President Buhari Challenges Universities To Develop COVID-19 Vaccine
Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) has pushed Nigerian colleges to step up their research in order to find a COVID-19 vaccine to combat the country’s feared virus.
The challenge was given by the President, who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, at the Federal University Dutsin-5th Ma’s and 6th combined convocations on Saturday.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, he emphasized that Nigerian universities were meant to be centers for scientific and technological discoveries, inventions, values and character formation, as well as drivers of societal growth.
The president went on to say that the vaccine would help Nigerians’ immune systems fight the illness.
He also stated that his administration was committed to addressing the issues of long-term funding for research, capacity building, and job creation.
“You all know that the COVID-19 epidemic began its deadly effect on the education sub-sectors in the year 2020, leading to the demise of universities’ academic activities,” he says.
“I therefore urge and encourage the universities to intensify their research to come up with a more potent vaccine to fortify our immune system against this dreaded virus.”
He also told the universities that they should look into other revenue-generating options, such as research engagement with linked companies and development partners.
According to the President, this will help him diversify his economy.
He did say, though, that the federal government is dedicated to combating and defeating all forms of criminality across the country in order for meaningful development to flourish.
“Our security is a collective responsibility, we must join hands with the government by providing security agents with useful information to enable proactive mitigation of any of these occurrences,” he added.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Armaya’u Hamisu-Bichi, urged the federal government to dig trenches around the main campus of the institution because of the current security challenges in the country.
