Fashola institutes research grant at FUNAAB

The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola,  (SAN) demonstrated his love for education and research recently by instituting a N4m research grant on behalf of the Lagos State Government at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB). The fund was meant for a study on environmental profiling of land-filled sites in the state, a study being conducted by a research team led by Prof Toyin Arowolo of the Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology, College of Environmental Resources Management (COLERM).

The Director of Grants Management (DGM), Prof Kolawole Adebayo, who received the cheque on behalf of the university, said the Lagos State government instituted the research to sponsor studies that fit into the developmental plan of the state.
He said the grant was open to researchers from institutions in Lagos and beyond. He said the Prof Arowolo-led team submitted a proposal on environmental profiling of land- filled sites to Lagos State government, which looked at the sites where the state had been using as dump sites by assessing the water, air and soil in those areas to determine how hazardious they are to the community and proffer remedy measures.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
The Director further disclosed that the criteria for selection was 00 per cent merit, noting that the Board for the grant award was headed by the Panel Chairman, Prof Olufemi Bamiro, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan and Chairman, Lagos State Research Grant Committee. According to him, the implication of this is that “it re-enforces the drive to make our university a world-class university. World-class universities solve problems. Lagos State had a problem and we went there and said we can solve this problem and they saw it. So, it wasn’t like man-know-man. It was based on merit as a result of our proposal submitted by the team of researchers. The Lagos State government saw that this was a problem that it had and these are researchers that could provide solutions”.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
He explained further: “The award re-enforces our status as a university that addresses real life problems by finding solutions to them and on the long run, it sends a signal throughout the federation and beyond that, if there are problems in this country, there are brilliant scientists, particularly, in our university and other institutions of higher learning, who could provide solutions for them.”
Also speaking,  Fashola condemned Nigeria’s dependence on innovations from foreigners when it has the human resource and the intellect that can develop such projects. He said Nigerian scientists have the capability to make innovations for the rest of the world if well-funded and called on other state governments to support indigenous researchers in the nation’s ivory towers to move the nation forward.