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Journal publication is like blood in the vein of academic progression. No wonder the famous slogan “publish or perish”.
However, many Nigerian lecturers publish just for the sake of appraisal or promotion instead of research contributions. This is mostly because of the high cost of publication charged by reputable journals, ranging from N50,000 to N1,500,000 and even more in some cases.
To ameliorate this financial burden on lecturers and invigorate researchers to publish basically for national impact and the quest to contribute to the body of knowledge, Mr. Otuu Obinna Ogbonnia (KSM) has initialized a bi-annual journal publication sponsorship for Nigerian lecturers.
This gesture was started in the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic, Federal Polytechnic Oko forum, where he announced the scholarship, which will, in the future, transcend across other tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
Speaking, Mr Obinna said, “I found out that Nigerian academic staff have low research scores out there. This is not because we are not good enough in research but because of the cost of publication and the orientation that we only publish for appraisal or promotion. So, I started this publication scholarship scheme to help Academic Staff members of Nigerian tertiary institutions climb the research ladder as obtained in the outside world.”
“I don’t have enough capital to do more, but little by little, the bird makes its nest. So, with my little monthly savings, I started with Federal Polytechnic Oko because it is my primary constituency, but the plan is to go national with this scheme. This will strengthen our publication prowess in Nigeria; so that we don’t only publish for appraisal and promotion, but for research impact, development, and academic open doors in the outside world.”
According to the coordinator of the scholarship, Chief (Acad.) Dr. Mbonu Chikwelu (Former HOD Accountancy department and Dean, school of financial studies), “Obinna Otuu gave out N200,000 to three best research-oriented academic staff members biannually. We followed a transparent process to select those who won. People submitted their names, research papers, and publication links. Their names were checked using google scholar, PubMed, and other research databases to see the persons who have published most in electronic journals. In the end, we selected the most published three lecturers. So, in the first scholarship strand, we have transferred N50,000 to the lecturer with the highest number of publications between January 2023 to June 2023. In the same regard, the second runner-up has been given N30,000 and the third N20,000.”
“This will be repeated in the second strand for all disciplines and ranks. In other words, for the three academic staff that are most published between January and June 2023, we gave out a total of N100,000. Also, between July and December 2023, those who will have published most will also receive another N100,000. We call on other philanthropists and even heads of institutions to emulate this gesture to gear the train of our institution towards research as to uplift the standards of Nigerian education.”
The winners of the first strand of the scholarship awards are: First position: Aguboshim Felix C. (PhD.)- Computer Science Department- N50,000; Second position: Ezebuilo Ekpono (PhD.)- Science Laboratory Technology (Biochemistry option)- N30,000 and Third Position: Ucha Jude OnyedikachiI (Languages Department, GS)- (N20,000).
Reacting joyously to this kind gesture, the first runner up, Chief (Acad.) Dr. Aguboshim Felix C. (former HOD, computer Science department and Director of Atani Campus) stated “This is wonderful and a big encouragement to all lecturers and the Polytechnic in particular. You know that part of the criteria used in rating an institution is the Journal inputs or publications of her lecturers.”
“This is a big welcome development. May God multiply you and take you to the next level. My profile will now include “First position: Obinna Otuu Online Journal Publication Scholarship Award Results” Thanks so much. I am deeply grateful.”
Obinna Otuu Ogbonnia is an IT consultant and a lecturer in Federal Polytechnic Oko, Anambra State. Even before he moved to the United Kingdom, he has been known for his many philanthropic gestures in Anambra State like sharing of bags of rice to some selected worst-case widows/widowers, distributing cartons of noodles to some selected individuals who find it difficult to feed and intermittent free transportation programmes which he coordinates through Cyberzone foundation.
