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Research is one of the core functions of higher education and can determine the reputation of a university.

Hence government,
policy makers and donor agencies are concerned with the quality and
impact that research from the institutions has on society. This is
because research and innovation have been acknowledged as critical
factors for fuelling long-term sustainable economic growth, generating
employment, and alleviating poverty.

However, recently,
the issue of research uptake has become very contentious as
governments, communities and industries for whom research has been
undertaken to address their needs prefer to have nothing to do with it.

One reason for
this, according to a lecturer at the University of Jos in Nigeria,
Jonah Akpa, may be the issue of who determines the priorities before
the researchers go to work.

Communities,
governments and industries have their priorities, which do not always
align with a funding organisation’s desire for investing in a research
project.

“Researchers in the
ivory towers look for grants to undertake research that will not only
enhance their financial status but also earn them a promotion,” Mr Akpa
said. “But regrettably, most governments in Africa don’t fund research
even though they have the greatest need for it.”

Other reasons for
the seeming disconnect between town and gown is the inability of
researchers to communicate their research to governments and the
communities effectively, the absence of relationships between
researchers and the media, research undertaken mainly for purposes of
promotion, or dubious study samples utilised as part of the research.

Michael Ranson and
Sarah Bennett at The Alliance for Health Policy and System Research,
which is part of the World Health Organisation, said in a recent
publication that donor funding for health-system-financing research is
inadequate and often poorly aligned with national priorities.

This position is
supported by Goski Alabi of the Institute of Professional Studies in
Ghana, who says it is important that research aligns with the
priorities of national, community, university, and funding
organisations to ensure that the results of such research are not
shelved.

“Today, most
research is undertaken not because it is targeted at addressing a
problem but because there is available funding,” she said. “So, it is
important we have a change of mindset about what research is supposed
to be and should result to.” The African deficit Bassirou Bonfoh of the
Swiss Centre for Scientific Research in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, says no
country can develop without investing heavily in science and
technology. Mr Bonfoh also said scientific research is instrumental in
determining the rank of national economies.

“Unfortunately,
most research is still funded by external funds and African governments
still fail to use at least one per cent of their gross domestic product
to support research as stipulated by the African Union. Africa cannot
wait exclusively for outside solutions and funds to the problems faced
by the continent,” Mr Bonfoh said.

The position of
African governments, according to Ogoh Alubo of the African Population
and Health Research Center in Kenya, is informed by the lack of
partnership between the policymakers and the researchers. “There is
little evidence to show that policies in Africa are research-driven,”
Alubo says.

The position of
African governments has caused sleepless nights for funding agencies
and this has led to the several workshops to evaluate and advise on how
donors can get governments, communities and industries to develop
interest in the research they are funding.

Abel Olorunnisola
of the University of Ibadan said it remains a surprise that, in spite
of the huge investment in engineering education in Nigeria, the country
is still grappling with a myriad of engineering challenges. “While the
challenges exist, much of the research output from the universities
lies fallow on laboratory shelves,” he said.

In 2009, the UK’s
Department For International Development (DFID) convened a meeting of
experts across the African continent in Ghana to discuss the issue. One
of the findings was that research was not being prioritized. The group
also acknowledged that there has been weak flow of communication
between the media and researchers, and researchers and governments,
resulting in each group working in isolation and with a lack of access
to relevant and timely information.

The International
Development Research Centre (IDRC), a public entity created by the
Canadian government to aid researchers in the developing world, is
convinced that the creation of new knowledge remains vitally important
to humanity’s ability to grapple with challenges.

Linking research to need

Wallace Udoh, with
the Nigerian ministry of Works and Housing, believes, however, that the
application of the IDRC mandate has been limited to universities and
research institutes.

“There is no way
you will be able to affect or enhance the development of developing
countries without aligning your priorities with that of the government
of the day. Otherwise you are only interested in undertaking academic
exercises whose outcome is of no use to society,” Mr Udoh said.

At the recent
INORMS 2010 Congress, a meeting of research managers from around the
world that was held in Cape Town, South Africa where the issue of
research uptake came to the fore, the conference participants stressed
the need to align research funding organisation’s priority with that of
the applicable government, universities, and society for maximum impact.

South Africa’s
Minister for Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, said it was a
government’s obligation and duty to invest in fundamental research.

“Business cannot do
that. Business has to rely on governments to educate scientists and
technologists; innovation depends on an educated workforce and to
maintain the basic infrastructure of research at universities and
research institutes,” she said.

“It is governments who have to look to the long term and invest in basic research.” she says.

Ms Pandor also said
governments must lay down policies and standards that will promote
research and innovation, adding that such innovations must be to social
and economic benefits. Chris Nhlapo of the Cape Peninsula University of
Technology in South Africa, agreed that research must align with the
economic activities of the region in which it operates.

“University
research policy and strategy must align with national policies and
strategies because society wants research to result in beneficial and
measurable impact,” he said.

I grew up as a
teenager, in the streets of Benin City, opposite the famous New Benin
Market and ‘Regent Cinema’ where the notorious Anini had his enclave.
There, it was purely the survival of the toughest and craftiest – or so
we thought, until the God factor became clear.

Well, I survived,
despite the daily troubles and fights, especially when we had to fetch
water from those public taps where iron buckets were used freely like
in WWF – World Wrestling Federation. I had an uncle who nicknamed me
‘fighter’ because every time he entered my father’s house, he found me
by the corner kneeling down, with my eyes shut, and usually, he would
be told that I was involved in a street fight. How I managed to escape
without serious bodily harms I have now discovered to be God’s love for
innocent and ignorant children.

My story, however
is about adults. I told everybody at that time that I would rather have
internal ailment than have bodily injury that would live a scar on my
skin. Now I know better, having found out that inside our body resides
the most delicate organs. So, when I trace the history of Nigeria in
the last fifty years, I have found out that many of our leaders have
always travelled outside the shores of this nation to take care of
their failing health in the area of the heart, liver, or kidney.

The question then
arises, why have all these leaders who have continuously recycled
themselves or their children not been able to build an ultra modern
hospital that will take care of these organs effectively?

All fingers point
in one direction. This happens to be the last card in our quest for a
corrupt-free society and it is also the joker in the pack of cards, for
our acquire-all looters in the corridor of our nation’s power. A lot of
comedians have joked about most governors and even some past presidents
concentrating their efforts in refurbishing or making our prison houses
more comfortable. But to their bewilderment, according to the jokes, if
you refurbish Kuje Prison, when you are out of office, the new helmsman
may decide to send you to Gasua Prison, where the sun’s heat has never
been known to be merciful. But again, a leader who is sympathetic could
keep you in Kuje Prison in Abuja, where most political prisoners live
better than most of us outside.

Not so smart heart

It is, therefore,
very credible that these gang of leaders have refused to build a
hospital good enough because it will not support their evil ploy of
looting and bleeding the nation. As has been found out, even our
courts, after the usual de-briefing from the brief case of these
international thieves, grant that “the accused be allowed overseas
travel for medical care, for a failing heart, liver, or kidney.” If our
politicians and their cohorts know that once they are caught in the web
of fraud and corruption, they will receive full treatment right here in
Nigeria, there will be some kind of rethink to this whole disease of
kleptomania. It is strange that their heart that was strong enough to
steal but not strong enough to face the music, and the same heart would
always fail them before or during trial.

Unfortunately, President Umaru Yar’Adua (may his gentle soul rest in peace), died from heart and kidney related diseases.

Perhaps, if he was
able to get treatment for these obviously terminal ailments here in
Nigeria, the time spent in transporting him abroad could have been used
to stabilise and accord the sickness proper and more effective care
and, most importantly, the craft and chicanery of the cabal would have
been made more difficult, if not impossible.

When I saw Rotimi
Ameachi of River State on television, speaking about the new Port
Harcourt City his administration is building, and the international
standard hospital he has budgeted for in that garden city, I could not
help but say a Daniel has come to judgement. But your Excellency sir,
is our new modern hospital going to be able to treat effectively and
perfectly the very elusive problems of the liver, kidney, and heart?

For a popular musician once sang “…can’t always trust it no, the
heart is not so smart, goes where it should not go, the heart is not so
smart”.

Three notable cases best epitomise
how Aliyu Modibbo, as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory,
Abuja, made a mockery of the Abuja master plan and entrenched lack of
due diligence as standard operating practice in land management.

The cases are the purchase of
4million square metres of land by Sunrise Estate Development, Houses
For Africa Development Ltd and Harmony Properties Development all in
Abuja.

Shady dealings

On Tuesday, January 22, 2008, at
the office of the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in
Area 11, Garki, Abuja, Mr. Modibbo, then FCT minister, met with
officials of a fictitious company with the grandiose name of Houses For
Africa Development Ltd.

Pick up a copy of NEXT on Sunday newspaper for details.

The chickens are
coming to roost. The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the
Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), the Federal Government will be
setting up a committee that will determine the authenticity of the Pius
Okigbo Panel report, review the allegations and recommendations with a
view to ascertaining whether the allegations can sustain a criminal
charge against former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida on
the abuse of government funds during his time in power.

A coalition of
civil society organisations had, on May 5, 2010 made real its promise
to dust and produce the certified true copy (CTC) of the report long
submitted by the Pius Okigbo Panel and alleged to be missing, after the
Justice Minister requested for the original copy in his reply to
group’s earlier petition.

Mr. Adoke received
the group’s couriered document last week after his return from Cape
Verde. Speaking with NEXT on Sunday, two of Mr. Adoke’s aides: the
Special Assistant on Media and Special Duties, Onyema Omenuwa and the
Chief Press Secretary, Ambrose Momoh said they could not as at now
state any specific action the government will take on the report.

Pick up a copy of NEXT on Sunday newspaper for details.

The desperation of
many Nigerians to obtain foreign degrees following the derelict state
of tertiary institutions in our country, has rendered them susceptible
to fraudsters operating under the guise of running foreign registered
and accredited institutions in the country, a Next investigation has
revealed.

One of such
spurious institutions which have defrauded unsuspecting Nigerians of
money running into millions of dollars, is known by the names, British
School of Project Management or Project Management College, UK.

The institution(s)
runs programmes leading to the award of Executive Masters Certificates
and Advance Diploma degree in Project Accounting and Project
Management. Project Management College UK prides itself as the
“Nigeria’s first project management training institute”.

Established in
2003, it has centres in Abuja, Abeokuta, Port Harcourt, Ibadan and
Lagos, and also has opened shop in two West African countries – Ghana
and Sierra Leone.

The institution charges fees that range from N150, 000 to about half a million naira, for a two-weekend to six months course.

Pick up a copy of NEXT on Sunday newspaper for details.