Business
‘Nigeria, Too Homogeneous For Research World Bank’
The Coordinator of the World Bank-assisted Science and Technology Education Post Basic (STEP-B) project Prof. Michael Adikwu, said in Abuja that the country was too homogeneous for research and development activities.
Adikwu said that the nation should have gone beyond the point where a university in the east must be headed by a vice-chancellor from the east.
According to him, there is no reason why any Nigerian, irrespective of his geo-political area of origin or even a foreigner should not head a university anywhere in Nigeria.
He said that Britain was not behind in science and technology because most of those involved in science and technology activities in Britain were foreigners as the citizens seemed not to be too interested.
“The Nigerian system is too homogeneous; you go to our universities, if it’s situated in the east it must be Onwudili or Okoroafor that must be the vice-chancellor, these are the issues.
“If you go to Singapore, I was told that 68 per cent of their professors are foreigners; currently the vice-chancellor of Imperial Chemical Institute in London, equivalent to a university is not a Briton, the Cambridge University vice-chancellor is not a Briton I was informed.
“The issue is that we are too homogeneous.’’
Adikwu said that many Nigerian professors and scientists had their first serious scientific contact in overseas laboratories.
He stressed that there was the need to build local capacity among Nigerian scientists and researchers without too much emphasis on ethnicity or state of origin.
He said that it was the same reason why obtaining a higher degree with some Nigerian professors was very difficult as there was usually no topic, unlike in foreign universities where topics were drawn from all countries.
Adikwu added that there was also a need for a research fund to be assessed by researchers for the purpose of research.