The committee of Directors of Research and Development of the Northeast Nigerian universities has said Nigerian researches can compete favourably with their outside counterparts and should be empowered to develop home grown solutions to different challenges.
The chairman of the committee, Professor Yahya Oyewole Imam said that there are laboratories in Nigeria, which if put into proper use would make the local research cost-effective with the country having -grown solutions to most of its problems.
Professor Imam at the 2nd quarterly meeting of the committee held Wednesday at the Abubakar TaFawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, described the occasion as central, having been paving way for the use of available muscular laboratories to solve Nigerian problems.
“Instead of relying on foreign researchers who may not actually understand the dynamics of the local environment, the people, the societies, we feel we are the people concerned, and we should be in the best position to proffer appropriate solutions.” to those problems”, he said.
Imam was speaking specifically on the committee’s proposals to be submitted to the North East Development Commission (NEDC), on the issues of out of school children which, he argued, is a problem of the Northeast and kidney disease which is rampant in the North, especially the Northeast.
“I mention the engagement of the NEDC, we are planning to give them two proposals, one is on out of school children which is a problem of the Northeast. Over 20 million Nigerian children are out of school and Northeast has over 60 per cent of the 20 million, he stated.
Imam added, “So it is a problem and we felt the problem should be addressed, and we look at the issue of kidney disease which is very rampant in the North, especially in the Northeast. What are the root causes, what are the solutions that can be performed to ensure that our community lives a healthy life?”
He explained that research alone cannot stand without impacting on the research community, hence “We felt as a university, we should be able to make an impact in our environment, most especially the Northeast zone”.
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