Inadequate funding has been identified as a major factor militating against professors’ quest to provide quality education for their students through research.

A lecturer in the Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Faulty of Sciences, University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Professor Roseline Konya, made this ascertion at the thanksgiving service of newly-investitured Professor Grace Awi-Waadu in Port Harcourt, recently.

The former Commissioner for Environment in Rivers State, explained that to carry out research required money, saying that money is not available to the universities.

According to  her, “The educational sector in Nigeria, as people say is going down, but I can assure you that why they are saying its going down is because its not rising as much as its expected due to low funding. We need in-service training, we need to attend conferences, update ourselves and money is not available to the universities to carry out research”.

She further said, that research keeps one informed of new trends, as well as helps improve the quality of graduates and puts the lecturers at par with their counterparts internationally.

In her remarks, the newly promoted professor, Grace Awi-Waadu, expressed optimism in the education sector, saying, “if knowledge is being acknowledged by policy makers, there’s a bright future for education.

The Professor of Parasitology, while reiterating on her challenges on the road to being a Professor, also noted that finance was a major challenge in carrying out her research activities.

“Becoming a professor in this part of the world is quite challenging in the sense that majority of the fund for research is put up by the individual, if one is lucky to apply to outside agencies and get sponsorship, then you’ve found another avenue for funding,” she said.

Prof. Awi-Waadu, advised her fellow academia to study always and look inwards to know if one can make an impact, saying, they should be focused and avoid things that can set back the educational standard.

Also speaking, Chief Technologist, Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Faulty of Sciences, UNIPORT, Austin Abbah, challenged aspiring professors not to give up when the job seems to become tough, but to remain focused, patient and determined until they achieve their goal, and described Prof. Awi-Waadu as hardworking.

Tonye Nria-Dappa