Versity News: Olatunji tasks scientists on relevant, timely research

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Technology and Innovations (RTI), University of Ilorin, Prof. G.A. Olatunji, has charged researchers in the University to be conscious of the fact that scientists across the world often research into the same subjects and the first to publish the outcome of such research carries the day as the recognised inventor.

Prof. Olatunji, who made this observation last Wednesday (April 15, 2015) while inaugurating the University of Ilorin Laboratory to Industrial Products Steering Committee, called for researches that have local and global relevance.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor disclosed that the University's Central Research Laboratory would soon become a hub of research activities and production processes typical of an industrial factory. He recalled his days as a young academic in Germany where he spent his post-doctoral fellowships in conducting commissioned researches and also collaborated with local textile, pharmaceutical and food industries before they collapsed.

Prof. Olatunji urged the Committee, headed by the former Vice-Chancellor of the Fountain University, Osogbo, Prof. H.O.B. Oloyede, to adopt the German maxim, “Nothing is Impossible”. He expressed his delight that a seasoned and distinguished scientist, who had also headed a University, is chairing the Steering Committee.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor solicited the cooperation of the members of the Committee by volunteering their ideas and attending to meetings religiously because, according to him, each member is a pillar who is on the committee because of their scholarly antecedents.

In his remarks, the Steering Committee Chairman, Prof. Oloyede, expressed his appreciation and those of the members of the Committee to the University management for considering them worthy of appointment into the Committee.

Prof. Oloyede, who is the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the Fountain University, Osogho, said, “I just happen to be the chairman, I don't have all the ideas and the recognition of my limitations  has brought you all here”. He told other members of the Committee that their individual abilities are required for the success of the Committee.

He noted that with the opportunity which the management has given them, the members are writing a history and can make a name for themselves by doing their best, saying that the members would bear most of the burden of responsibility that lies on the Committee.

The one-time Dean of Science at the University of Ilorin noted that academic staff in the University have always been conducting research but the research put a lot of emphasis on paper publication and what is new with the inauguration of the Committee is that products meant for the common man will have its fair share of emphasis in research orientation.

In her remarks, the Director of the Centre for Research Development and In-house Training (CREDIT), Prof. (Mrs.) T. A.  Oladiji, said that considering the esteemed status of the University of Ilorin among its peers, she has discovered that a lot more is desired from the scientists and researchers of the University. According to her, the response which her Centre received to the call for submissions towards the Nigerian Universities research fair coming up soon is also an evidence of the high opinion other academics have of Unilorin.

Prof. Oladiji disclosed that one of the outcomes of the recent Omu-Aran management retreat is the realisation that there is a need for a separate body from CREDIT to drive laboratory research such that the sort of collaboration between university and industry that led to the production of Jabulani football, which was used for the 2010 World Cup in South-Africa, can be achieved at the University of Ilorin soon.