Some researchers, under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions(ASURI), on Friday in Abuja called on the Federal Government to utilise research findings to boost diversification of the economy.
The union made the call during a protest march led by the Vice President and General Secretary of ASURI, Nnamdi Onunka and Theophilus Ndubuaku, respectively, at the Unity Fountain in Abuja.
Onunka said that it was imperative for the Federal Government to commercialise research findings as the country was fashioning out ways to diversify the economy.
“In spite of campaigns for diversification of the economy by the present administration, government is yet to deem it necessary to adequately fund the sector.
“It is very sad that the Federal Government is bias in its funding of research institutions, that is why we want to say that there is need for an immediate review of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETfund) Act.
“We want government to extend the scope of distribution of the overflowing funds to the research institutes,” he said.
The ASURI vice president attributed the prevailing poverty in the country to the neglect of such institutions, such as the colleges, researchers and lecturers.
He said the basis for exclusion of research institutes in the country from benefiting from TETfund’s interventions was unfounded, in a nation seriously yearning for economic emancipation.
Speaking in the same vein, the general secretary of the union said that research institutes should benefit from TETfund intervention funds.
“Research institutes such as colleges of agriculture and colleges of forestry are not benefiting from the fund that the public universities and polytechnics are enjoying.
“It can only be described as a bad policy for a country with such abundant natural resources and large population to concentrate almost all available research and extension funds to universities and none for research institutes.
“This is the bane of Nigeria’s technological development,” Ndubuaku added. (NAN)
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