The Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has called on students in tertiary institutions in the state to forward and access the N1.5 billion research fund provided by the government to develop new innovations and solutions.

Fashola made the call during an event to mark his 2,200 days in office held at the Main Auditorium, Lagos State University (LASU), recently.

He said the fund was to challenge the youths to begin to develop new strategies through adoptive, innovation and creative thinking, adding that graduates of the nation’s tertiary institutions had not been trained to become employers of labour but job seekers.

According to him, since the fund was floated, no one had come up to apply for it, saying that the future of the country is in the ability of the present generation to develop ideas and models to solving problems, stressing that “currently for this year, the sum of N1.500,000 was budgeted and to my knowledge, no person has applied for the research fund’.

He stressed that current state of the nation necessitates a review of the training methods in order to meet the needs of the society.

The event which was in honour of the Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Lagos, Professor Oluwole Familoni, who later spoke to The Tide correspondent in Lagos said the ceremony was unique as it highlighted the Lagos State Government’s Energy Conservation efforts.

Familoni noted that the main objective of the home edutainment network was to initiate the rudiments of project-oriented research from the secondary school level.

Again, it was to reward creative and brilliant science projects of students and schools in Lagos State and encourage a high level of girl-child involvement in science education as a platform to create more awareness on importance of science education in Nigeria.

The event, “Home Edutainment Network”, aimed at launching Nigeria in Guinness World Record for the largest science practical training ever held.