution, Mr. Biodun Lawale, during the university’s maiden Guest Lecture Series last week said the university would not only do this through the provision of university education but also through regularly organising lecture series in areas of interest to the generality of the people.

The vision to improve the frontier of learning, the registrar said, informed the decision of the university to introduce the Guest Lecture Series, a forum which would enable distinguished scholars from within or outside the country to share their discoveries not only with the members of the university community but also with the general public at large.

At the maiden lecture, Professor John Pickett, Scientific Director, Centre for Sustainable Pest and Disease Management, and Head, Department of Biological Chemistry at Rothamsted Research, spoke of the latest research efforts in using electrophysiological studies with advanced chemical analytical techniques and syntheses, to identify pheromones for a wide range of insects.

This, he said, had enabled the researchers to identify insects which carry diseases to humans, animals and plants and how to circumvent their onslaught. “New World sandflies in the Lutzomyia genus that transmit leishmaniasis, particularly in Brazil employ specific isomers of homosesquiterpenes which we can now produce by cultivating the bigroot geranium as an industrial crop” Pickett said.

He, however, added that not all disease-infecting insects employed pheromones. “Many employ inter-specific behaviour controlling chemicals (semiochemicals) and this is particularly true for those attacking farm animals. It had been thought that ‘unattractive’ animals were those producing reduced levels of attractants, but we have now found that such cattle are in fact producing extra chemicals which can be deployed as repellents”, he said.

Pickett stated that in Africa, his research team working with the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology, had been able to show a much better repellency against the malarial mosquito anopheles gambiae with the compounds involved than is given by the commercial repellent, DEET.