R & D is fundamental key to national Development says Prof. Solomon Elias Bogoro

Economy of a nation is as strong as the education development of that nation. Nations should must therefore invest massively in the Human capacity develop of those working toward our education development.

This position was disclosed by the Chairman, Tertiary Education Fund, Prof. Solomon Elias  Bogoro during the NIMechE’s  27^th  International Conference held in Bauchi, recently.

Prof. Suleiman Elias Bogoro disclosed that funds intervention on academic and staff training and development in Africa is among the best in the world.   He said no fewer than 10,363 members of the academic and non-academic staff of public institutions in the country has been trained by Tetfund between 2010 and 2014 including polytechnics and colleges of education respectively. He said that 1,633 doctorate degree holders were trained abroad while 3,041 were trained in the country.

In his lecture, titled ““Capacity building and infrastructure development in Nigeria: The Tetfund intervention in Nigerian public tertiary education institutions”” delivered in a fully packed Hall of Zaranda Hotel Bauchi, Prof Elias noted that the economy of any nation would only be as strong as the education development of that nation. Further, he recall that the infamous Slogan “Brain drain” crept into national consciousness in 1990s when ASUU went on strike for extended period over its demand for improved funding n the Nigerian universities. Many of our talented university lecturers and experts, began to move out of the country for greener pasture in a bid to make end meet as well as enjoy competitive advantage at the countries which are able to support them. The result was massive emigration of our eggheads to other lands.

Over the years the country responded to the challenges by creating different agencies and organization to address the challenges facing the nation in its bid to boost its education development and support the institutions involved. He mentions UBEC 2011 Act was established to grant legal bite to this effort.

Since 2013, the TETfund has increases its funding activities to in sponsoring research and publications in the country. However, he regretted that some tertiary institution heads have been mismanaging the funds which are ordinarily granted for research and rehabilitation. He stressed that the Fund has focused on Development, Rehabilitation and Intervention in Research in recent times.

Part of its recent activities is the approval of the 5 year plan on academic research and improvement. The Funds created department RID and Centre of Excellence (CIE).

The investment in RID is necessitated by the reality that it is the driver of modern economy. Professor Elias enthused that due to Science and Technology serving as the bedrock of the RID, the engineering profession is expected to play critical roles in infrastructural development. However, he regretted that most tertiary institutions depend on the fund for infrastructural development, saying that, “when you visit any institution over 90 percent of the structures are as a result of Tetfund interventions.

He concluded that TETfund is the transformational fence for our nation’s capacity Building and urge stakeholders to join hands in its success.

“We have identified a number of thesis and development into books in order to encourage book publication. We will continue to do everything to encourage book publication. Our mandate as an intervention agency is to fill the gap of what is lacking in Nigerian public institutions… Prof Elias Bogoro”