By Chris Udochukwu
Abuja (Precise Post) – The Secretary General of the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI) Dr. Theophilus Ndubuaku has said that the poverty and insecurity ravaging the country today are caused by lack of coordination and funding of research.
Dr Ndubuaku noted that a country that is one of the most richest in the world has no business with poverty if it has embraced research because it’s research that leads to job creation and elimination of unemployment. Regrettably, the research institutions in Nigeria have been on strike for more than one year now, he lamented.
According to him, “It will shock you to hear that the cause of the strike is just the implementation of the condition of service that was negotiated for fifteen (15) years, what ordinarily takes three (3) months to finish. And it was released but ministries said that they will not implement it. Their reason is that the Head of Service did not send it directly to them but to Science and Tech. That’s the ragging battle. Tell me, what is in sending a document that you negotiated, that you were part of the negotiation and agreement that, yes we have trashed out, now Head of Service clean up and approve. So what is the problem with how it is routed?
Today, Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world because it has relegated research as a result, insecurity is now the order of the day, he stated.
“The National Policy on Science and Technology the last review before this one was in 2012 made provision for the establishment of National Research and Innovation Council (NR&IC), to coordinate and fund research in Nigeria, with everything laid out. That Council is supposed to be chaired by the President with the Vice President as the Vice Chairman. And all the ministries that coordinate research as member of the council governing board. The council is now supposed to establish the organization itself – its Chief Executive and others. These are all specified in the National Policy on Science and Technology 2012 which was the last review.
So the government knows that it’s research institute that has the mandate to generate appropriate technology with traditional approach that will be presented to the farmer or engineer or entrepreneur to create jobs. That was why when Buhari upon assumption of office in 2015, within one year of coming into office, immediately after he appointed ministers, January 16 or so, he re-inaugurated the National Council not Policy because policy is already gazetted as policy on governance with all the members of the board in attendance but without the organization set-up. Buhari during the inauguration of national research and innovation council, said that with the inauguration of this Council, that Nigeria will start producing noble laurels. So Buhari himself recognised that the reason why Nigeria is not producing noble laurels is because of the absence of this Council.
Now about that same period, the Chinese Ambassador was shouting and it was reported that insecurity in Nigeria is a function of unemployment and that it is not what military invasion will solve. Now, how many years ago, almost seven year ago, and Chinese Ambassador should know because this is a country that has the highest population in the world why don’t they have banditry, it is because they create employment. He said generate technology and create employment, this Boko Haram cannot be stopped with military offensive. they developed deaf ear now have they solved it. They go and used it to buy Alpha Jets and you are bombing people, no solution.
Sometimes they will tell you they raided their camp, maximum of 50 bandits, in fact that will be too much in a place, but in that place you see fifty bandits, you have more than two hundred kidnapped victims. So if you bomb them and even most of the victims have their hands tied they can’t even run away, so they are in a settlement, go and bomb and you bomb people because the Boko Haram people are sleeping is the bush and you kill innocent citizens. They are not telling us who they are killing in this government what you know is that there are victims because these victims are kept together in shanties, the Boko Haram people are in the bush, you go and bumb hundreds of people that they have kidnapped.
What I am trying to establish is that its been long been established that it is joblessness in a country that almost the most richest in the world. You don’t do research, you don’t create job and joblessness leads to insecurity. And you are not addressing the root cause of insecurity.
