From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, has inaugurated Professor Shadrach Akindele, as the 4th substantive Vice-chancellor of the university.
Speaking after the inauguration on Wednesday, the new VC advised the state governors to adopt technology to protect the forest from bandits.
He also called for the inclusion of private universities as beneficiaries of TETfund, saying that everyone deserves access to the fund.
Akindele who is a Professor of Forest Biometrics said, unlike national parks that are heavily guarded, forests in states are understaffed and need urgent attention to curb insecurity.
He said, “Definitely the inclusion of private universities as beneficiaries of TETFfund projects is more than desirable because TETFund is set up to fund research and higher education in Nigeria. When research is conducted, the output of it is beneficial to all whether you’re a private person or public person everybody benefits from research.
“The national parks are adequately policed because they have guards with guns and they’ve allowed them
to carry AK47.
“The challenges we have is in our forest reserves which are policed by the state government. There is a great shortage of staff in policing this forest and lots of these forest areas are ungoverned spaces.
“When you have ungoverned spaces, criminals and other hoodlums will have a place to thrive and so the way to combat that is to ensure that each of the various state governments wakes up to their responsibilities.
“The need to recruit more personnel to police the forest and also adopt technology. We are in the era of drones. Drones technology can be used to monitor the forest and know what is going on there and be able to prevent insecurity.”
The Vice-Chancellor promised to ensure students of the University are globally competitive, adding that French Language would be added to the school curriculum.
“One of the areas of interest is to ensure that our students and the products of this university are globally competitive. I’m including French language proficiency as part of the skills our students should have,” Akindele said.