Don tasks African leaders on research to tackle hunger, unemployment

Former vice chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Olufemi Bamiro, has called on African leaders to invest in research to end hunger, unemployment and underdevelopment in the continent rather than depending on foreign aids.

Bamiro who spoke at an event organised by the University of Benin, Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation (CERHI), Benin City said the problems associated with the African continent can be solved through adequate and sustained research in our universities.

Delivering a lecture titled, “Sustainable development goal and the Nigeria university system, Bamiro said, “Our universities will have to deploy their education, training, research, innovation and extension capability to tackle the problems. If we build the capacity of existing institutions, we will have the capacity to solve existing problem and new ones.”

He lamented that our universities’ curriculum is disconnect from industries in terms of employment skills, adding that the curriculum should be run in such a way that it will build the right skills for the industries.

According to him, Nigeria has not taken the advantage of its youthful population to promote the technological advancement and tackle unemployment in the country.
Vice chancellor of the University of Medical Science, Prof. Friday Okonofua, said the lecture was to create public awareness about CERHI and it’s services in order to ensure that the general public and the university community benefits from the work of the centre in the provision of reproductive health education and related social services.

He explained that the CERHI is one of the 22 African Centres of excellence projects established by the World Bank in universities in the West and Central African regions in 2014 for the purpose of rejigging the institutions to deliver effective and innovative postgraduate educational systems that will improve the ranking of the universities and also proffer solutions to regional developmental challenges.