Poor funding responsible for poor research in Nigerian universities

Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri

The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, (FUTO) Professor Francis Eze, has attributed the slow pace of research in Nigeria universities to poor funding.

Eze, while addressing newsmen on his third year anniversary as the 7th substansive VC of FUTO yesterday in Owerri, pointed out that research projects are huge capital intensive, regretting that universities in the country are poorly funded.

His remark is coming on the heels of President Muhammadu Buhari’s condemnation of poor research by Nigeria universities.

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While thanking the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU) for its contribution to education in the country, he appealed to the federal government to make funds readily available for tertiary institutions.

According to him, “a labouratory cost about N3 billion, they have to invest in research; if you do, you reap the benefit,i t is a long time thing.”

He continued: ” They should help us have functional research laboratories; e have some of the best brains in this school, we have tried to power tricycles with solar energy, convert generator that runs on fuel to gas..”

Eze further explained that the university was presently partnering some great institutions around the world to achieve more innovations.

“We have developed something on malaria prevention and we are currently partnering with Liverpool School of Medicine to see how that can be deployed,” Eze said.