Don Wants Science Parks In Varsities

Former Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Rivers State University (RSU), Port Harcourt, Prof Adolphus Joseph Toby has called on the Federal Government to come up with plans to establish science parks in Nigeria’s universities to facilitate the diversification of its economy through science, technology and innovations.
Toby made the call in Nkoro Town in Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area yesterday over the state of the nation’s ivory towers and the need for such establishment.
According to him, the culture of establishing high technology clusters should be promoted by universities, new business incubators and research complexes in the science and technology sector.
He maintained that no country would achieve greatness without science and technology, adding that the Federal Government under the Ministry of Science and Technology ought to be ready to support science and technology innovations which is geared toward helping Nigeria to a knowledge-based economy.
The university teacher explained that the science park project when actualized would facilitate the creation and growth of innovation-based companies through incubation and spin-off process as well as provide other value-added services together with high quality space and facilities.
He said that history had shown that nations with smaller populations had achieved greatness via science and technology, noting that Nigeria with a larger population could leverage on science parks to improve the pace of its economic growth.
He opined that as the most popular African country, Nigeria should set the pace for science and technology revolution by harnessing indigenous technology.