The federal government have been urged to give Nigerian
universities import concessions on laboratory equipment.
Speaking at an inaugural lecture at the university of
Ado-Ekiti, on
Thursday Prof Jadesola Aderiye, said concessions should
be given for import of facilities for teaching and research purposes to
enhance technological development in the country.
In the lecture titled ``contributory role of microbes to
human development'',
Aderiye said If government could have a different
exchange rate for pilgrimage to encourage pilgrims, it was long over due for
the government to do same for universities in the area of research''.
Aderiye, a professor of microbiology emphasised the need
for the government to remove all sorts of tariffs on all laboratory
equipment and facilities for teaching and research to encourage the
provision of these facilities that would promote science and research in
Nigerian institutions.
According to him, our universities must not be seen as a
classroom where all the lecturers teach what theywere taught, thus
propagating mediocrity.
The professor stressed the need for government at federal
and statelevels to create an enabling environment that would enable tertiary
institutions access to facilities to do their own research.
``This would enable them come out with findings that
would benefit both their environment and the world at large,he stressed.
``There is no way a sound academic pursuit can be done in
an environment that is devoid of electricity, water, adequate lecture rooms
and conducive office and residential accommodation,'' he said.
Aderiye noted that the feat of technological advancement
was dependent largely on the quality of the country's human resources and a
county could only advance to the extent to which its human resources were
developed.
He advised government at all levels not to see ``the
university as a parasitic alien institution consuming the financial
resources of the nation but as a golden hen that should lay the golden egg
if provided the basic amenities''.
The professor of Microbiology also advised government at
all levels to put in place necessary machinery for waste disposal in order
to avoid environmental pollution.
He pointed out that Agricultural wastes such as ``cashew
pomace`` should be properly sorted and re-cycled for use.
