One critical area of the nation’s economy which the President Muhammadu Buhari administration should reverse the ugly trend of institutional neglect and decay is that of the country’s research institutes. It is pertinent to point out that for the diversification policy to agriculture to succeed, far-reaching scientific researches that impact positively on the quality of life of people must be taken more seriously.
Doing so will build on the successes so far recorded in the Anchor Borrowers Programme, the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative and the much-publicised Food Security Council.Our research institutes, most of which are under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology have to be well funded with prompt release of needed grants. This would provide the enabling infrastructure and breed a crop of competent manpower, as the engine room to drive the much-touted vision on agriculture as the alternative to crude oil.
Of equal significance is the need for them to form a workable synergy with the organised manufacturing sector through the Ministry of Trade and Commerce to mass produce their findings.That done, there would be a multiplier effect on job creation, availability of qualitative and yet affordable products to the end users. Unfortunately, most of our research findings and products are still stalled at the pilot stage.
This is unlike the Malaysia situationwhose model of Vision 20-2020 we adopted years ago. But here, most of our research institutes are bedeviled with a plethora of institutional problems that could undermine the nation’s march to the global space of reckoning in the field of science and technology.These include the persisting decrepit infrastructure, inadequate funding, absence of a holistic data to capture at a glance most of such findings, the stage at which they are and their commercial viability.
A similarugly scenario has played itself out in most faculties of science and technology in our tertiary institutions and the universities ofagriculture spread across the country. In fact, one of the reasons why Nigeria is lagging behind even some East African countries in the development of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and bio-technology is the inexcusable neglect of our research institutes.
That notwithstanding,remarkable achievements have been recorded by some of the nation’s research institutes,no thanks to the indomitable and irrepressible spiritof the average Nigerian in the face of daunting odds. One of the most inspiring examples is the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi(FIIRO). It came into being as an idea of an economic mission to Nigeria back in 1953 by the World Bank.
In spite of the obvious constraints the fecund minds at FIIRO have over the years innovated and invented products in the areas of food,drinks, industrial raw materials,essential oils,cosmetic and soap production,in addition to services in the fields of engineering, textiles testing, Consultancy and Counselling. These include the popular mechanized cassava processing into fufu, lafun, starch, garri and soy-garri. Others in the food sector are the production of soy dadawa from soybean, banana and plantain flours and the 10 percent cassava-wheat composite bread and confectionery production.
Amongst the drinks are the bottling and preservation of palmwine to extended the shelf life, something many thought impossible.There is the distillation of potable alcohol, preservation of Zobrodo drink and that of Kunuzaki. In a similar vein the industrial raw materials include sorghum malt production, textile starch from cassava, gums from Gum Arabic, alcohol from cassava peels, animal feed from cassava, fibre board from wood and non-wood particles, pottery and ceramics production and Plaster of Paris (POP).
Similarly, flavouring and perfumery extracts from plants, body, hair pomade, laundry and toilet soaps and traditional black soap are notleft out.In the engineering department are the design andfabrication of equipment and machinery, machining of spare parts, glass blowing and electroplating of metals.
Painfully,despite this exemplary display of the creative ingenuity of these selfless Nigerians fellow citizens still continue to massively import products we can conveniently produce locally at exorbitant costs.
The story is no less cheering at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria(CRIN), Ibadan.Established as far back as 1964 and despite decades of government’s utter neglect great scientists there have defied the mind-bending circumstances to record meaningful, ground-braking cocoa-based products.At its inception its mandate was on cocoa alone,with regards to breeding,agronomy,pathology,
But CRIN is not well funded. What with a library left in dusty decay for decades, epileptic power supply and of course research grants that are few and far between.That notwithstanding, reports have it that some of their highly dedicated staff have had to use their personal funds to update their knowledge in and outside the country.For instance, it is noteworthy that CRIN has through its self-created End-Use-Research Department embarked on the marketing of its valuable products. This unit has the responsibility of developing various products from five afore-mentioned mandate crops.
There are over 20 products of CRIN now being pushed in an aggressive marketing drive to the end-users by themselves instead of handing them over to the National Extension Service.Amongst the brands are wine, soy-choco, poultry feeds and cocoa beverages. Indeed, soy-coco, one of its most nutritious products made from soybean milk and cocoa come in different flavours of milk, kola, coffee or cashew.
The unique attribute of soy-choco is that the flavours are produced manually and sold in small units,at affordable prices locally.Another area of scientificbreakthrough is that of wine processing.CRIN has so far developed teawine,kola wine and cashew wine all of which have appealing flavours and taste. The brains behind the product were so confident of what they have on their hands that they wasted no time in requesting for NAFDAC Registration.They also contacted foreign experts to bring machines to ease processing.
In addition, CRIN scientists developed choco-garri some six years ago, meant to add nutritive value to the carbohydrate-rich staple food which is one of Nigeria’s favourites. This can be taken cold and not prepared with hot water like garri.
The agony of all these astounding breakthroughs is that the proposed end users are largely ignorant that their fellow citizens have produced such nutritious products that would have been made available at affordable cost.CRIN therefore,needs state-of-the-art facilities to quicken such processes as fermentation,drying,roasting, tempering and wrapping of the chocolate bars
If we truly want to be reckoned with in the global sphere as an emerging scientific/technological country such as India,Cuba,and the Asian tigers the current administration must step up efforts at funding all our research institutes as well as the public universities.There should also be a synergy between our local researchers and Nigerian scientists/inventors in the Diaspora to work out areas of benefit to the country. The time to act is now!
We salute the courage, commitment and sense of patriotism of Nigerian-based scientists/technologists for achieving feats against all odds.
