Addressing economic challenges, bridging knowledge and skill gaps and building solutions will help drag out the staggering Nigeria’s health sector that has left the implementation and dissemination of findings of health and science researches owing to weak collaborations and lack of funding within the healthcare sector, experts say.
Nigeria continues to experience an all-time decline in the quantity and quality of its research output, which according to them, also appears that there is a gap between scientists and journalists reporting researches.
These are some the responses from the African Science Literacy Network (ASLN) targeted at bridging the gap between scientists and journalists as well as providing them with a platform where they can collaborate in researching, sourcing and communicating science to the wider world effectively.
“The US spent 3 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), about $529 billion on research development, added that Nigeria have a long way to go with its 0.3 percent GDP voted for research in which TEDFUND spent about N3 billion in 3-5 years,” said Isa Marte Hussaini, a world-renowned cancer researcher and professor of pharmacology at the University of Maiduguri, in his keynote address titled “Science as driver of development: The importance of communication” in Abuja, recently.
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According to Hussaini, science develops the whole world, as research and development is what brings innovation, as “any country that really neglects research and development is doomed to fail.”
Evaluating the government ineffectiveness towards promoting research and scientific study in the country, Hussaini said Nigeria had no competition and no value for research and development. “Lot of universities lecturers are just teachers, they do not do research and don’t have their own laboratory. In Africa, countries like South Africa are already forging ahead, they breed science, but in Nigeria we are interested in finished products, nobody is interested in research,” he said.
ASLN, an initiative of the TREND in Africa, an organisation set up by African scholars in the University of Sussex to promote science in the continent, in close collaboration with the University of Sussex, Francis Crick Institute (London), Yerwa Express News and Science Communication Hub Nigeria.
“There are no level of awareness in science research models and inadequate science infrastructures in our schools,” said Mahmoud Bukar Maina, TREND’S director for outreach and the team leader of the organiser of the workshop, noting that with better support for science and with better scientific communication, “we will be able to take Africa o the next level.”
According to Maina, journalists indeed have more access to the public and as such there must be collaboration between them and scientists for effective communication of research findings.
“To take our continent to the next level, we must do this. We must liberate science in Africa. ‘I am aware of the high level of cultural and religious misconceptions about science in Nigeria, but a partnership between scientists and journalists in this workshop seeks to achieve help in tackling the problem,”’ he said.
In an attempt to improving research and strengthening its capacity in Nigeria, research findings from institutions and individual are disseminated effectively, stakeholders and institutions heads at the plenary session say the workshop will help the journalists understand the role of Solution Journalism in driving positive social change in reporting researches. This also gives the journalists an opportunity to collaborate, learn from researchers and scientists in Nigeria and get access to research findings to help develop their stories.
They say that Nigeria needs to communicate the little researches carried out and training personnel that can translate and enlighten the public, especially in health related issues, will go a long way to developing research publication.
